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BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2003

Economic gauge shows expansion for second month

A key gauge of the current state of the economy stayed above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in June for the second straight month, partly due to an improvement in consumption data, the government said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2003

Toyota rating unaffected by weak earnings: S&P

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that Toyota Motor Corp.'s weaker earnings results for the April-June quarter will not affect its AAA long-term debt rating with a negative outlook or its A-1-plus short-term rating.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 7, 2003

Taking your mate for a ride

Now here's a heartwarming tale for all readers. It involves a partner who provides free transport, free food and, as a nice bonus, unlimited sex. Our story is about an insect, but it starts thousands of years ago.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2003

Imported car sales off 1.9% in July

Domestic sales of new imported motor vehicles totaled 22,636 units in July, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2003

A tale of two Afans reborn

Two thousand years ago, my native Wales had 98 percent forest cover. By 1950, when I was a little lad, woodland in Wales was down to 5 percent. I was born in Neath, where coal-mining wasn't particularly heavy, and where there were still wooded parks and groves of wild trees so I didn't really feel the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 7, 2003

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," "Illustrated Oxford Dictionary"

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," Joan Lingard, Puffin Books; 2003; 208 pp.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 7, 2003

Golden 'weeds' of wondrous ways

It was a breezy day at Cape Notoro overlooking the Sea of Okhotsk on Hokkaido's north coast. The sun was glinting on the waves below the cliffs and a skylark singing somewhere above was producing a cascade of summer sound.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 7, 2003

Lessons in rage control

"Hulk," a game that is ever so loosely based on the new Universal Studios movie, has an element missing from most superhero action games -- fun.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2003

2003 rice crop headed for 10-year low in yield

Due to the prolonged rainy season, Japan's rice crop this year will be the poorest since 1993, when unseasonably cool weather adversely affected the harvest, the Rice Databank said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2003

Nukes still won't help Japan

HIROSHIMA -- The walk from my hotel to the conference center took me past the Atomic Dome and through the Peace Park that commemorates the atomic bombing of Aug. 6, 1945. Friday morning, several fire trucks were parked in front of the Children's Peace Monument; someone had torched two display cases that...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 6, 2003

Matsuzaka outduels Terahara as Lions stop Hawks

Seibu hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka fanned 10 over eight innings to outpitch Daiei's Hayato Terahara and pick up his 12th win as the Lions edged the front-running Hawks 3-1 at Fukuoka Dome on Tuesday night.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2003

Detours on the Mideast 'road map'

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been inching forward. There has been some progress as Palestinian officials continue to try to crack down on terrorists, and Israel dismantles some Jewish settlements in occupied territories. Predictably, each action generates its own reaction. Palestinian militants...
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2003

Too early to toast Kim's cooperation

HONOLULU -- Let's not open up the champagne too quickly! The announcement that North Korea finally has agreed to attend multilateral talks "to resolve the nuclear issue" is good news indeed . . . if they actually show up at the yet to be scheduled meeting. But sitting down at the table, as important...
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Bandai logs 4 billion yen profit in first quarter

Bandai Co. said Tuesday it posted a group net profit of 4.01 billion yen in the April-June quarter on sales of 58.12 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

FSA sets up project team to study using public funds to bail out banks

The Financial Services Agency has set up an in-house project team to study a proposed system for injections of public funds into banks, Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Yoyogi Post Office now sells Lawson goods

Postal Lawson, Japan's first convenience store outlet inside a post office, opened Tuesday at the Yoyogi Post Office in Tokyo's Shibuya district.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

FSA to order OSE to improve its operations

The Financial Services Agency will issue a business-improvement order to the Osaka Securities Exchange for its failure to prevent market manipulation, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Toyota profit down 9.7% year-on-year for quarter

Toyota Motor Corp. reported a consolidated net profit of 222.59 billion yen in the April-June quarter, down 9.7 percent from the same period last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003

Koinu Entertainment Showcase Volume One

Japan has produced so many great hip-hop DJs, like Krush and Kensei, that it is easy to overlook the dearth of equally great MCs. No surprise then that most of the intriguing artists at this weekend's underground hip-hop confab, sponsored by hybrid metal rap group Koinu, are turntablists such as DJs...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 6, 2003

Real, Beckham too much for FC Tokyo

David Beckham scored his first goal in the famous white of Real Madrid as his new team eased to a 3-0 victory over FC Tokyo at a damp National Stadium on Tuesday night.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2003

A threat to one is a threat to all in a nation of laws

WASHINGTON -- There is a "very real potential" that al-Qaeda will strike again on U.S. soil, warns Attorney General John Ashcroft. Which makes it even more difficult to criticize the Bush administration's efforts to combat terrorism. But while the U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact, it also means...
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Tokyo deletes 'weak' from economic outlook

The government Tuesday raised its assessment of the economy for the first time in five months in the wake of a recent stock rally and new signals from the United States.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2003

O, what a tangled web we weave

Though nowhere near as all-encompassing as the Renaissance in Europe, the closed, feudal world of shogunal Japan did throw up a few periods of vigorous artistic expression in the more than two and a half control-freak centuries it lasted. One of these was about 200 years ago, from 1804-1830, during what...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Flash memory card formats vie for prominence

Not quite a VHS vs. Betamax sequel. But again, two consumer electronics giants find themselves in opposing camps in a format battle as they crank up production of removable flash memory cards.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003

Doug Wamble's: "Country Libations"

At first listen, Doug Wamble's debut CD, "Country Libations," sounds like a compilation. At different points, Wamble flatpicks country swing, booms out heartfelt gospel, plays slide Delta blues, swings hard on pre-bop jazz and intersperses moments of free jazz. This range and choice of styles is initially...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003

Kings of Leon: "Youth and young Manhood"

The story about the Kings of Leon, a Nashville-based rock band touted as the next big thing, is that the four young men, with their tight bell-bottoms and shaggy hair are pure throwbacks. Having grown up shuttling between Memphis and Oklahoma City with their itinerant Pentecostal preacher father, the...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight