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CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Fun and family bonding

Spy KidsRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 88 minutes Language: English Now showing
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2001

Door to constitutional change

Last June, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created an advisory panel on his proposal aimed at empowering the public -- not lawmakers as at present -- to directly elect the premier. The group is expected to come up with recommendations on the plan by next summer.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Wholesalers still clinging on

While foreign retailers are seeking to trade directly with Japanese manufacturers in an effort to cut costs and prices, wholesalers will continue to play a key role in the domestic distribution chain, according to Seiichiro Kojima, president of nonfood wholesaler Chuo Bussan Corp.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

Toshiba to pull out of DRAMs

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday it will terminate its business in dynamic random access memory chips next year in a reorganization aimed at securing profitability in its semiconductor business in fiscal 2002.
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2001

EU readying for new challenge

Leaders of the European Union, meeting in Brussels last weekend, agreed to set up a broadly represented advisory body next March to draft recommendations for EU reform. The agreement marks another milestone on the road to an enlarged EU. Half a century following the creation of a common European market,...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 19, 2001

No Big Mac, no surprise

It should not be a surprise to anyone that Mark McGwire is not going to play for the Chunichi Dragons next season.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2001

John Howard gets but a brief respite

SYDNEY -- Pangs of guilt are creeping into the Australian psyche in this self-indulgent time of year. The annual spending frenzy, known to some as Christmas, is being contrasted with the wretched life of hundreds of refugees detained on Australia's Indian Ocean territory, Christmas Island.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Dec 19, 2001

Foreign retailers relying on adaptability to survive

When French retailer Carrefour and U.S.-based Costco Wholesale Corp. opened their outlets in Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture, a year ago, many saw the foreign stores as a threat to domestic supermarkets.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Supreme court gets second female justice

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Tuesday that Kazuko Yokoo, a former ambassador to Ireland, will be appointed to the Supreme Court, making her the second female justice to serve on the top court.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Visa sweep nets over 20 in Shinjuku

Tokyo police and immigration officials took more than 20 Chinese, Iranian and other foreigners in the Shinjuku area into custody Monday night on suspicion they have been overstaying their visas.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Fires rose over 60,000 mark in 2000

Fires reported in 2000 topped the 60,000 mark for the first time in three years, with arson accounting for one in eight cases, according to a government report released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

Son to get into the phone business

Beginning this spring, some broadband Internet users will be able to place a three-minute call to the U.S. for 7.5 yen over a new service to be offered by Softbank Corp.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Pediatrics strained to breaking point

It was just after midnight one recent weekend in the emergency room of Showa University Hospital in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. Pediatrician Katsura Sugihara was treating his 12th patient of the night, when the phone rang.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

The revolution will be cinematized

Hikari no Ame Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Banmei Takahashi Running time: 130 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Hunt off for missing Japanese: Pyongyang

Tokyo reacted with concern Tuesday to news that North Korea has suspended its search for missing Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

No trading for ministers, Fukuda says

The government has formally decided to give up a controversial proposal to remove a 12-year ban on Cabinet ministers engaging in stock transactions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

Capturing the moving image

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is holding an exhibition of photographs of the homeless, running till Jan. 27 at the Tokyo Photographic Culture Centre.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 19, 2001

Great coffee with some art on the side

I took a visiting young German painter to Ben's Cafe in Takadanobaba the other day. We met to have a beer and a chat -- and because Jorn was eager to show me a book of his new work, with an eye to me maybe helping arrange a show for him.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Senior Chongryun official indicted over embezzlement

Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a senior official of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) on charges he instructed heads of a failed credit union to embezzle about 830 million yen of the union's funds.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Dec 19, 2001

Shed a tear, pass the hat

What a Drag Dept.: Two well-known music mags, FM Fan and Indies Magazine, are calling it quits after their December issues. Falling advertising revenues are why their publishers, Kyodo News and Rittor Music, respectively, have decided to shut them down.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2001

Rap's finest women (and fully clothed)

Remember the Prince protege Vanity and her hit "Nasty Girl?" Probably not. With their Victoria's Secret wardrobes and sexual boasts, most women in rap are, like Vanity, titillating, sometimes liberating, but for the most part forgettable after the record finishes.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell