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JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

NTT disconnects 'wangiri' caller

OSAKA -- NTT West Corp. on Tuesday suspended connection services to a company in Fukuoka that allegedly made "wangiri" phone calls in such massive numbers that it threatened to paralyze NTT's telephone networks, NTT West officials said.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Japan-China trade climbed in first half

Trade between Japan and China in the first half of 2002 totaled $45.12 billion, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, the Japan External Trade Organization said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2002

JAMA calls for development of low-pollution automobiles

The automobile industry should work to reduce environmental damage from vehicles by developing low-pollution cars such as fuel-cell automobiles, according to a Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association report released Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2002

Bon returnees weigh down transport

The return rush from the Bon midsummer holidays continued Sunday as vacationers jammed roads, railway stations and airports while returning to Tokyo from hometowns and tourist resorts throughout Japan.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 19, 2002

Raze the barriers to inward investment

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The 21st century has not gotten off to a particularly brilliant start. Greed, corruption and dishonesty are pervasive. Scandals are rocking the world of business and politics in America and Europe. The chances of the Bush/Cheney administration becoming paralyzed by investigations...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2002

Puppet show spotlights victims

OSAKA -- The sudden news that a couple's teenage daughter had been murdered in the street by a stranger was the beginning of the destruction of a family's happy life.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 18, 2002

Fans get chance to meet Saracens

English Premiership side Saracens will play Japan champion Suntory on Aug. 25 (kickoff at 7 p.m.) at National Stadium in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY
Aug 18, 2002

Something in the air: the charged debate over negative ions

Yes, there's definitely something in the air this year -- and it's not just the regular brew of pollutants and particulates.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 17, 2002

Juno's 10-year odyssey; Arcadia pulls off a gem; Hotaka: the next way-out party

Perhaps some day in the distant future, at some far away campus, students of turn-of-the-century electronic music will listen as their professor waxes on about the effect that the seminal British trance entity Juno Reactor had on the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2002

Ethnic Chinese dilemma

SINGAPORE -- In a new twist to an ongoing controversy surrounding a proposal to change Malaysia's education policy, the two main Chinese components of the ruling National Front (NF) coalition government, have found themselves taking the same position as the opposition parties. This places the Malaysian...
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2002

The scrapheap of the brave

The fuss surrounding the Diet resignation of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has seen Japan and its media at their shallow, group-think, conservative, anti-individualist worst.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2002

Disaster victims unite, reach out

KOBE -- Survivors of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which destroyed much of Kobe and its adjacent areas, have exhibited a great sense of solidarity with disaster victims worldwide.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2002

Computer diagnoses wasteful driving

The Environment Ministry has developed a system to diagnose "environmentally efficient driving" and will request 60 million yen in the next fiscal year's budget to produce 300 sets of the necessary equipment, ministry officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 14, 2002

Potter digs in to unearth real 'clay flavor'

The great Mashiko potter Shoji Hamada once wrote that, "the thing to remember is that the simplest clay is the best. Clay itself is already the most complex of mixtures because it is alive, a living thing." When it comes to shaping that "living thing," too many modern potters feel the need to stamp their...
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2002

Total direct investments lose 53% of their value

The burst of the information technology bubble and other trade deterrents halved the value of the world's direct investments in 2001 to $694.8 billion, the semigovernmental Japan External Trade Organization said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2002

Defense report lacks substance

This year's government report on defense, the first since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, devotes much space to the terror-related events. That was only to be expected, considering that they have changed the contours of the international community, particularly the global security...
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2002

Protecting Japan's interests

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi's advisory panel on ministry reform came up with its final report in late July. On the basis of the panel's recommendations, the ministry this month will formulate an action plan on ways of implementing reform. A spate of scandals involving the ministry have prompted...
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2002

BOJ sees stable economy but uncertain future

The Bank of Japan on Monday kept its monthly assessment of the domestic economy intact, stating that it has "almost stabilized as a whole."
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2002

Tour leader opens eyes to harsh realities of Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Most tourists don't expect to be scolded by tour operators while vacationing abroad. But that's what they're in for when they join a tour led by Hiromi Tanaka of Sinh Cafe Tours in Vietnam.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Mie towns join national registry after holding out

Two Mie Prefecture towns that had vowed not to join the national resident registry network made an about-face Friday morning and connected to the system.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2002

No cause to gloat over U.S.

LONDON -- Some Japanese company presidents and board chairmen have probably been laughing quietly to themselves over the scandals that have engulfed some large American companies from Enron to Xerox and WorldCom. After all the lectures they have heard from Americans about the superiority of American...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Former Foreign Minister Tanaka tenders Diet resignation

In a surprise move, former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Friday tendered her resignation to the House of Representatives in an apparent move to take responsibility for allegations that she misappropriated her secretaries' salaries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2002

For country, for Coca-Cola, for cool companies

Jud Taylor is not only George Taylor, but George P. Taylor IX. His father was a psychologist, his grandfather a doctor and (according to family lore) the generations stretch back to a blacksmith who signed the American Declaration of Independence, for Pennsylvania, in 1776.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2002

Cell phone shipments fall 6.5%, continuing slide

Domestic shipments of mobile phones and personal handy-phone system handsets fell 6.5 percent in June from a year earlier to 4.086 million units, down for the 13th consecutive month, an industry association said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2002

'Eco-city' title elusive in Japan

KYOTO -- Nagoya may have taken the No. 1 spot in a recent contest ranking the nation's municipalities on their environmental initiatives, but its overall score illustrates that many hurdles remain before any Japanese city can truly be called eco-friendly.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2002

Aum grows again, guru still revered

Several of its senior members have been convicted of heinous crimes, including two deadly nerve gas attacks. It has been placed under tight surveillance and wherever its members try to settle, local residents and municipalities turn out to keep them away.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2002

USJ submits reform plan to city

OSAKA -- Universal Studios Japan announced Wednesday that it has fired or suspended six employees in the wake of a series of revelations about health and safety problems at the theme park.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 8, 2002

Dream Bowl to kick season off

The Dream Bowl 2002 Matchplay tenpin bowling tournament to be held at the Shin-Yokohama Prince Bowling Center from Aug. 30-Sept. 2, will kick off the United States affiliated professional bowling league for the first time.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?