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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 11, 2003

Labor troubles, testing for STDs and settling in

Labor troubles First, an urgent message to J.S. in Yokohama, whose restaurant employer is not paying him the full amount agreed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Feb 11, 2003

Finally, anti-tobacco lessons come to schools

Every time our family sits down in a restaurant in Japan, my 11-year-old sniffs the air with disgust. He waves a hand through the cigarette haze and glares at the smokers all around us. "What's the matter with these people?" he growled when we went out for a meal the other day. "Didn't anyone ever teach...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2003

Group unveils fresh 'missing' list

A citizens' group that independently investigates cases in which Japanese have disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Monday released a fresh list featuring the names of 44 people.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Role models for a changing nation

One welcome exception to the gloomy news in Japan last year was the unexpected awarding of a Nobel Prize in chemistry to an apparently ordinary company worker. Koichi Tanaka's steadfastness, lack of personal ambition and open, nice-guy persona were a refreshing throwback to a less cynical age, and his...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2003

DPJ loses politicians to local races

Several Democratic Party of Japan politicians have either announced plans to run in gubernatorial or mayoral elections or are contemplating doing so ahead of nationwide unified local elections scheduled for April.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Golf: a sport that mirrors the nation

Forget indicators such as unemployment levels and interest rates; there's no simpler way to chart Japan's economic well-being than by tracing the ebb and flow of the popularity of golf.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Place your money where your mouth is: Takenaka

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka called on other Cabinet ministers Friday to buy investment trust products linked to stock market indexes to encourage people to shift their money from savings to investments.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Korean school in harassment plea

Parents and teachers from the Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High School urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday to prevent harassment of students attending schools that support North Korea.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Dugong redesignation eyed

The Environment Ministry will consider designating dugongs living in waters around Okinawa a rare domestic species, the environment minister said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Food safety bills aimed at restoring public trust

The Cabinet endorsed a set of bills Friday that seek to bolster food safety and protect public health in the wake of numerous recent scares.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 6, 2003

Sumo exhibition set for South Korea

Professional sumo wrestlers will hold a two-day exhibition tournament in South Korea this summer, officials said Wednesday, marking the first time Japan's national sport has been performed in that country.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 6, 2003

Trade talk heating up as Feb. 20 deadline looms

NEW YORK -- Scott Layden, say sources, is telling club executives throughout the NBA the Knicks absolutely intend to make a major trade before the Feb. 20 deadline. We know we have to do something, so make us your best offer.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Revival body chief may be appointed by end of March

The head of the government-backed industrial revitalization corporation could be appointed by the end of March, industrial revival minister Sadakazu Tanigaki hinted Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

JGB rally grinds to a halt as ministry cuts coupon rate

A Japanese government bond rally ground to a halt Tuesday after the Finance Ministry lowered the coupon rate for 10-year bonds to an all-time low of 0.8 percent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2003

Docs find flu drug dearth hard to swallow

Pediatrician Jiro Tsukada says that being stingy has become part of his job.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2003

'A bad day' for us all

We have felt this before. Watching the fiery remains of space shuttle Columbia streak across the blue Texas sky Saturday was like being forced to relive the past. Didn't we experience the same disbelief, sadness and horror when a flash fire killed three Apollo astronauts during a launch pad test in 1967?...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2003

Bush shifts Pyongyang to the back burner

HONOLULU -- In a subtle but unmistakable signal, U.S. President George W. Bush has shoved the American confrontation with North Korea well down the list of Washington's priorities.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2003

Japan weighs disaster's impact on Tokyo's own space program

Japan expressed shock Sunday at the loss of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia as officials scrambled to assess the impact on Tokyo's own space program, jointly conducted with the United States.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 2, 2003

Analyst urges Russia to look West

THE END OF EURASIA: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization, by Dmitri Trenin. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002, 351 pp., $24.95 (paper) If nations were people, then Russia would have post-traumatic stress syndrome. Over the past decade, the former...
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2003

Onward and upward

Just last month, in this space, we noted the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Internet. Twenty is still young, we observed, but for something barely out of its teens, the Internet has wrought an impressive transformation in the way tens of millions of people live and work. Last week a minor news...
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Panel to discuss how to shift funds

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday that the Finance Ministry and a key policy-setting council will establish a joint panel tasked with promoting a shift of funds from the public to the private sector.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Key consumer-prices gauge slides for third consecutive year

The key gauge of consumer prices fell a record 0.9 percent in 2002 for the third straight year of decline, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat