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JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Tokyo Dome operator tied to mob

Tokyo Dome Co., which runs the Tokyo Dome indoor stadium and an adjacent hotel, had for years extended favors to an underworld organization affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate and related companies, it was learned Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Relatives demand details on abductees, rap Koizumi

The families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea met for the first time with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday and demanded that the government confirm the information from the Stalinist state regarding the fates of the missing people.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Mitsui execs take pay cuts over scandals

Shoei Utsuda, who is to become the new president of Mitsui & Co. next week, said Thursday he and seven other senior executives will go without part of their pay for three months to take responsibility for a series of scandals that have rocked the major trading house.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Kin of other missing people now demand abduction probes

As details about the fate of more than a dozen Japanese abducted to North Korea trickle in, relatives of many others who vanished in the 1970s and '80s say they want these disappearances re-examined to determine if their kin were also spirited away by Pyongyang agents.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Aso rejects latest plan for RCC to pay more

A key LDP policymaker balked Wednesday at a proposal to allow the state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. buy collateral-backed bad loans at effective book value.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Duskin chief to step down over Mister Donut scandal

OSAKA -- Duskin Co., the operator of Mister Donut shops in Japan, said Wednesday its president will step down in November over a scandal involving meat dumplings containing a banned additive.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2002

Ex-gangster gets five months for bribing official

OSAKA -- A former gangster was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for bribing a senior official of the Osaka High Public Prosecutor's Office.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2002

Hatoyama wins DPJ race in runoff

Yukio Hatoyama was re-elected to his third term Monday as president of the Democratic Party of Japan after a close runoff with longtime partner and rival Naoto Kan, the opposition party's secretary general.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

China to catch Japan by 2032: survey

Some 79 percent of Japanese and 59 percent of Chinese people believe China will catch up with Japan economically within 30 years, according to the results of a survey conducted in both countries and released Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2002

The great fire wall of China

Google was gagged. The Chinese government recently blocked access to the popular Internet search engine for several days -- before suddenly reversing course for reasons still unclear -- in an attempt to promote a "healthy atmosphere" in the runup to the November meeting of the Chinese leadership. While...
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2002

Ministry wants to boost child-care leave for men

Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi has submitted to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a set of measures to deal with the nation's declining birthrate, including steps to have more men take paternity leave.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 22, 2002

Suffer the little children; endure the fitness freaks

TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi recently made her 20th journey overseas as a special ambassador for UNICEF. This time she went to Somalia and, as always, a TV Asahi crew followed her as she looked into the plight of children in the war-torn country. An account of her trip will be broadcast Sunday at...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 22, 2002

The fallout of Japan's national energy policy

In Japan, Fumiko Kometani, the wife of American screenwriter Josh Greenfeld and mother of journalist Karl Taro Greenfeld, has a reputation for being a grouch. A longtime resident of the United States, she writes for a number of Japanese publications and very rarely has anything nice to say about either...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Media coverage of abductions criticized

OSAKA -- Korean residents of Japan expressed concern Friday over what they feel has been excessive coverage by the Japanese media of the North Korean abductions but comparatively scarce debate over Japan's legacy of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Ten countries agree to develop nuclear systems

The United States, Japan and eight other countries have agreed to jointly develop a series of new nuclear energy systems by 2030, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said Friday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Abductee may have been executed after tutoring plane bomber

Yaeko Taguchi, one of the Japanese abductees whom Pyongyang admitted died in North Korea, may have been executed after serving her purpose as a language instructor for the female agent who blew a Korean Air jetliner out of the sky in 1987, relatives said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Koizumi hints rice aid to North Korea may resume

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Friday that Japan may resume rice aid to North Korea before normalization of bilateral relations.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Cabinet forms task force to handle normalization issues

The government set up a Cabinet task force Friday to deal with issues related to the resumption of Japan-North Korea normalization talks in October, including pressing Pyongyang to return the surviving Japanese abductees before the negotiations restart, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Nippon Ham takes cleaver to earnings forecasts

Scandal-racked Nippon Meat Packers Inc. said Friday it has sliced its interim and full-year group earnings forecasts for the 2002 business year in response to falling sales and profits in the wake of its involvement in a beef-mislabeling scam.
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2002

Past returns to haunt Taiwan's Kuomintang

HONG KONG -- The Kuomintang's chickens have come home to roost. The KMT, which was swept off the China mainland in 1949 by Communist forces, ruled Taiwan from then until two years ago, when it was defeated in the presidential elections by Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Woman left off list of abductees probably nurse

The Japanese woman abducted to North Korea who was not on Tokyo's official list of 11 is probably a nurse from Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture who vanished along with her mother in 1978, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Government will draft new measures in October to cull bad loans: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday the government will devise measures next month to accelerate the disposal of nonperforming loans held by the nation's financial institutions.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Kawaguchi apologizes over abductee information fiasco

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi apologized Friday for the ministry's failure to disclose information it received from North Korea regarding the dates of the deaths of eight abducted Japanese nationals.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

Koizumi backs BOJ bad-loan disposal measures

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday the government will take every possible measure in cooperation with the Bank of Japan to accelerate the disposal of nonperforming loans and prevent a financial crisis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2002

Court dismisses inventor's patent claim but will consider reward

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday acknowledged Nichia Corp.'s ownership of the patent for a key semiconductor device, rejecting a suit filed by the inventor, now a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Longform

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