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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2003

Daiei reports return to the black for '02

Ailing retailer Daiei Inc. reported Friday it returned to profitability in its 2002 business year due to lower restructuring costs, which weighed heavily on its earnings in the previous term.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Apr 18, 2003

The air is clear and the food gives cheer

Now in my early 30s, I find myself no longer able to just pick up and head off for a break. Ten years ago, my friends and I would take off anywhere, just about anytime. One of our last considerations — being in motion was the first — was what to do when we got there or what to eat when the time came....
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2003

Indelible stain of injustice

Abuses by Japan's thought police during World War II belong in history, and so does the so-called Yokohama Incident in which special police in Kanagawa Prefecture arrested more than 60 editors and journalists on suspicion of plotting to revive a communist party. About half of them were indicted and found...
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2003

Hit-and-run accidents up 12.6%

The number of hit-and-run traffic accidents in 2002 rose 12.6 percent from the previous year despite the enactment of a tougher law to punish reckless drivers, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2003

Ibaraki seeks help with contaminated well

Ibaraki Gov. Masaru Hashimoto asked the national government Wednesday to help deal with a contaminated well in the town of Kamisu.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2003

Daiei to decentralize as part of reconstruction program

Ailing retail giant Daiei Inc. is likely to undertake more decentralized merchandising and store operations as part of its restructuring efforts, a key manager in its group said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Apr 17, 2003

Big screens on grand scale win back new generation of film fans

The magic of Harry Potter and "The Lord of the Rings" may not be the only reason that people are returning to movie theaters.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 17, 2003

Not now, maybe never

As far as self-publicity goes, the U.S.-based Raelian cult has done better than most. Based on the alleged experiences of a one-time motor-racing journalist, Claude Vorilhon, who claimed to have been inspired by an extraterrestrial power lunch with Mohammed, Christ and Buddha, the cult drew attention...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 17, 2003

A natural sense of belonging

I pass through the Heidelberg area of Baden-Buerttemberg in southwest Germany several times a year, and though I am transient there, I feel that I have roots -- roots that come from a natural connectedness with the earth. The several thousand hectares of land sandwiched between the gently rising hills...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Apr 16, 2003

Sekisui Chemical touts energy-efficient homes

A Tokyo-based chemical firm is building energy-efficient homes that it claims will allow occupants to virtually do away with monthly electricity bills.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2003

Divisions over Iraq offensive dominate Japan-Europe forum

ATHENS -- The rift between the United States and "Old Europe" over the Iraq war was the biggest cause for concern among Japanese participants at a Japan-Europe symposium held here recently.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2003

Confession-based convictions questioned

For more than a month after his arrest, Kazuo Ishikawa staunchly denied police allegations that he had raped and killed a high school girl in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, in May 1963.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2003

From polarization to U.N. reconstruction

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- A future historian will almost certainly view the current tragedy in Iraq more calmly than so many of today's analysts and commentators. As the drama is screened from sophisticated command rooms to the remotest television-equipped hut in a far corner of the world, emotions prevail...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Laying the ghosts of doubt in Laos

LOST OVER LAOS, by Richard Pyle and Horst Faas. Da Capa Press, 2002, 239 pp., $30 (cloth) In American hands, the deadly serious business of warfare, the very way war is conducted, can seem at times more like an extension of its own pop culture, a cartoon warp of the real grotesqueries.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Siam's Greek Faulcon

FALCON: At the Court of Siam, by John Hoskin. Bangkok, Asia Books, 2002, 275 pp., 425 Baht (paper) Constantine Phaulkon, a famous Greek adventurer of the 17th century, who had a meteoric rise in King Narai's Siam (former name of Thailand) and an equally dramatic end, seems to continue attracting the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Odaiba beach not even safe for sewer rats to dip in

It's Tokyo's premier beach -- a strip of wave-washed sand carefully constructed more than a decade ago in a multibillion yen project to give the sprawling capital an ultramodern waterfront.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2003

Army of Carlos Ghosns may be in the making

We all know the Carlos Ghosn story.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Futility felt by journalist drives him to show war's true face

Hearing U.S. bombs find their targets and feeling the ground shake under his Baghdad hotel, Kosuke Tsuneoka was struck by the futility of his plan to serve as a "human shield" and stop the war.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 11, 2003

Tarlum: The big breakfast

Tokyo is not big on breakfast. Granted, there's no shortage of places to grab a sandwich or a Danish with your long latte mochacino. A kissaten "morning set" should furnish a boiled egg with a slab of faintly browned igirsu-pan (they blame white bread on the English, here). And a family restaurant can...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 10, 2003

Right time for Bulls owner to dump Krause

PHILADELPHIA -- Who would have thought Jerry Krause's regime would topple before Saddam Hussein's? In power since March of 1985, the bellicose Chicago Bulls GM took a well-deserved, long overdue hit Monday -- five games before his five-year-old rebuilding permit (following six championship Michael Jordan-emblazoned...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2003

Close encounters with 'the world's rarest gull'

CHENGDU, China -- Li Shang-yin, a writer of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), is said to have kept five species of birds in his garden, including a graceful gull whose head and bill were black, and which had a distinctive semicircle of white behind its eye.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 9, 2003

Roll up, the lion tamer's in town

Hurry, hurry, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Right this way. The circus has come to town!
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2003

Astro 'birthday' Boy is staging a comeback

Astro Boy, the futuristic robot who was the focus of a television cartoon boom in the 1960s and who just had his "birthday," is making a comeback on film and television screens and in new and reproduced comic books.
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2003

Diplomatic offensive awaits

LOS ANGELES -- Iraq is finding out what it means to be an enemy of the United States. But what does it mean to be a friend?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 6, 2003

Whole-istic medicine: being treated the traditional Chinese way

Thanks to modern medicine, many diseases that were fatal a few decades ago can now be cured. And with the decoding of the human genome, Western medicine is on the verge of taking another mighty leap forward.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2003

Honda Fit takes Corolla's crown

The Honda Fit compact took over the title of the nation's best-selling car in fiscal 2002, muscling aside the Toyota Corolla, which held the position for two straight years, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Friday.

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