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Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Japan urged to push for Chile FTA

Japan should gear up for pushing a bilateral free-trade agreement with Chile to expand business in South America, a Chilean business leader urged.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 29, 2002

G8 billing scam ends in suspended prison terms

A former Foreign Ministry official and his subordinate received suspended prison terms Tuesday for defrauding the government of 21.5 million yen by padding bills for limousine rentals in connection with the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa in 2000.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2002

Nissan Fire group falls 44 billion yen into red

Nissan Fire & Marine Insurance Co. said Tuesday it plunged into the red with a consolidated net loss of 43.76 billion yen in the 2001 business year after taking heavy losses from reinsurance contracts linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
JAPAN
May 28, 2002

Hacker hits Kommy customer files

Beauty treatment firm Kommy Corp. said Monday that personal information on more than 37,000 customers who have used its Web site has been leaked.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2002

Gibraltar Life Insurance posts 12.9 billion yen profit

Gibraltar Life Insurance Co., the successor of failed Kyoei Life Insurance Co., said Monday it posted unconsolidated net profits of 12.9 billion yen for the 2001 business year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2002

Kokuro to drop lawsuits against Japan Railways

The National Railway Workers Union (Kokuro) voted Monday to drop lawsuits filed against the Japan Railway group over the dismissal of former Japanese National Railways employees who were let go when the railway was privatized in 1987.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
May 28, 2002

Factors point to June stock market surge

The Tokyo stock market will probably strengthen in June because surrounding conditions are improving.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2002

Runway now in land holdouts' backyard

NARITA, Chiba Pref. -- Crops rustling in the wind appear to be trembling because of the jetliner taxiing nearby, its fin visible above the walls surrounding the farm.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2002

Downtown Detroit gets face-lift

DETROIT -- Downtown Detroit is trying another tactic to revive its glory days.
JAPAN
May 27, 2002

Archaeological probe dismisses 'findings' of disgraced Fujimura

The Japanese Archaeological Association on Sunday concluded that none of the alleged stone tools that disgraced archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura said date back to the Paleolithic period have any academic value.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 26, 2002

Waxing monstrously about the first Japanese I ever got to know

The first Japanese I fell in love with was a little taller than my wife.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 26, 2002

The pick of the crop

IRUMA, Saitama Pref. -- Despite global warming and technological developments in agriculture worldwide, still some things have never changed. Just ask tea farmer Toshiharu Kato.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 26, 2002

You say tomato, we say delicious

As summer starts to roll out its smothering blanket of heat across Japan, the markets begin to fill with some of the best produce of the year. Though tomatoes are now often grown in hothouses and available year-round, they are at their best when raised outdoors during the months when the sun beats down,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 26, 2002

Victor Segalen: searching out the strange to find a way home

VICTOR SEGALEN AND THE AESTHETICS OF DIVERSITY: Journeys Between Cultures, by Charles Forsdick. Oxford University Press, 2000, 242 pp., 40 pounds (cloth) In 1919, 41-year-old Victor Segalen was found dead in a Breton forest, a copy of Shakespeare beside him, the pages opened to "Hamlet." Thus ended the...
JAPAN
May 24, 2002

Cops nab nine with wiretappping law

By using a wiretapping law for the first time since it entered into force in 2000, the Metropolitan Police Department has arrested nine suspects and put another on a wanted list in a drug case, the MPD said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 24, 2002

Shenyang puts spotlight on refugee policy

While mystery continues to shroud the May 8 incident at the Japanese Consulate General in the Chinese city of Shenyang, in which police entered the compound and seized five North Korean asylum seekers, the spotlight has fallen again on Japan's reluctance to accept refugees.
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2002

U.S. idiosyncrasies on Cuba, free trade

LOS ANGELES -- Undoubtedly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's red-carpet reception in Cuba rubbed President George W. Bush the wrong way.
JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Panel to mull bids for 15 new colleges

The education ministry has asked an advisory panel to study applications to establish 15 new universities in fiscal 2003, according to ministry officials.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 23, 2002

Intelligence that got the U.S. nowhere

WASHINGTON -- "What did they know and when did they know it?" That is a paraphrase of the critical question that dogged Richard Nixon through the dreadful days of Watergate. Now, the same question is being asked again. What did the intelligence community know about the threat of terrorists -- specifically,...
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
May 23, 2002

Stocks climb, appear poised to top 12,000

Tokyo stocks are out of the doldrums and now appear poised to lift the Nikkei average back above 12,000, a level unseen for years.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2002

Investment keeps Wowow in red

Satellite broadcaster Wowow Inc. on Wednesday said it remained in the red in the 2001 business year under the weight of initial investments in launching digital broadcasting services.
JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Aum remains dangerous: Justice Ministry agency

Aum Shinrikyo remains dangerous and continued surveillance of the cult is needed, Yukio Kakiage, head of the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency, said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Quake survivor, 61, now golf pro

KOBE -- The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake took the lives of more than 6,400 people and left tens of thousands homeless, but it helped turn one middle-aged man who lost most of his worldly possessions into a professional golfer.
JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Police search firms linked to dumpling manufacturer

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police conducted a series of searches Wednesday after the discovery that the Mister Donut chain in Japan had been using an unauthorized antioxidant in its dumplings.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2002

Monetary policy to remain as is, central bank says

The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged Tuesday, deciding to keep the banking system awash with funds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 22, 2002

Theo Bleckmann and Ben Monder

Vocalist Theo Bleckmann only occasionally sings in an identifiable language, a trait that reinforces the impression that he is of another world, a messenger graced with an ethereal sense of beauty and a childlike fascination for exploring the unknown. His style is evocative and beckoning rather than...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 22, 2002

From the edges of 'reality'

At the most basic level of classification, most paintings can be assigned to one of two broad but fairly clear-cut categories: representational or abstract. This is to say that what appears on the canvas has generally evolved either from people, places or things found in the real world; or from ideas...
BUSINESS
May 21, 2002

Furukawa Electric blames IT slump for group net loss

Furukawa Electric Co. said Monday it registered group net losses last business year, blaming sluggish sales of information technology-related and electronics products, and increased depreciation costs for capital spending.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

What the label doesn't say

Scandals about deception in product labeling have been in the news of late, with both the expiry dates and the origins of dairy and meat products called into question. While not as big a news item, the labeling standards for whale meat take deception to further, murkier depths -- and to dangerous ones....

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?