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JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Tokyo execs disappear with chunk of firm's cash

Executives of a Tokyo-based company that sells health food products and promises to help clients set up their own health food business have gone into hiding, taking with them several billion yen of company funds, according to sources close to the case.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2002

Pursuit of FTAs vital but troublesome

Last month, leading brewer Asahi Breweries Ltd. began shipping its Super Dry beer to Singapore from Japan, instead of from its facilities in China.
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Group pays respects to slain reporter

KOBE -- Police officials, detectives and private citizens visited on Friday the Asahi Shimbun's Hanshin Bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, to lay flowers and offer prayers for a reporter who was gunned down there 15 years ago by an unknown assailant.
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
May 3, 2002

Pilot project to use Internet to link doctors, foreign patients, translators

KOBE -- For foreigners who cannot communicate in Japanese, having an interpreter is important when seeing a doctor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Vacated banks seeing new tenants

At an intersection in Tokyo's Nihonbashi financial district, a wholesale supermarket with a bright yellow sign and outdoor fruit bins draws the curious eyes of people passing by.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2002

Donors working on IDA deal

With the clock ticking on the end-of-June deadline for a final agreement, the world's major industrialized countries appear to be nearing a compromise on fresh funding for the International Development Association.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2002

Flawed bills need rewriting

Two pieces of legislation that could restrict the media's freedom of activities are being debated in the Diet. One bill lays out ground rules for protecting personal data. The other, designed to protect human rights, would create a human rights commission affiliated with the Justice Ministry.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 3, 2002

Just your average, run-of-the-mill salaryman sings the blues

So let me introduce myself. I'm your futsu (run-of-the-mill), heikin (average) salaryman, nothing special. What's wrong with that? I can remember a time when this particular jiko-shokai (self-introduction) at company functions and karaoke parties was perfectly acceptable -- even welcomed.
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Japanese children want to visit U.S. the most: survey

Japanese children named the United States as the country they most want to visit and said they are more interested in the U.S. and its people than any other foreign country, according to a recent survey.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
May 2, 2002

Are you going to Kayabacho plant fair?

Yakushi-in Temple in Kayabacho, Edo, is hosting a bustling plant fair, and people of all ages and every walk of life are there. In this woodcut print (right) by Hasegawa Settan (1778-1843), we can see tonsured monks, geisha, a senior samurai holding the hand of a little boy, a young woman under an umbrella...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2002

Toothless global-warming bill

Domestic global-warming debate is heating up as the Diet discusses a bill to revise the nation's global-warming prevention law and prepares to approve the Kyoto climate accord for ratification. The centerpiece of this law will be a new national scheme -- a Kyoto Objective Achievement Plan -- to cut greenhouse...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 1, 2002

Lopez puts tantrum behind him

Hiroshima Carp first baseman Luis Lopez says the problem between him and outfielder Tomonori Maeda has been put to rest. Marty Kuehnert, in his April 10 "Keen Edge" column, described how the teammates had nearly come to blows after Maeda twice failed to score from second base on outfield hits by Lopez...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2002

Tracking systems try to tackle food safety

Shoppers are now being invited to check with their own eyes that what something is labeled is what they actually eat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 1, 2002

Young artists are making a splash

The third installment in an almost-annual series (they skipped it last year), "New Media New Face 02" is now showing at the NTT InterCommunication Center, in Shinjuku. The work here, from four Japanese artists, falls into the vague but trendy, technology-based genre known as "media art."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 1, 2002

N*E*R*D: 'In Search Of . . .'

'This album is like a life soundtrack," N*E*R*D frontman Chad Hugo says on their Web site. "It's a diary of shit we've been through over the last year or two."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 1, 2002

The U.S. Ambassador of Magic

Neither clown nor magician but something of both, Steve Marshall has, from early childhood, been charming audiences with his unique brand of comedy magic. Watching him in action, it is difficult to tell where performance genres begin and end -- what's certain is that they blend into a seamless, entertaining...
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2002

'Community currencies' seen fulfilling only half of mission

The recent boom in community "currencies" -- a virtual form of payment being used to promote exchanges of goodwill and business -- seems to have reached a turning point.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 30, 2002

Manhattan Cafe captures spring Emperor's Cup

Manhattan Cafe scooped the prize at Kyoto in the spring Emperor's Cup holding off Jungle Pocket by a neck for 132 million yen and a perfect three-for-three Grade 1 record.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2002

Bottom line for recent CPA grad, 71, is to keep at it with immortal energy

For Masahiko Tanabe, 71, the secret to staying young is to stay curious. Having worked in the technological and petrochemical fields for more than 45 years, Tanabe's fascination with accounting led him to acquire a degree as a U.S. certified public accountant at the age of 70.
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2002

The importance of conserving forests

Forests play a vital role in preventing global warming and building sustainable societies. So the need to protect and develop them can never be stressed enough. Japan's substantial forests make it a notable example. In brief, that is the message of the government report on forests and forestry released...
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2002

Foreign-relations awards bestowed

Japan on Monday announced the foreign recipients of its biannual awards, honoring 32 people from 19 countries, with Icelandic and Luxembourg nationals appearing on the list for the first time.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2002

Latest Chinese puzzle has experts baffled

HONG KONG -- For China-watchers, the puzzling China contrast is between a nation that sends the capsule Shenzhou 3 into space and one that drags a seemingly useless rusty hull halfway around the globe. China's first aircraft carrier has finally arrived in port, but the mystery remains as to what conceivable...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 28, 2002

Shinjo-mania begins to wear thin with Giants teammates

CHICAGO -- When the San Francisco Giants arrived at Wrigley Field on Tuesday for a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs, Tsuyoshi Shinjo was batting a depressing .168. Considering how much attention he was receiving from the Japanese media, you'd think he was batting 1.000.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2002

Stop the presses

At 7 p.m. on Oct. 11, 1946, it was quiet in The Japan Times newsroom in central Tokyo. The deadline for the next day's first edition had passed, and day-shift editors were ready to pack up and leave. Then, with no prior warning, a surprise visitor appeared in their midst.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2002

Jostling in the blogosphere

Meanwhile, as the insects endure, humans keep blathering -- and finding new and ever more independent ways to broadcast their blather. By comparison with some of these, editorials -- the anonymously authored opinions of official media organizations -- are as old as Mantophasmatodea. No, to approach the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 28, 2002

If you like pina colada . . .

Singer, songwriter, guitarist, dancer, entertainer -- any of these titles are appropriate for describing the versatile Latin American star Shakira. But it's the combination of all these together that makes her such an explosive performer.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2002

Greek Cypriots bluster over Israeli snub

NICOSIA -- At first glance, Cyprus might seem a likely friend for Israel in a hostile region. An eastern Mediterranean island just 105 km from Syria, the Republic of Cyprus is a democracy with a free press, thriving banking and shipping industries, and a per capita gross domestic product of $16,000,...

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go