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JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Tanaka aired worry on U.S. missile plan

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka unofficially voiced concern over U.S. missile defense plans in a series of recent diplomatic talks with her counterparts from Italy, Germany and Australia, Japanese government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2001

AIDS in prisons: a spreading problem

NEW YORK -- Several investigations worldwide have shown that the human immunodeficiency virus responsible for AIDS is spreading rapidly in prisons, where the rate of infection has been found to be several times higher than in the general population. Prisons have become one of the most potentially dangerous...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Tomobe challenges fraud ruling

Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe filed an objection Friday against a Supreme Court ruling upholding his 10-year prison term for fraud, his lawyers said.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Disputes with foreign staff increase

Reflecting the prolonged economic slump, a record number of foreign workers and their Japanese employers consulted the Tokyo Labor Bureau in 2000 for advice on labor-related disputes, bureau officials announced Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Fiscal panel eyes release of public entities

A key government panel on economic and fiscal policy is expected to recommend next month a partial privatization of employee pension programs and sweeping deregulation, government sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2001

New Zealand tailors defense to real needs

Some Kiwis can fly -- very fast. But the New Zealand government wants to clip their wings.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Discrimination suit against golf club fails

An ethnic Korean resident in Tokyo lost a damages suit Thursday seeking compensation from a Chiba golf club operator for denying him membership because of his nationality.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Cultist gets life for role in deadly '94 gas attack

The Tokyo District Court sentenced an Aum Shinrikyo figure to life imprisonment Wednesday for his part in four crimes, including a 1994 nerve-gas attack that killed seven people in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tanaka family villa seized in '99, asset report shows

The government in December 1999 seized a villa owned by a firm operated by the family of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, sources said Wednesday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 31, 2001

France shows no mercy, blasts South Korea 5-0

DAEGU, South Korea -- You have to admit the French are fair. After thrashing Japan 5-0 in Paris two months ago, they opened the Confederations Cup with a similar scoreline over Japan's fellow-World Cup host South Korea on Tuesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 31, 2001

Drop your drawers and give me 20 (ml, that is)

Mark Heppelle is a 37-year-old Canadian currently living in Japan with his wife and two kids where he runs a small English school. But that's not his only source of income. Heppelle also has a rather unique sports-related job, the results of which can be seen almost daily on sports pages across the globe....
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Seoul hopes for 'sincere' answer to textbook request

South Korean Ambassador Choi Sang Yong said Wednesday he hopes Japan will "respond sincerely" to Seoul's request to correct what it sees as factual errors in a controversial history textbook.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

New curriculum sees parents push English for infants

Second of two parts Staff writer Yukiko Wada left her Tochigi home at 8 a.m. one Saturday with her 2-year-old daughter, Hinami. While their journey to Tokyo's Eifuku-cho in Suginami Ward seemed a bit long, it became worthwhile when they encountered an American acquaintance near their destination.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2001

MMC to cut up to 1,200 jobs

Struggling automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will introduce an early retirement program to phase out up to 1,200 jobs.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

Memories as microcosms

Directors, it's often said, keep making the same movie over and over, though the sameness is more evident with some than others. Akira Kurosawa was among the most eclectic directors of his generation, filming everything from Shakespearean drama ("Throne of Blood") to popcorn entertainment ("The Hidden...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Exciter': Depeche Mode

With a name like a dubious aphrodisiac jelly, "Exciter," the latest effort by the ever-boyish Depeche Mode, promises more of the "pervy" lyrics and electronic pop/rock that has seen it sell 50 million albums since the early '80s.
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Postwar Croatia looks to Japan

It was a surprise contact from the Croatian Foreign Minister in October that led the 62-year-old Drogo Buvac, formerly a journalist specializing in economics and international relations, to bethe new Croatian Ambassador to Japan.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2001

Petrochemical firms will have to disband price cartel

The Fair Trade Commission will order seven major petrochemical firms to scrap a polypropylene price cartel and pay billions of yen in penalties, sources familiar with the case said Monday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

MSDF divers may help raise Ehime Maru

At the request of the U.S. Navy, the government is considering sending divers from the Maritime Self-Defense Force to help raise the fisheries training ship accidentally sunk off Hawaii on Feb. 9 by a U.S. submarine, government officials said Monday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Two die as loaded van flips during U-turn

OSAKA -- Two high school students were killed and seven other people injured early Sunday after a van they were riding crashed into a lane divider in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2001

British conservatives fighting an uphill battle

LONDON -- The campaign leading up to the June 7 election has been dominating the news in Britain. The Labor government is described as center left, but its policies are generally more conservative than those of the Liberal Democrats, who are really social democrats. The Conservative opposition have been...
JAPAN
May 27, 2001

73% of Japanese in favor of increased competition

Seventy-three percent of Japanese polled rated competition among enterprises as positive because it results in cheaper products and services, according to a Cabinet Office poll released Saturday.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2001

When borders are better

Aliens come in many guises. There is the extraterrestrial kind, variously envisaged over the years as little green men, wrinkly creatures homesick for their own planet, curious kidnappers and genocidal invaders. There is the human kind -- people who fetch up in some foreign country and find themselves...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 27, 2001

Who says that women can't have it all?

Several weeks ago, this column covered TBS's romantic comedy series "Love Story," in which Miho Nakayama plays a not-so-successful book editor whose employer tries to force her to quit by assigning her to its most difficult author. Though, as with all "trendy dramas," this one is mainly about love, Nakayama's...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2001

Cosmetics companies give themselves a makeover

Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell