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SOCCER / J. League
May 8, 2004

Schoolboy signs for Tokyo Verdy

Schoolboy Takayuki Morimoto became the youngest ever professional player in the J. League when he signed for Tokyo Verdy on Friday, his 16th birthday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 8, 2004

Kudo leads Giants with bat and ball

Veteran left-hander Kimiyasu Kudo went eight strong innings Friday to lead the Yomiuri Giants to a 7-1 win over the Hiroshima Carp.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 8, 2004

Porto's Mourinho in line to be new manager of Chelsea

LONDON -- According to various back-page "exclusives" over the past week, Chelsea is buying Walter Samuel (Roma -- £15 million), David Beckham and Ronaldo (Real Madrid -- combined fee of £100,000 million), Ronaldinho (Barcelona -- £60 million), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool -- £30 million) and any other...
MORE SPORTS
May 8, 2004

Fudo stays ahead

Yuri Fudo rolled in seven birdies to maintain her lead by three strokes with a sizzling 7-under-par 65 after the second round of the Nichirei Cup World Ladies on Friday.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Freed abductees 'willing to revisit' North

Five repatriated Japanese abductees are willing to accompany Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea to pick up their families if such a visit is realized, one of their relatives in Japan said Friday.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Katayama's teen love story now top selling novel

A novel published in 2001 depicting the love between two teenagers became the all-time best-selling novel by a Japanese author Friday, with 2.51 million copies sold.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 8, 2004

Stomach lining jumps ship in a typhoon

At 1 p.m. I received a message on my cell phone from my husband: "I hope you're not sailing today. A typhoon is coming." Too bad I didn't see this message before we left Awajishima at 1:30 headed for Shodoshima. As a matter of fact, at 1 p.m., we were still sitting in an "onsen" overlooking the Seto...
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Kan pledges to defy resignation clamor

Naoto Kan said Friday that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's resignation the same day over a pension payment scandal has not swayed his decision to stay on as leader of the Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Ex-Takefuji employee gets suspended term for wiretapping

A former employee of consumer loan company Takefuji Corp. was sentenced Friday to a suspended three-year prison term for wiretapping two journalists in 2000 and 2001.
MORE SPORTS
May 8, 2004

Japan preparing emergency manual

Japanese Olympic officials are preparing an emergency manual for their athletes going to this summer's Athens Games.
MORE SPORTS
May 8, 2004

Majority back ban on women in sumo

Seventy-one percent of spectators surveyed at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in March agreed that, in sticking with sumo tradition, women should be banned from entering the ring, the Japan Sumo Association said Friday.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Six admit guilt in court to abducting Mainichi boss

Six men accused of abducting and confining the president of the Mainichi Shimbun in January pleaded guilty Friday during their first trial session before the Tokyo District Court.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2004

DoCoMo saw record profit in '03

NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Friday a record net profit of 650 billion yen for the year that ended March 31, up more than three-fold from 212.49 billion yen a year ago.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Exit seen as pre-election damage control

While Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's resignation came as a surprise to many, Nagata-cho watchers described it as damage control in the leadup to the House of Councilors election in July.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Japan 'displeased' at abuse in Iraq

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday that Japan will convey its displeasure to the United States over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Freed abductees 'willing to revisit' North

Five repatriated Japanese abductees are willing to accompany Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to North Korea to pick up their families if such a visit is realized, one of their relatives in Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2004

Bank of Yokohama earns upgrade

Standard & Poor's said Friday it has revised the outlook on its long-term rating for Bank of Yokohama to positive from stable.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Katayama's teen love story now top selling novel

A novel published in 2001 depicting the love between two teenagers became the all-time best-selling novel by a Japanese author Friday, with 2.51 million copies sold.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Ministers won't quit over pension scandal

Six Cabinet members who failed to pay their mandatory national pension premiums said Friday they will not follow in the footsteps of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and step down.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2004

Don't fret China competition: ADB economist

Japan's fears over China's status as a rival for economic supremacy in Asia are misplaced, according to the chief economist at the Asian Development Bank.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 8, 2004

Learning hard lessons in inferiority

The man towers over my life like Atlas holding up an entire Earth's worth of responsibility.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2004

IRCJ starts up ailing Kanebo's cosmetics branch

Ailing Kanebo Ltd.'s mainstay cosmetics business began operations Friday under the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan to pay off the group's huge debts.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Kan pledges to defy resignation clamor

Naoto Kan said Friday that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's resignation the same day over a pension payment scandal has not swayed his decision to stay on as leader of the Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Bureaucracy, politics in Hosoda's blood

A former bureaucrat at the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Hiroyuki Hosoda, the newly appointed chief Cabinet secretary, entered the world of politics following in the footsteps of this father, Kichizo, who served as transport minister.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Changes eyed for vehicle-recall system

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has unveiled measures to fundamentally revise the existing vehicle-recall system.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Nuclear plant exposure levels raise eyebrows

Nuclear plant workers in Japan have suffered the world's highest collective radiation exposure for four consecutive years, prompting the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to consider improvements, it was learned Friday.

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?