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JAPAN
Sep 28, 2003

JETRO admits stock irregularity

The Japan External Trade Organization said Saturday that a former director as well as four of its employees in Hong Kong obtained unlisted shares from a local firm and earned dividends on them.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2003

Bank to issue smart ATM card

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi plans to introduce a next-generation, multifunctional automated teller machine card that uses fingerprints to verify the identity of cardholders along with security codes, bank officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2003

Justice minister pledges to make Japan 'safe again,' tighten border controls

Daizo Nozawa says Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has ordered him in his new job as justice minister to make Japan the "safest country in the world" again.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 28, 2003

Dancing in the dark, but who's calling the tune?

Ever since the five Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korea in the late '70s returned to Japan a little less than a year ago, the media, the government, the abductees' families and supporters, and the abductees themselves have been performing an elaborate and awkward dance.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 28, 2003

Journals of Joseph Campbell

SAKE & SATORI: Asian Journals -- Japan, by Joseph Campbell. California: Joseph Campbell Foundation/New World Library, 2002, 350 pp., b/w photographs, $22.95 (cloth). In 1955, the eminent mythologist Joseph Campbell came to Japan and stayed for five months. Author of "The Hero With a Thousand Faces,"...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Ishihara sorry he said Soga's mom is dead

Outspoken Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara apologized Friday for saying that the missing mother of a Japanese abducted to North Korea had been killed, even though her fate remains unknown.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Koizumi promises to pummel postal services into submission

Flush with his sweeping victory in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed Friday to privatize postal services in April 2007.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 27, 2003

Tani lifts BlueWave

Yoshitomo Tani belted a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the 12th inning as the Orix BlueWave edged the PL frontrunning Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 4-3 at Yahoo BB Stadium on Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 27, 2003

Hara takes responsibility for Giants' poor season and resigns as boss

Tatsunori Hara took responsibility Friday for his team's dismal showing this year, stepping down as manager of the Yomiuri Giants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Powerful quakes strike Hokkaido

SAPPORO -- Two powerful earthquakes, one with a preliminary magnitude of 8, struck Hokkaido early Friday, sparking a refinery fire and generating several tsunami.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Foreigners blamed for crime woes

Japanese police have blamed deteriorating public security in the country on foreigners, despite figures showing that 96 percent of the nation's crimes are committed by Japanese.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Growth forecast revised up to 2.1%

The Cabinet Office said Friday it has revised its economic growth projection for fiscal 2003 upward to 0.1 percent in nominal terms and 2.1 percent in real terms.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Aso goes postal over Koizumi's plan

Posts minister Taro Aso on Friday lambasted postal privatization plans submitted last year by an advisory group to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

CPI continues 48-month losing streak

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.3 percent in September from a year earlier, marking a record 48th straight month of decline, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 27, 2003

Martin Cameron

FOLKESTONE, England -- This seaport and resort in Kent on England's southeast coast bears many features of historic interest. Facing the continent across the English Channel at its narrowest expanse, from earliest times Kent has attracted invasion and settlement. It is said that Folkestone was originally...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Nakagawa's farm trade background brings mixed bag to METI portfolio

The appointment earlier this week of Shoichi Nakagawa as minister of economy, trade and industry is a mixed blessing for the nation's trade policy.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Tainted Shigeie made ambassador

The government appointed Toshinori Shigeie as ambassador to South Africa on Friday -- despite his alleged involvement in the Foreign Ministry meddling of disgraced lawmaker Muneo Suzuki.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Kan wants some specifics from Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech to the Diet on Friday was full of wishful goals but lacking specifics, the head of the largest opposition party said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

IRCJ takes salvage target list up to six

The Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan announced Friday that it will bail out Matsuya Denki Co., an Osaka home appliances retailer, and Meisei and Co., a chemical trading company also based in Osaka, under its corporate resuscitation scheme.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Huge games show launched in Chiba

The biggest electronic games show in Japan opened Friday for a three-day run, with online games figuring prominently, organizers said.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2003

The Saudi Arabia dilemma

LONDON -- Times are very difficult for the government of Saudi Arabia. Assailed on one side by hardline Islamists for being too pro-American, Saudi leaders have also had to endure a hail of brickbats from Washington for not being sufficiently pro-American and supportive of U.S. policy.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2003

DPJ's uphill road to power

The birth of the new Democratic Party of Japan -- the largest opposition party to debut since 1994 -- promises to create more constructive tension in Japanese politics. The DPJ, which has absorbed the smaller Liberal Party, is looking to the coming general election as an opportunity to snatch power from...

Longform

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