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JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Power outages unlikely: Hiranuma

The Tokyo metropolitan area will probably be spared summer power shortages because four nuclear reactors have been reactivated and various energy-saving efforts have proven effective, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Bottom line for personal seals is they're obsolete, forgeable

Hideo Matsuzaki creates names that will last a lifetime, one deft knife stroke at a time.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 26, 2003

Mirabal lifts Fighters over Marines

Carlos Mirabal combined with three relievers on a five-hitter as the Nippon Ham Fighters edged the Lotte Marines 2-1 at Tokyo Dome on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Man on scooter stabs five men

A man on a scooter stabbed five men at random in Tokyo's Shibuya district late Thursday, inflicting light injuries.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Firms pitch brands via short Web movies

An increasing number of firms are featuring original short films on their Web sites as an advertising strategy to enhance their image.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2003

Take another shot at Four Party talks

SEOUL -- While the United States and North Korea remain stuck in a standoff over the format of future meetings to deal with the North's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, a scout on the upper deck has sighted an iceberg -- not landfall ahead. The warnings of this seasoned statesman issued...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Hiranuma stresses import of WTO meeting

An upcoming informal World Trade Organization ministerial talk in Montreal is important for the success of a full ministerial meeting to be held in Cancun, Mexico, in September, trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Toshiba gets Honeywell LCD license

Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has obtained a license from Honeywell International Inc. to use two Honeywell U.S. patents relating to liquid crystal displays found in a wide variety of electronic consumer and business products.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Private finance initiative eyed to build first mixed prison

The Justice Ministry plans to start building Japan's first prison under a private finance initiative in the fiscal year beginning in April 2005.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Appliance sales down 3.5% in June

Sales at major retailers of electric home appliances fell 3.5 percent in June from a year earlier to 187.68 billion yen, marking the 10th straight monthly fall since September, the Nippon Electric Big-Stores Association said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Greater range of foods to carry point-of-origin info

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry decided Friday to increase the range of processed food products that must carry labels indicating the ingredients' points of origin.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Cabinet questions opposition merger

Several Cabinet ministers questioned on Friday the planned merger between the two main opposition parties, with one likening it to the sudden breakup of a now-defunct opposition party in 1997.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

60% of pollees wary of GM foods

More than 60 percent of consumers were unwilling to buy genetically modified foods due to safety concerns, according to a recent Internet survey by the farm ministry.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Koizumi says no reforms means more suffering

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defended his structural reform drive Friday, although he acknowledged the role it may have played in the record number of economy-related suicides in 2002.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Tokyo consumer prices fall yet again

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.4 percent in July from a year earlier, marking a record 46 straight months of decline since October 1999, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 26, 2003

Kay Yamada

The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, was founded in London in the 17th century as "a home for worthy old soldiers broken in the wars." It continues as the home of the Chelsea pensioners, war veterans with army records giving their characters as no less than "very good." For more than 140 years, the Chelsea Flower...
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Chongryun tax breaks face hard scrutiny

OSAKA -- For nearly half a century, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) has been the primary voice of the North Korean community in Japan, representing nearly 200,000 people.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

300 billion yen sought for rice reforms

The Liberal Democratic Party will request a budget of about 300 billion yen for rice policy reforms for fiscal 2004, LDP officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2003

Killers in U.S. rely on mercy of Mexico

LOS ANGELES -- Anabella Vara was pregnant at 14 and married at 15, and by the time she was 21 she was living in fear. On Valentine's Day 1999 her husband, Daniel Perez, looped a rope around her neck and tried to strangle her. She and her 5-year-old son fled to her parents' house, but two months later...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Keidanren to draft donation outline by end of September

OYAMA, Shizuoka Pref. -- The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) will draw up an outline by the end of September detailing how to proceed with its new system for promoting political donations, Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Foreign bond sales drive up Nikko Cordial group net profit

Nikko Cordial Corp., Japan's third-largest securities firm, said Friday its group net profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2003 soared more than three-fold, thanks to a jump in sales of foreign bonds.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 26, 2003

A hundred columns of words on the wall

This is it: the one-hundredth edition of "When East Marries West." At least by my count, and, as my wife says, "You should know -- you're the only one who reads it."
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Pension system in crisis, 2000, 2001 data show

Unpaid national pension premiums for fiscal 2000 and 2001 amounted to 1.88 trillion yen, and employers were 430 billion yen behind in corporate-based pension scheme dues as of the end of fiscal 2001, the Social Insurance Agency said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 26, 2003

Japanese English: crime and punishment

Recently, I received some letters from readers criticizing me for making fun of Japanese English. These people said that this kind of humor has been "played to death" and, moreover, that Japanese English is "not interesting." Ha!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 26, 2003

Thinking to build a house? Think Foothill Homes

A house is just a building. A home is filled with the warmth and individuality of its inhabitants. Which is where Robert Neil Hugo comes into the picture.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Civil-servant reform bill delayed

State reform minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Friday he will give up trying to present a bill to reform civil servant employment practices to the current session of the Diet, which ends Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Hospital network planned to combat cancer scourge

The government said Friday it will establish a nationwide network of hospitals to treat cancer as a step toward upgrading the nation's medical infrastructure.
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2003

Timing on dispatch of SDF turns up Koizumi weak spot

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was brimming with confidence after a bill proposing special measures to support the reconstruction of Iraq passed the House of Representatives in the National Diet. A likely political scenario for the fall -- one that anticipated a long-term...

Longform

The volunteer lifesavers of Nishihama Surf Lifesaving Club never know what's in store at the start of their day.
It's no simple day at the beach for Japan's volunteer lifesavers