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JAPAN
Jul 21, 2003

Suspected porn peddler lured girls with job offers

Police say a man who held four elementary schoolgirls captive before committing suicide had been using high school girls to recruit younger girls for part-time jobs, investigative sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2003

Iraq's long-suffering people desperately need the international community's help

"From now on it is each man for himself." Having said that, our colleague from UNICEF Iraq quietly locked our car's doors. We had just passed the final checkpoint between Kuwait and Iraq.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 21, 2003

Will tax reform succeed at ensuring our social security?

The government has tackled tax reform as a means of beefing up Japan's economic vigor, cutting corporate tax rates and introducing cuts specifically aimed at promoting research and development projects.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2003

Triple alliance stands behind Washington

HONOLULU -- Two journeys to Tokyo this past week have underscored the forging of a new, albeit informal, triple alliance comprising Japan, Australia and Britain that stands alongside the United States in the war on terror.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2003

Dutch companies rethink corporate responsibility

AMSTERDAM -- In Europe, Dutch companies are widely considered to be the front runners along with British companies in addressing the need for corporate social responsibility.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Wanted: men to cook, clean, care

Growing numbers of single Japanese women are looking for a mate who can do housework and raise children, according to the latest government survey on singles' attitudes.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Tokyo tops table for risk to health from air pollution

Polluted air in the Tokyo metropolitan area poses the most danger to human health, followed by Osaka and Kanagawa, according to a newly compiled environmental health-risk study.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Osaka braces itself for festival fallout

OSAKA -- Osaka's annual Tenjin Matsuri festival, held in late July every year, draws tens of thousands of visitors and is considered one of the country's largest and most popular summer events. But this year, city officials are worried that once the party is over, the streets will look like a rock star's...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Matsushita unit hit for assets error

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. failed to declare about 300 million yen in assets, mainly in connection with the development of a computer system, over the two years through the business year that ended in November 2001, company sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 20, 2003

Desertification, Tsurutaro Kataoka back on TV; Nogiwa and Kuroyanagi together again

Desertification is one of the major ecological catastrophes the world in facing right now. It is estimated that every year the amount of land that changes from a state that supports vegetation to desert is equal to the size of the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku combined.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 20, 2003

Newspaper says Daiei to sell Hawks

Struggling retailer Daiei Inc. and its main creditor UFJ Bank have decided to sell Daiei's professional baseball club, the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, as well as two other businesses in Fukuoka, a major newspaper said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Unemployment benefits to be cut

Basic unemployment insurance benefits will be reduced from Aug. 1 in response to a 0.8 percent fall in average pay in fiscal 2002, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 2003

Mutated beats for postmod grooving

Scott Herren is many things to many people. To some, he is Delarosa & Asora, the purveyor of jagged, techno dissonance. To others, he is Savath & Savalas, a mutating musical project that navigates electronica, postrock and Spanish folk with equal ease. At the moment, however, Herren's hip-hop outlet,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Need to leave Japan?

YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN IN JAPAN TOO LONG . . . , by Bill Mutranowski. Tuttle Publishing, 2003, 120 pp., $14.95 (paper). Many foreigners will tell you that if you plan to stay in Japan long term then "for sanity's sake, get out of the country at least six times a year!" It is one of those warnings that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 20, 2003

Get in touch with your inner Tarzan

It can be difficult to get my kids moving on weekends, but I knew just how to motivate them for an outing one Saturday. "Hey boys," I said. "Wanna go to a park where visitors fall into the water so often that they rent out spare clothes?"
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

NGOs renew call on ODA guidelines

A group of nongovernmental organizations has repeated its demand that the government review a draft guideline on official development assistance, saying the projects should be used to ensure the nation's security and prosperity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 2003

Here's your red hot mama, daddy

When the smoke cleared from the retro swing boom of the '90s, only a few bands remained. Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers was one of them. The swing bands resurrected an entire corpus of old-style dancing, slick dressing, and lyrics not heard in public for a half-century. While the posers...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 20, 2003

Making sure your fragrance fits

There is always something sensual about the scent of the opposite sex -- or more particularly, the aroma he's wearing. On the streets, I pass by a man and often find myself glancing back, not because I've been struck by his looks but because I've caught a faint whiff of his cologne. The intoxicating...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Koizumi backs Blair's decision to attack Iraq as 'courageous'

HAKONE, Kanagawa Pref. -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed Saturday with his British counterpart, Tony Blair, that there were justifiable grounds to launch the war against Iraq.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 20, 2003

Fighters add to Lions' misery

Angel Echevarria homered twice and Michihiro Ogasawara also went deep as the Nippon Ham Fighters won their third straight and sent the Seibu Lions to a season-worst fifth loss in a row in a 4-2 victory in the Pacific League on Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Summer suspense and nuclear intrigue

PROJECT KAISEI, by Michiro Naito. Indiana: 1stBooks Library, 2003, 321 pp., $19.95 (paper). THE INUGAMI CLAN, by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Yumiko Yamazaki. Tuttle Shokai Inc., 2003, 300 pp., $14.95 (paper). Unless the dire warnings of electric power shortages that were raised earlier this summer...
COMMUNITY
Jul 20, 2003

Being nasally challenged is nothing to be sniffed at

To be honest, I never gave much thought to noses, ne'er even my own, until my sense of smell departed.

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