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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

'Mushiking' bug-contest arcade game a hit with kids, parents

Sega Corp.'s "Mushiking" ("The King of Beetles") arcade game is a hit with kids and their parents.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Forex reserves grow by $1.25 billion

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves in July grew by $1.25 billion from June to $819.2 billion, the second-highest on record, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Employee pension scheme suffers its first deficit

The employee pension scheme unexpectedly registered its first-ever deficit in fiscal 2003, which ended last March, forcing the Social Insurance Agency to tap reserves, the agency said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2004

Creating a more caring China

HONG KONG -- China under President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji astounded the world with its economic growth, reflected by a substantial increase in gross domestic product year after year. Yet the current leadership of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are making it clear that they have...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2004

High expectations await Lee Hsien Loong

SINGAPORE -- After nearly 14 years at the country's helm, Goh Chok Tong has announced that he will step down as Singapore's prime minister on Aug. 12. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will become the nation's third prime minister since it gained independence in 1965. It is believed that Goh will...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 7, 2004

Bon ancestor worship going to the dogs

It's almost Bon, the festival of the dead, a time when the spirits return to their ancestral homes. On our island, that's a lot of returnees. With the population dying off so rapidly, the ratio of spirits to living people is so great that at Bon, the living become a minority.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Hitachi, Matsushita eye LCD tieup

Hitachi Ltd. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are considering jointly manufacturing large liquid-crystal display panels for flat-screen televisions, officials of the two companies said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Sojitz moves to black

Debt-ridden trading house Sojitz Holdings Corp. reported an 9.8 billion yen net profit for the April-June quarter, reversing a loss of 721 million yen a year earlier.
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2004

Hanging out at Jellyfish for the holiday season

It is midmorning on Zushi beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, and all is well with Jellyfish, scented with new-cut wood and offering more than a hint of the elusive.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2004

Proposed emissions trading, carbon tax set to be hard sell

The introduction of an emissions trading system and a carbon tax would be effective in reducing Japan's greenhouse gas emissions, an Environment Ministry panel said in an interim report released Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Vodafone sees fall in subscription figures for July

Vodafone K.K. saw a net decrease of 3,100 subscriptions in July, becoming the first among the three major mobile phone carriers to report a net decline in subscriptions, according to data released Friday by an industry association.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 7, 2004

Tigers roar past Giants

Kentaro Sekimoto hit a two-run homer Friday to lead the Hanshin Tigers to a 9-4 win over the Yomiuri Giants.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 7, 2004

Eugenio Toussaint

In its straightforward Japanese transcription, "El Pez Dorado" uses the "kanji" characters for "fish" and "gold." "El Pez Dorado" is the name given to the most recently released CD of Eugenio Toussaint, a musician from Mexico. The CD includes piano pieces that have not been previously recorded, and which...
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2004

LNG can lighten California's energy load

WASHINGTON -- California, America's most populous state, risks tumbling into yet another energy crisis. The only answer is increased supplies, which require new investment -- including in facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2004

Asahi news reporter axed for breaching promise with secret source

The daily Asahi Shimbun has forced a 46-year-old reporter to leave the company for secretly recording a conversation with a news source and giving a copy of the recording to another source.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

State to stop civil servants' pay cuts

The government will stop cutting the basic salaries of civil servants in fiscal 2004, for the first time in six years, now that the gap has lessened between salaries in the public and private sectors.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Quarantine dogs to be sicced on undeclared meat products

Japan plans to introduce quarantine dogs at international airports to help detect undeclared meat products, which could be infected with mad cow disease or other ailments, government sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2004

Japan Post faces four-way split under compromise plan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's top policy panel unveiled plans Friday to split Japan's mammoth postal operations into four separate entities by 2017 at the latest.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2004

Daiei creditors to seek IRCJ help; Hawks may go

Daiei Inc.'s three main creditor banks are in the final stages of hammering out a plan to seek the help of the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan to rescue the embattled retailer, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2004

Jenkins meets with military lawyer for second day

Accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins met a U.S. military lawyer from South Korea for the second day Friday in Tokyo, government sources said, offering no details on how the talks progressed.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2004

DPJ loses another ploy to derail pension reforms

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted down an opposition camp no-confidence motion against Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi and a Democratic Party of Japan bill to repeal recently enacted pension reform legislation.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2004

Mayor seeks U.S. base housing tradeoff

Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakata told the Defense Agency on Thursday that he might accept construction of additional U.S. military housing units in Kanagawa Prefecture if the United States reduces the number to be built and returns more facilities to Japan.
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 6, 2004

Toda to stay

Shimizu S-Pulse said Thursday that former Japan midfielder Kazuyuki Toda will remain with the J. League first-division club at least until the end of this season.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji