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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Apr 4, 2003

You win some, you lose some

Last Saturday I cooked behind the counter of my friend Kiyomi's small restaurant on the outskirts of Kyoto City. One of his good customers was having a birthday gathering and Kiyomi's mother, who typically helps out on days like this, was in the hospital with pneumonia.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

LDP unveils fundraising 'controls'

A Liberal Democratic Party panel unveiled a set of proposals Thursday that it claims will tighten controls on political fundraising, including setting a new 1.5 million yen limit on annual donations a party chapter can receive from a single corporation.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Ministry eyes foreign labor post

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will create a new position responsible for coordinating labor policy governing foreign workers, ministry officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2003

FSA to take action at banks that don't meet earnings goal

The Financial Services Agency is taking a step that will allow it to order changes in the top management of banks that do not meet earnings targets spelled out when they received taxpayers' money beginning in 1998, according to government sources.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Police more trigger-happy in 2002: NPA

Police officers brandished or fired their guns 54 times in 2002, well up from 26 the previous year and marking the highest number of such incidents in five years, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2003

Tokyo Electron looks to trim fat

Tokyo Electron Ltd., the country's largest manufacturer of chip-making equipment, said Thursday it will slash about 10 percent of its group workforce to weather bleak semiconductor demand.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2003

First over-the-counter sleeping pills hit stores amid barrage of inquiries

The country's first over-the-counter sleeping pills hit shelves Thursday, with their maker forecasting that the drug could meet its original sales target for the year within the first month.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Defense Agency to rotate Aegis ships

Another destroyer equipped with the Aegis air-defense system will probably be dispatched to the Indian Ocean to replace the one currently operating there, Defense Agency officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Racket in public places is fraying nerves

Sounds abound in Tokyo, from the blaring advertisements in busy shopping areas like Shinjuku to the stream of announcements on trains.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2003

Give China reason to pressure Pyongyang

WASHINGTON -- North Korea is a Potemkin country. When I visited, it had an airport without airplanes, roads without cars and streets without street signs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 4, 2003

Fusion dancer's grace and flavor

When you think of Australian cuisine do you first think "oxymoron," imagining barbecued kangaroo steak washed down with a swill of Foster's lager?
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2003

Kawaguchi to discuss Iraq in Britain

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will visit Britain next week to discuss reconstruction aid for postwar Iraq and may also visit Germany and France, Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2003

Expert in resuscitating ailing firms to head IRC

The government has nominated Kazuhiko Toyama -- known as an expert in turning around apparently hopeless businesses -- as chief operating officer of a state-backed corporation given the task of doing just that.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 3, 2003

Hsu goes the distance as Lions maul Orix

Hsu Ming-chieh (1-0) scattered three hits over the distance while fanning nine batters en route to his first win of the year as the Seibu Lions beat the Orix BlueWave 6-4 at Yahoo BB Stadium on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2003

BOJ hopes to blaze money trail to small firms

BOJ officials are working around the clock. Their mission: to carve out a new route money can take from the nation's banks to small businesses.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2003

am/pm to offer cheap parcel delivery

The am/pm Japan Co. convenience store chain plans to launch a full-fledged home parcel delivery service in Tokyo, company officials said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 3, 2003

Kobe's star power rising to new heights

NEW YORK -- It's official: We all want to be like Kobe.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2003

Kansai robots on march amid Astro Boy hoopla

OSAKA -- The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, is witnessing a surge in visitors ahead of the April 7 "birthday" of Astro Boy, the humanoid robot for which the late cartoonist is probably best known.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 3, 2003

Hagiwara set to miss World Championships

Japan's top female swimmer Tomoko Hagiwara is set to miss this year's World Swimming Championships in Barcelona after deciding to skip the upcoming nationals, swimming sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2003

Hope for English advocates in special zones

The public education system has long been criticized for its uniformity as well as, according to academics and business leaders, its inability to improve the overall English-language skills of the Japanese people.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 3, 2003

An egg's just a sniff away from the battling sperm

Not many of us have won a marathon . . . hell, most of us would struggle to even finish one. But even the least competitive, most couch potato-like among us are the result of winning the most difficult of races in the most appalling of conditions: the race between sperm in an ejaculate to fertilize a...

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