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BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Burgers to stay cheap but cheese will cost you

will end its discount campaign on cheeseburgers and "frankburger" hotdogs at most of its fast food outlets next week, company officials said Tuesday. In August, McDonald's cut the price of cheeseburgers to 79 yen and frankburgers to 75 yen, but beginning Monday, consumers will have to pay 120 yen for...
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Tokyo Gas in talks to purchase LNG from Sakhalin region of Russia

Tokyo Gas Co. is negotiating to purchase liquefied natural gas from a field being developed in Russia's Sakhalin region, company sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Side effects of influenza vaccines kill seven in two years

The side effects of influenza vaccines killed seven people in the two years through last March, and more than 80 people suffer from the adverse effects of such shots each year, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 5, 2003

The Lakatos Ensemble

Roby Lakatos was born into a Gypsy violin dynasty begun in the 18th century by Janos Binari, a man known as the "King of the Gypsy Violinists" and the "Hungarian Orpheus" to two of his admirers, Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven. Lakotas has recently applied those inherited traditions to the world...
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Sumitomo posts 24.4% profit rise

Sumitomo Corp. said Tuesday it chalked up a group net profit of 36.62 billion yen for the April-December period, up 24.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Revival body chief may be appointed by end of March

The head of the government-backed industrial revitalization corporation could be appointed by the end of March, industrial revival minister Sadakazu Tanigaki hinted Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 5, 2003

Roy Gaines: "Roy Gaines In the House"

Far from the smoky city clubs where electric blues grew up, some of the best blues is now heard at outdoor summer festivals. The Lucerne Blues Festival in Switzerland is one of the best, and German label CrossCut Records captured many intense sets of lesser-known but serious blues bands in the summer...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

No welcome mat for North Korea escapees

On a rainy night in fall 1996, a Japan-born tractor driver in North Korea dived into the fast and muddy current of the Yalu River on the border with China in a last-ditch attempt to escape the hunger and poverty that had plagued his family for decades.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Importing of pets set to get tougher

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is planning to restrict imports of wild animals to be owned as pets to prevent the spread of infectious diseases from animals to humans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 5, 2003

Fennesz

The Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz has made a name for himself in the rarefied worlds of ambient and avant-garde electronica with what could be called acoustic music, a preference that prompted one Japanese writer to describe his art as "laptop folk." Fennesz retains the clarity of his acoustic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2003

Artists in search of absolute painting

"We call together all young people and -- as young people who bear the future -- we want to acquire freedom for our hands and lives, against the well-established older forces. Everyone belongs to us who renders in an unfalsified way everything that compels him to be creative."
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Serial rapist sentenced to life term

OSAKA -- A 35-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for robbing 16 women and raping nine of them in Osaka between 1998 and 2001.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Japan seeks international talks on management of KEDO

Japan wants international talks on an energy project for North Korea because the U.S. has set no money aside for it for fiscal 2004 due to the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2003

Slip into Wonderland in a museum of marvels

The Koishikawa Annex of Tokyo University Museum is currently hosting an eye-catching exhibition, "Microcosmographia: Mark Dion's Chamber of Curiosities." The brainchild of New York-based contemporary artist Mark Dion, the show runs until March 2.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Gunze plans to liquidate sales unit

Apparel maker Gunze Ltd. said Tuesday it will liquidate its sales arm, Gunze Sales Inc., on March 31 as part of organizational changes at the parent firm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 5, 2003

From a guy to the King

Just what is the essence of Elvis Presley? The sideburns? That sneer? Those pelvic thrusts?
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Monetary base up 13.4% to 95.367 trillion yen

Japan's monetary base in January rose 13.4 percent from a year earlier to 95.367 trillion yen, up for the 24th straight month, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Obituary: Masami Yamazumi

Masami Yamazumi, a former president of Tokyo Metropolitan University and a longtime critic of Japan's education system, died of pneumonia Saturday, his family said. He was 72.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Sharp group net profit triples on year

Sharp Corp. said Tuesday that its group net profit during the October-December quarter logged a three-fold rise from the same period the previous year, hitting 13.97 billion yen.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

'Human shields' eye prewar Iraq trip

A citizens' group in Japan is planning a second visit to Iraq later this month in hope of blocking a threatened U.S.-led attack on the country by acting as "human shields," the group said, and some members may try to stay there until fighting erupts.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Monju plaintiffs urge end to appeal

Plaintiffs who won a high court decision to revoke the government's 1983 approval of the construction of the Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, urged the government Tuesday to abandon its appeal to the Supreme Court.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2003

Entity to give gambling winning spin

OSAKA -- The nation's first academic association specializing in the economic effects of gambling, including horse racing and pachinko, has been established in Osaka Prefecture.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Mitsubishi robot seen as family friend

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. unveiled a robot Tuesday that it claims will become a future house-sitter, caretaker, nurse and family friend.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’