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JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Funds raised by political bodies fall 3.2%

The amount of funds raised by political bodies in 2001 fell 3.2 percent from the previous year to 322.6 billion yen, according to Kyodo News calculations based on reports by the organizations, including political parties.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Industrial production fell 0.3% in October

Japan's industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in October from September for the second straight monthly decline, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Ruling parties to pull out of JNR accord

The three ruling parties said Friday they will withdraw from an agreement with the Social Democratic Party aimed at resolving a 16-year dispute between former workers of the defunct Japanese National Railways and Japan Railway group firms, coalition officials said.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

BOJ starts buying commercial banks' shareholdings

The Bank of Japan began buying shares held by banks Friday, taking on increased risk in a bid to help banks unwind cross-held shareholdings with borrowers.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Funeral of prince held at Tokyo cemetery

A funeral service for Prince Takamado, who died on Nov. 21, was held Friday at Toshimagaoka Cemetery in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward with members of the Imperial family and the political world, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in attendance.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Hatoyama considering resignation

DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama said Friday he will make a decision on whether to resign from his post by the end of the current extraordinary Diet session.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Court orders Hitachi to pay over worker's patent rights

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. to pay 34.89 million yen to a former employee as a reward for giving the firm patent rights to technology for reading information from optical discs such as DVDs.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Unemployment at 5.5%

Japan's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 5.5 percent in October after remaining at 5.4 percent for five straight months, matching the record high posted last December, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Law education bills enacted by Diet

The Diet on Friday enacted into law two bills aimed at improving the system for educating legal professionals.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Japan must play greater role: ASEAN poll

Japan is not contributing enough to the international community relative to its economic power, according to a Foreign Ministry public opinion survey carried out in Southeast Asia.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Princess Aiko nears first birthday

Princess Aiko, the first child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, will celebrate her first birthday Sunday.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Nissan hopes Micra compact will be a big hit in Europe

SUNDERLAND, England -- Nissan Motor Co.'s remodeled Micra compact car rolled off the assembly line here Friday with hopes it will help the carmaker further penetrate the competitive European market.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2002

A new law to help the abductees

The government is set to provide financial and other support for Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea and their family members who return to Japan. On Thursday the Lower House unanimously passed a special bill for this purpose, which is due to clear the Upper House next week and take effect Jan....
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Koizumi ponders changes to local corporate taxes

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday the government may allow local governments to tax corporations on the basis of business size rather than profits, and the rate could differ by region.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Fire on car-laden freighter doused

A fire aboard a car-carrying freighter aground on Izu-Oshima Island was extinguished Friday morning after blazing for about 76 hours, the Japan Coast Guard said.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Consumer price index slips 0.7%

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.7 percent in November from a year earlier for a record 38th straight month of year-on-year declines, the government said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Car-sharing gears up to find a foothold

SEIKA, Kyoto Pref. -- Sonoko Umemura, an official at the Kansai Economic Federation in Osaka, reserves a car by mobile phone when she travels to Kansai Science City so that she can drive to research centers scattered across an area not well served by the public transportation system.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 30, 2002

Teams line up to snatch Emperor's Cup

Seeking the honor of being Japan's No. 1 soccer club and a cash prize of 100 million yen, qualifiers from each prefecture and teams from the semi-pro Japan Football League will challenge J. League clubs in the upcoming Emperor's Cup.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2002

West Coast optimists say the sun also rises

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the only explanation for it is that there are two Americas. The East Coast America, with its dark cynicism and worldly seen-it-all sangfroid, sees Asia as mostly a problem and a threat. But West Coast America, soaking up its proximity to Asia and reveling in local Asian ethnicities...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Ministry to prop up sinking Kansai airport

To save debt-ridden Kansai International Airport Co., the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has drawn up a bailout plan to provide the semipublic airport operator with about 9 billion yen in subsidies a year and offer government guarantees on short-term bonds to be issued by the company.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2002

Opposition, come out please

LONDON -- Parliamentary institutions in Britain and Japan currently have one thing in common -- they lack an effective and credible opposition. The absence of opposition can allow governments with large majorities to ignore public opinion, at least in the short term, and behave in an autocratic way,...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Prosecutors want acquittal of HIV expert overturned

Prosecutors on Friday demanded that the Tokyo High Court overturn a lower court acquittal of a former vice president of Teikyo University in connection with the AIDS death of a male hemophiliac patient in 1991.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 30, 2002

WTA drops Princess Cup

The Toyota Princess Cup, one of three official tournaments played in Japan on the women's professional tennis circuit, has been dropped off the WTA Tour calendar for next year, Japanese tennis officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Panel wants less control over rice

The agricultural policy panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday called on the government to give farmers more freedom in running their paddies.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 30, 2002

Roaches with secret technology win war

I came home the other day and noticed someone had been eating my porridge. "Someone's been eating mine too," said my husband. "And there he is!" I got my shotgun and pointed it at the roach. Bam! He's gone now.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Billions in taxes misused: report

Government organizations and state-funded corporations improperly spent more than 24 billion yen in taxpayer money in fiscal 2001, the Board of Audit said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Government wants Jenkins to be treated in Japan

The government has demanded that North Korea send Charles Robert Jenkins, a former U.S. soldier married to a returned Japanese abductee, to Japan to treat his illness at a hospital here, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Katayama to tackle vote controversy

Home affairs minister Toranosuke Katayama pledged Friday to rectify an unconstitutional situation in which votes cast in elections on behalf of disabled people who are unable to write or go to the polls are not accepted.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 30, 2002

Representative office gives visitors hands-on approach to Yamanashi

The Yamanashi Prefectural Trade and Tourist Center in Tokyo's Minami-Azabu district is trying to offer more than just tasty delights and souvenir crafts.

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’