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MORE SPORTS
Nov 27, 2002

Inoue to compete at Kanno-hai

Olympic champion Kosei Inoue will head a strong Japanese team at next year's Kanno-hai men's international judo meet, the All-Japan Judo Federation said Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Suntory to move staff to Shanghai

OSAKA -- Suntory Ltd., Japan's leading whiskey producer, will transfer part of its Asian operations from Tokyo to Shanghai on Dec. 1 to strengthen its marketing strategy in China, company officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Japan to host WTO ministers in February

Japan will host an informal World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Tokyo in mid-February, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Ginkgo leaf health products found to contain allergen

The National Consumer Affairs Center has found the allergen ginkgolic acid in 12 out of 20 health supplements sold in Japan that use ginkgo tree leaves as a key ingredient.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Top life insurers' results reveal inability to reverse their decline

The nation's major life insurance companies have had little success reversing a decline in business, while their capital remains under pressure by depressed share prices, according to half-year financial results posted by the firms by Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Sigur Ros: "Kid-A"

When listening to Icelandic postrock outfit Sigur Ros, it's easy to conjure up romantic images of their homeland: frosted clouds framing a cobalt sky, ice monoliths frozen stoically over ancient lava plains, muffled blasts of the geothermal powerhouse deep below. These postcard shots may have held no...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Cyro Baptista: "Beat the Donkey"

The outrageous percussion, dance and martial arts ensemble known as Beat the Donkey is the glorious creation of the Brazilian-born multi-instrumentalist Cyro Baptista. When not beating the donkey, Baptista is a hired gun for such luminaries as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Herbie Hancock and Trey Anastasio. He's...
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Soy sauce maker sees profit soar

Kikkoman Corp., Japan's largest soy source maker, said Tuesday that its group net profit for the first half of the business year jumped 40.5 percent to 3.62 billion yen from a year earlier, largely thanks to brisk sales in the U.S.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2002

Not the time to celebrate profits

At first glance, corporate earnings reports for the first half of fiscal 2002 seem too good to be true, given the continuing economic slump. On average, pretax profit surged nearly 40 percent in April through September from the same period a year earlier -- a dramatic reversal from the 40 percent decline...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Ministry punishes bureaucrats who helped rig Hokkaido bids

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry took disciplinary action Tuesday against Hokkaido Development Bureau officials for arranging for certain construction firms to rig bids in 1997 and 1998, including one company that allegedly offered bribes to Lower House member Muneo Suzuki in 1998.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Abductee support bill to be submitted

Senior members of the ruling and opposition parties agreed Tuesday to submit to the Diet new legislative measures to provide financial support to Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Snow Brand Milk to sell winery unit

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Tuesday it will sell its wine-making unit, Snow Brand Belleforet Winery, to major confectionery chain Chateraise for 400 million yen by the end of the year.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Sony to shut down audio operations at Indonesian unit

Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will stop manufacturing audio equipment at its Indonesian subsidiary by next March in line with efforts to restructure its plant operations in Southeast Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 2002

Groove Collective forged in the fires of a mad experiment

In the fall of 1995, I spent many nights in a dank basement club called the Cooler, a former refrigerated warehouse in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The neighborhood was raw -- the slaughterhouse smell of blood and death had coagulated in the cobblestones of Gansevoort Street and at night tall transvestite...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Officials discuss female Afghan teaching scheme

Visiting Afghan school officials met Tuesday with education minister Atsuko Toyama to discuss plans for a program to train female Afghan teachers.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Japanese envoys to gather in Dubai

Japanese ambassadors in the Middle East will meet in Dubai on Dec. 4 to discuss the situation in Iraq and how to rescue Japanese citizens there if it is attacked, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Stranded freighter catches fire

A freighter carrying 3,885 vehicles that ran aground Oct. 1 on Izu-Oshima Island in the Pacific, caught fire Tuesday morning and was billowing black and white smoke and leaking fuel, the Japan Coast Guard said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 27, 2002

Education for some refugees is ray of hope

The men in uniform white shirts and dark shorts sitting in the classroom looked too old to be junior high school students; some had gray hair, close-cropped.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Wonderful Parade 2002

Every year, the pholks at Philter Records, Japan's phearless purveyors of phoreign indie pop, bring a phleet of artists to these shores for a special showcase called Wonderful Parade. Last year, the pheatured artist was Of Montreal, which has nothing to do with Canada and everything to do with the Elephant...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Iranians held in undercover drug sting

An undercover police operation saw four Iranians arrested in Tokyo last month on suspicion of dealing drugs, police sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Impromptu Carey shoot prompts police warning

Police said Tuesday they have warned an official of a video production company for failing to obtain a permit for a video shoot with U.S. pop singer Mariah Carey in a busy part of Tokyo.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2002

Court victory bittersweet for daughter

The ruling was in line with what she believed happened to her father in a police interrogation room five years ago. The court also took into account almost all forensic evidence presented by her legal team.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Weather Report: "Live and Unreleased"

Most "live and unreleased" retrospectives contain tracks that were once wisely relegated to storage bins. While such recordings are often excavated for all the wrong reasons, Weather Report's "Live and Unreleased" is the exception. This 18-track, two-CD set is an excellent selection of the band's greatest...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 26, 2002

Duval puts personal stamp on golf in Japan

"He is an intense guy who is serious about his golf," I am briefed in a meeting held in a restaurant amid the spectacular setting of the Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort in Miyazaki. It is the morning of an exclusive interview with David Duval organized and set up by IMG Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Pokka to sell stake in U.S. unit

Soft-drink maker Pokka Corp. said it will sell all of its equity holdings in a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary to Coca-Cola Co. in December.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 26, 2002

Japan tries to reform refugee system

Japan has often been criticized for closing its doors to asylum seekers. Following the high-profile incident in May at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China, in which Japanese officials let Chinese police take a family of North Korean asylum seekers out of the compound, the government has...
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Isuzu posts 84 billion yen loss for first half

Ailing automaker Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Monday it posted a group net loss of 84.23 billion yen for the fiscal first half to Sept. 30, more than tripling its loss of 23.56 billion yen in the same period a year earlier, due to weak auto sales and hefty restructuring charges.

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’