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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2002

Abductees watch fate unfold through TV

Fuji TV, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun received unanimous disapprobation for their Oct. 25 interview with Kim Hye Gyong, the 15-year-old daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13 and is presumed dead. The three media companies apologized,...
JAPAN / Media
Nov 3, 2002

Vernacular Views

Philosophy Professor Kenji Tsuchiya of Ochanomizu Women's University has got a big problem, as related in his column in the weekly Shukan Bunshun.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 3, 2002

A special sauce that can travel anywhere

Not too long ago I had a chance to shrink a gap in cultural understanding. A regular customer had brought his young grandchild in to eat one afternoon, and he was eager to have the talkative boy engage me in conversation.
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Japan's hometown of jazz

Yokohama's love affair with jazz first blossomed when the West was Roarin' in the 1920s. Back then, ocean liners were bringing passengers and ships' bands from all over the world, and Japan's maritime gateway was a major port of call for steamers plying between the famed entertainment hubs of Shanghai...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 3, 2002

Oita gets promoted

SAITAMA -- Oita Trinita won promotion to J. League Division One at Omiya Soccer Stadium on Saturday, securing a top-two finish with a 1-0 win over Omiya Ardija thanks to a first-half winner through Iwao Yamane.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 3, 2002

Joy and pain falling in love again

"We're girls too nasty/We're girls too hot/We're punky girls so you can't stop us.'' Complete lyrics to Anadorei's 40-second-long "Girls Anthem"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

A pier without peer

The Yokohama International Passenger Terminal on Osanbashi Pier is slotted into a line of redevelopments along the waterfront -- a smorgasbord of ambitious architecture ranging from renovated century-old warehouses to the Blade Runner-esque towers of the Minato Mirai 21 complex.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 3, 2002

The many faces of Macao

MACAO, by Philippe Pons. Translated from the French by Sarah Adams. London: Reaktion Books, 2002. 135 pp. with 33 illustrations, £14.95 (paper) At the end of his splendid evocation of the city of Macao, Philippe Pons quotes a paragraph by journalist and novelist Italo Calvino about cities that "sometimes...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 3, 2002

Terror in our own backyard

A key phrase in my recent e-mail exchanges has been, "The world has gone crazy." The hostage drama in Moscow; the shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area; the bombing of two nightclubs in Bali; the Finnish teenager who blew up himself and six other people in a suburban shopping mall; the killing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 3, 2002

We'll have 'the usual'

Comme d'habitude. As any linguist knows, that's French for "as usual." As the name of a restaurant, it conjures up images of a run-of-the-mill bistro with standard-issue checkered tablecloths. But the name is both modest and misleading, because Comme d'habitude in Kami-Meguro stands head and shoulders...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2002

Bush's legacy of cynicism and contempt

U.S. President George W. Bush and his henchmen stole the presidency. They threw thousands of innocent people into prison without even charging them with a crime. They're gearing up to invade Iraq without bothering to come up with a substantial justification. Now some Democrats and progressive Americans...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Fraud victims plan to sue broadcasters over TV ads

Lawyers for victims of a massive fraud involving the G.O. investment group plan to sue two broadcasters for airing TV ads featuring the group's president, Genta Ogami, who is now under arrest.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Emergency bill includes stockpiling, requisitioning

A public protection bill now under consideration by the government would give prefectures the right to demand that businesses stockpile goods for rescue operations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Chiyoda Ward smokers start coughing up fines

A young man near JR Kanda Station on Friday became the first person to be fined under a smoking ban on some streets in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Tax income from firms, individuals declines 17.3%

Tax revenues in the first half of the fiscal year came to 13.03 trillion yen, down 17.3 percent from a year earlier, due to a decline in corporate and income tax revenues, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2002

Matsui, Cabrera named MVPs

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Hideki Matsui and Seibu Lions infielder Alex Cabrera, Japanese baseball's home run kings, were named the Most Valuable Players of the 2002 season.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Takenaka hopes bank rules will be drawn up this month

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday he hopes to specify the government's approach to changing accounting rules for calculating major banks' capital in a timetable to be drawn up in November.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

North Korea refused to allow reunion between abductees, family members

Pyongyang earlier this week refused to allow the families of the five surviving Japanese abductees now in Japan to leave North Korea and be reunited with them in a third country, as requested by Tokyo, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Report on Constitution released

A House of Representatives committee charged with reviewing the Constitution for possible amendment submitted an interim report Friday listing the outcome of its discussions.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Sony, NTT may join free phone plan

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BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

DoCoMo pushing to expand use of FOMA mobile service

NTT DoCoMo Inc. is pushing to expand its FOMA third-generation mobile phone services into medical and nursing care, construction and other business areas to compensate for sluggish demand in personal communications, company officials said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 2, 2002

Miyagi serves up a healthy bounty in Tokyo -- and it's not just 'natto'

Department store basements and chic organic food shops are not the only places to get natural products: Miyagi Prefecture's pilot shop in Tokyo, for people in the know, is a good health-food shop with reasonable prices.

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’