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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Relatives demand details on abductees, rap Koizumi

The families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea met for the first time with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday and demanded that the government confirm the information from the Stalinist state regarding the fates of the missing people.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Safety agency wants standards for allowable reactor defects

Voluntary inspections by nuclear plant operators should be regulated and standards introduced for allowable defects to prevent further coverups of structural faults like the scandal now rocking the industry, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Marubeni, MHI win generator order

Marubeni Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. have jointly won a 6 billion yen contract to build a power generator for major Brazilian ironworks Companhia Siderurgica de Tubarao, the trading house said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Japan may be spared G7 wrath

For once, Japan may not be singled out for lagging behind when finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven economic powers get together Friday to discuss global trends.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Obituary: Hiromasa Seki

Hiromasa Seki, honorary chairman of Hakuhodo Inc., died of heart failure at his home in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 18, the company said. He was 98.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

FTC clips ANA's wings with warning over cuts to Kyushu flight fares

Faced with a warning from the Fair Trade Commission, All Nippon Airways Co. said Thursday that it will withdraw its plans to offer new discount fares for flights between Tokyo and the three Kyushu airports of Fukuoka, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Mitsui execs take pay cuts over scandals

Shoei Utsuda, who is to become the new president of Mitsui & Co. next week, said Thursday he and seven other senior executives will go without part of their pay for three months to take responsibility for a series of scandals that have rocked the major trading house.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Canada program offers help to isolated parents

A group of child-care experts is offering help to mothers in Japan via a Canadian parent-education program aimed at building self-esteem and creating a supportive network of friends, families and experts.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Signs of export-led recovery fading amid uncertainty

Recent signs of economic recovery have begun to fade in some areas of Japan as uncertainty mounts over the export-driven pickup, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday in a quarterly report.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 27, 2002

Outlook grim for Sunderland's Reid

LONDON -- If the grapevine is to be believed, Sunderland manager Peter Reid will be fired should his team lose to Aston Villa on Saturday, making the former England midfielder the ignominious winner of the Premiership sack race.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Private-sector salaries decline for fourth year

The average annual salary for workers in the private sector was 4.54 million yen last year, posting a decline for the fourth consecutive year, the National Tax Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Banks may get another injection of state funds

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday the government is studying "every possible step" that would help banks accelerate bad-loan disposal -- an indication the government is thinking of injecting them with a fresh tranche of public funds to avert a potential crisis.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2002

Mr. Schroeder's postelection dilemma

Germany's center-left ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens won a narrow victory in Sunday's parliamentary election, bucking the rightist trend in France and elsewhere in western Europe. It was also a Pyrrhic victory earned at the expense of the German-American relationship....
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Seniors' Net clubs give elderly way to reach out, enhance life

With more than 40 percent of Japanese now using the Internet, an increasing number of elderly people have found a new way of enjoying life by opening their own home pages or establishing Net clubs for seniors.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Cops to search Nippon Food sales offices

OSAKA -- Police in Hyogo, Ehime and Tokushima prefectures plan to search three sales offices of Nippon Food Inc. and related locations next week in connection with their investigation into a beef-mislabeling scam, police sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Arimoto may have written her last letter under duress

A letter from Keiko Arimoto to her parents sent from Copenhagen in 1983 suggests she may have been forced to write it, and it was not posted until after she was abducted to North Korea, police sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Container security plan gets go-ahead

Japan and the United States agreed Thursday to launch a pilot project to mutually dispatch customs officials to prevent bombs and other dangerous items from being shipped to their countries in cargo containers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 27, 2002

Moon jellyfish

* Japanese name: Mizukurage * Scientific name: Aurelia aurita * Description: Moon jellyfish are soft-bodied, transparent animals that swim by gently undulating their bell-shaped bodies. They range in size from 5 cm to 40 cm in diameter. Unlike what you may have expected, size is not an indication of...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Sep 27, 2002

It really is sink or swim in Japanese schools

Life is never dull when your children attend local school in a foreign country. My kids have been in Japanese school for two years, but things still catch me by surprise. My daily thrill, if you can call it that, is reviewing the stacks of purinto (handouts) from the school. I never know quite what I'm...
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

MMC issues recall of minivehicles

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Thursday it will recall 164,514 minivehicles to fix two manual transmission defects.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Matsushita, Toshiba in CRT venture

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toshiba Corp. said Thursday they have agreed to consolidate their cathode ray tube business into a single joint venture.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Center caters to Japanese seeking to study abroad

Planning to study abroad but don't know which country or school to pick? Dreaming of overseas study but hesitant about quitting a job to do so?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 27, 2002

Plenty of reasons to enjoy the predictable pleasures of fall

The Japanese have long described themselves as people who value the solidity of sameness. Anyone who has ever seen "Mito Komon" on TV will know what this means: the same dialogue, the same roles and the same big sword fight exactly 45 minutes into the program, all going on for many decades to general...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Plaintiffs in gold swindle suit lose appeal at Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by senior citizen investors suing the government for damages over its failure to prevent the now-defunct Toyota Trading Corp. from waging a nationwide gold sales scam in the 1980s.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Abductees' kin, supporters call for results

The families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea and Diet members working to help them reaffirmed Thursday their demand that the government take a firm stance on the issue.

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’