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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 27, 2002

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," "Jake's Tower"

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 288 pp. The risk with sequels is that they don't always live up to the expectations generated by the first book. But this story is clearly an exception.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

North Korea willing to reveal all about abductees: Foreign Ministry

North Korea has expressed readiness to disclose all information regarding the Japanese it abducted, including information on the cause of death of eight of them, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2002

Honda may file appeal on ruling on scooter patent

Honda Motor Co. may file an appeal against a Chinese court ruling Wednesday that rejected Honda's request that Beijing's patent office reinstate a patent on a motor scooter design, Honda officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 26, 2002

Arcane rule kept 'Alex' from playing in Premier League

"A player must have played for his country in at least 75 percent of competitive 'A' team matches he was available for selection for, during the two years preceding the date of the application." (Law regarding work permit arrangements for non-European Economic Area soccer players).
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Sales at supermarkets drop 0.9%

Sales at supermarkets fell 0.9 percent on a same-store basis in August from a year earlier to 1.195 trillion yen for the second straight monthly drop, the Japan Chain Stores Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Abductee data provided before summit

Pyongyang gave Foreign Ministry officials information on the fate of the abducted Japanese before the Sept. 17 summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Member of JAL hijacking suspected in abduction

Police obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday for one of the nine Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 on suspicion of abducting a Japanese woman in 1983, police officials said.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Lone maker may emerge from latest chip talks

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has launched talks to sell its dynamic random access memory chip operations to NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Kin of other missing people now demand abduction probes

As details about the fate of more than a dozen Japanese abducted to North Korea trickle in, relatives of many others who vanished in the 1970s and '80s say they want these disappearances re-examined to determine if their kin were also spirited away by Pyongyang agents.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Japan Atomic Power hid cracks

Japan Atomic Power Co. kept running a nuclear reactor in Fukui Prefecture without reporting to the government that it had detected cracks in the core's shroud, company sources said Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 26, 2002

Tigers rally for second straight victory over hung over Giants

Osamu Hamanaka drove home the go-ahead run with a two-run triple and Kei Igawa got his first win since July 30 as the Hanshin Tigers rallied to beat the Yomiuri Giants 3-2 for the second straight night on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Sep 26, 2002

Ailing tourism sector seeking to lure more Asians

ATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Ryuichiro Mori, sales manager at Hotel New Akao, sees one emerging ray of hope for this hot-spring city mired in a long-term slump: a group tourism boom in Taiwan, South Korea and China.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

'Nursing taxis' popular but status shaky

As taxi driver Hirohisa Mitsuda washes his vehicle prior to a day's work, he tries to make sure the windows are spotless because his passengers hardly ever get to enjoy the outdoors.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002

It's not the economy, stupid!

Gerhard Schroeder will remain the German Chancellor after Germany's recent elections, but his majority in Parliament has become extremely narrow. His Social Democrats (SPD) got 38.5 percent of the vote, and so did the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) of his rival, Edmund Stoiber. The main reason Schroeder...
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Fact-finding mission to track abductees in North Korea

The government will send a fact-finding mission to North Korea for four days beginning Saturday to gather information on Japanese nationals abducted to the Stalinist state.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Publisher to be fined over tax dodge

Shiki Publishing Inc. failed to declare about 290 million yen in income over a three-year period to April 2001 and dodged some 90 million yen in corporate taxes, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Sanyo unit sues BYD over patent

Corp., an arm of Sanyo Electric Co., has filed a lawsuit against Chinese firm BYD Co., accusing the company of infringing on patented battery technology, Sanyo Electric said Wednesday. The lawsuit, also directed at the Chinese firm's U.S. arm, BYD America Corp., was filed at the U.S. federal district...
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Sakura Friend, Meiko National plan merger

Sakura Friend Securities Co. and Meiko National Securities Co. plan to merge in a bid to boost cost effectiveness amid continuing stock market woes, officials of the midsize securities firms said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Extra Diet session eyed in October

Secretaries general of the three ruling parties agreed Wednesday that an extraordinary Diet session should be convened either Oct. 18 or Oct. 21 and run through the middle of December.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Noda rejects offer of DPJ policy post

Yoshihiko Noda, a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker who ran in this week's party leadership race representing young DPJ legislators, rejected Wednesday an offer from party leader Yukio Hatoyama to assume the post of policy chief.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2002

Limited voting rights for foreigners

OSAKA -- Foreigners with permanent resident status will get to vote in a plebiscite approved Wednesday by the Takaishi Municipal Assembly in Osaka Prefecture on whether the municipality should merge with the neighboring city of Sakai.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi see acceleration in overseas output

Four of Japan's five major automakers hiked overseas output in August from a year earlier, with Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. booking double-digit growth, according to data released Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002

A sustainable recovery for developing Asia?

The strong global recovery that was widely expected to take place in the latter half of 2002 has not materialized. On the contrary, increasing uncertainties are undermining the confidence of consumers and investors worldwide, and the speed of economic recovery in the industrialized world is likely to...

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’