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BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 22, 2002

Abe earns Giants 'sayonara' win

Shinnosuke Abe doubled home the winning run with a drive to the wall in center field to give the Yomiuri Giants a 2-1 "sayonara" win in 10 innings over the Yokohama BayStars at Tokyo Dome on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Green Cross chiefs' prison terms reduced

OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court on Wednesday reduced the sentences of two former presidents of the defunct Green Cross Corp., which sold HIV-tainted blood products in the 1980s, but rejected their appeal for suspended sentences.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Law grad opts for freelance reporting, not elite track

With an average monthly income of just 150,000 yen, Maiko Morimoto is the exception among graduates of the University of Tokyo's law department, which has turned out a slew of elite bureaucrats and lawyers.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Kyoei Mutual to choose Zenkyoren over Millea

Kyoei Mutual Fire & Marine Insurance Co. is expected to abandon its plans to merge with Millea Holdings Inc. in favor of operating under the wing of the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren), company officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Cash gone in suspected arson-murder

Police determined Wednesday that 6.5 million yen in cash is missing from two large safes at a financial futures dealer in Tokyo's Minato Ward where two men died in a suspected arson-murder Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Mizuho reveals interest-setting rules to corporate borrowers

Mizuho Bank has begun divulging its in-house interest-rate guidelines to corporate borrowers in the hope of persuading them to pay higher interest rates, Mizuho officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 22, 2002

Cyclists ride the wave of local crackdown

Japan's authorities never set out to make their communities bicycle friendly. Rather, history, climate and population density have contributed to making much of Japan a cyclist's dream.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Matsushita stalled on disclosure of DVD recorder defects

OSAKA -- Although Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. discovered defects in a new DVD recorder released on the market Aug. 1, it failed to issue an immediate announcement to the media, Matsushita officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Daiei unit gives up rights to Kanagawa monorail

Struggling retail giant Daiei Inc. said Wednesday its wholly owned unit has abandoned its rights to a closed monorail line in Kanagawa Prefecture that has not operated for 35 years.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2002

Seeking medical redress and keeping control of Spam

What a day we live in! I am writing this week's column from Los Angeles, where The Japan Helpline began in 1975 and where we have our U.S. offices. As usual, we had an emergency here!
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Sword-wielder gets to Ishihara's door

An unidentified man carrying two swords entered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building Wednesday morning and made it all the way to the seventh-floor office of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara before he was subdued by a guard, metro government officials said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

World Bank to push for effective aid use

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JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Takebe slams Nippon Ham punishments

OSAKA -- Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe on Wednesday blasted disciplinary measures taken by Nippon Meat Packers Inc. over a beef mislabeling scandal as "incomplete and incomprehensible to the public," as ministry officials searched the company's offices in Osaka and Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Tertiary industry activity declined in April-June period

Tertiary industry activity shrank 0.3 percent in the April-June period from the previous quarter, although the gauge of all-industry activity stayed positive thanks to brisk industrial output, the government said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Fusion eyes new IP phone service

Telecommunications operator Fusion Communications Corp. plans to begin a new Internet protocol-based telephone service that will minimize the use of switching equipment used by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., company officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 22, 2002

When violence isn't enough

You know how moths like to fly into lights and fires, or how whales beach themselves. How about lemmings . . . those adorable creatures that follow each other off cliffs? You wouldn't think the American video game industry would fall into that category, but it's looking that way.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Aug 22, 2002

Blooms to brighten summer's days -- and nights

Japan's floral symbol of summer, the asagao (morning glory; Ipomoea purpurea) is an interesting climber with beautiful blooms that has been cultivated on these islands for more than 1,000 years since being brought from China during the Nara Period (710-784). Before that, its origins are a matter of some...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2002

Time to change, or find another planet

First of two parts Next week, tens of thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, activists and policy analysts will descend on Johannesburg, South Africa, for the largest conference in human history: the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2002

Resolving the plight of southern Africa

Food shortages in southern Africa are reaching alarming proportions. The World Food Program, or WFP, says tens of millions of people in six countries -- Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho and Swaziland -- face starvation as a result of disastrous crop failures. The U.N. agency is calling for...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2002

Sustainable development groups too weak

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, or WSSD, begins at the end of August amid chaotic preparations and dire predictions of failure.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 21, 2002

Cabrera launches 40th homer, roars past Tuffy

Mitsutaka Goto pitched eight shutout innings and Alex Cabrera hit a Pacific League-leading 40th homer Tuesday, lifting the Seibu Lions to a 6-0 victory over the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

UNICEF envoy discusses Somalia with Kawaguchi

Actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, told Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Tuesday about her recent visit to Somalia and asked for Japan's continued support for UNICEF, Foreign Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

English school exec sees kids as growth market

English-conversation schools in Japan are facing a major business opportunity as demand for their services for children increases, according to a senior local official of a top chain of foreign-language schools.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

Governors split on national education role

Nearly half of the nation's governors see the need to rethink the current role of the national government in financing and controlling the compulsory education system, according to a recent Kyodo News survey.

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’