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JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Mie towns join national registry after holding out

Two Mie Prefecture towns that had vowed not to join the national resident registry network made an about-face Friday morning and connected to the system.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Aug 10, 2002

Japanese firms fight back against Chinese copies

A Panasonic CD player, Sony headphones, Toshiba batteries. An extensive array of well-known, Japanese-made products is displayed at an office in Beijing, giving the impression that they are designed to promote imports.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Ministry targets improved home security measures

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry is seeking to promote better home security, including stronger locks to deter break-ins and lights and alarms aimed at making neighborhoods safer.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Osaka kids to get cooler classrooms

OSAKA -- The Osaka prefectural board of education plans to install air conditioners in all regular classrooms at prefectural high schools beginning in fiscal 2004, it was learned Friday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2002

No cause to gloat over U.S.

LONDON -- Some Japanese company presidents and board chairmen have probably been laughing quietly to themselves over the scandals that have engulfed some large American companies from Enron to Xerox and WorldCom. After all the lectures they have heard from Americans about the superiority of American...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Seniors willing to pay more, rely on children less: poll

Elderly people are more willing to pay their own way rather than rely on their children or the social security system, but their financial worries are mounting, according to a Cabinet Office survey released Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Communities are offered cash to reduce pollution

The Environment Ministry plans to tackle global warming by paying community groups for their reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, ministry officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Record 7 million lost their jobs in 2001

About 7.01 million workers lost their jobs in 2001, marking the largest exodus ever, according to an annual report on employment released recently by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which started compiling relevant figures in 1991.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Japan Telecom to sell off part of engineering unit

Japan Telecom Holdings Co. said Friday it has agreed to sell off part of an engineering subsidiary to Australian-based construction and real estate company Bovis Lend Lease Corp. in an effort to concentrate on its core telecommunications business.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Former Foreign Minister Tanaka tenders Diet resignation

In a surprise move, former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Friday tendered her resignation to the House of Representatives in an apparent move to take responsibility for allegations that she misappropriated her secretaries' salaries.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Nakano to vie for leadership of DPJ

Kansei Nakano, a top-ranking member of the Democratic Party of Japan, officially announced Friday that he will run for head of the main opposition party next month, the eighth person to join the race.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Crime hits record high on Japan's mean streets

The number of criminal cases in the first half of this year hit a record 1,351,727, up 4.9 percent from a year earlier, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Cops search USJ; exec admits error

OSAKA -- Osaka police searched two Universal Studios Japan offices Friday in connection with the unauthorized use and storage of explosives at the Hollywood theme park.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Nippon Ham rating may be slashed

Moody's Investors Service Inc. said Friday it has placed Nippon Meat Packers Inc.'s A3 senior unsecured long-term debt rating under review for possible downgrade, following the mislabeling scandal at the meat processor's subsidiary, Nippon Food Inc.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Foreigners end six-month buying spree

Nonresident investors turned net sellers on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya bourses in July for the first time in six months, with a record number of stocks sold.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Bridgestone recovers from tire-recall debacle

Bridgestone Corp. said Friday it posted a consolidated net profit of 24.48 billion yen in the January-June period, marking a turnaround from the 30.57 billion yen loss it logged a year earlier.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Aug 10, 2002

Reformer Eiichi Shibusawa's ideals point way forward

With the country's economic problems continuing, and with people apparently at a loss over how to remedy the situation, Shibusawa Memorial Museum offers a hint to the path Japan should take by showcasing the starting point of its earlier era of modernization.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2002

Nippon Food Inc. Osaka unit raided

OSAKA -- Farm ministry officials on Friday searched Nippon Food Inc.'s Osaka unit, which was implicated in the defrauding of a state-run beef buyback program, ministry officials said.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Sapporo Breweries sees red

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. said Friday its group operating balance sank into the red in the January-June first half due to lower sales, higher expenses and tougher competition. The brewery's consolidated operating loss for the period came to 1.27 billion yen, a turnaround from a profit of 2.69 billion yen...
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Small, midsize firms to get better chance at state bailout

The land ministry plans to make applications of the industrial revitalization law easier for small and midsize construction companies, which are struggling due to cuts in public works spending, ministry officials said.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Business confidence surges as exports, production rise

Business confidence showed a dramatic quarter-on-quarter improvement in the April-June period due to a pickup in exports and production, according to a government report released Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

BOJ to keep monetary policy as is

Amid a worldwide slump in share prices, the Bank of Japan announced Friday it will keep its monetary policy unchanged, maintaining its wait-and-see attitude as it continues to pump excess funds into money markets.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2002

The danger of good intentions

HONOLULU -- After a year and a half of gradual improvement, relations between the United States and China appear to be taking a turn for the worse. Two recent U.S. reports sharply criticize U.S. policy toward China and have earned equally sharp criticism from Beijing in return. While we shouldn't overestimate...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 10, 2002

All about God, the gold sweat shirt guy

When I was a child, I believed God was a bald guy in a gold cotton sweat shirt with the letter "G," for God, on it. I still believe this. Only now, his sweat shirt is 50 percent polyester and 50 percent cotton, preshrunk. The gold color has faded and the "G" is wearing off , peeling in little specks...

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’