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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

Postal authorities hope to tap print club revival

Instant photo sticker machines such as the "print club" booths seen in video game arcades, supermarkets and train stations a few years back are again the rage, prompting postal authorities to ponder the potential profits of allowing such photos as personalized stamps.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

NTT units plot 'wangiri' crackdown

NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. plan to stiffen the terms of their telephone service contracts to prevent phone callback scams known as "wangiri" from paralyzing their networks, company officials said Thursday.
LIFE / Language
Aug 2, 2002

Marrying your sweetheart and moving in with his mom

On the day I married my husband, I married his family, too. I moved next door to my in-laws on the family plot in Tokyo. Now, I live there with my husband and daughter; my parents-in-law; my husband's uncle, aunt and their three daughters; two dogs; a cat; and a goldfish named Mikey.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

Kid finds parents stabbed to death

OSAKA -- A couple were found stabbed to death in their Osaka apartment Thursday after their 5-year-old son called for an ambulance, local police said, speculating that the case may be rooted in a domestic dispute. They were identified as Hisashi Yoshida, 34, and his wife, Chiaki, 33.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

New car, truck, bus sales off 5.8% for July

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses in July fell 5.8 percent from the same month in 2001 to 367,902 units, marking the 11th consecutive month of decline, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

Telecom panel tells NTT to slash network fee

An advisory panel to the telecommunications minister called Thursday for an 8.2 percent reduction to the interconnection fee that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. charges other carriers to access its phone lines.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

Disclaimers cause waves in scuba business

Recreational scuba divers in Japan are subject to a long-standing, and contentious, industry policy -- signing a waiver to accept all responsibility for whatever happens when they take the plunge.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Aug 2, 2002

Individual players set to rule market

Tokyo stocks in July felt the brunt of the shock waves that hit the New York market and the Nikkei average fell below 10,000, a level long considered solid.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

Sumitomo ties with Shinkin Central

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. has tied up with Shinkin Central Bank, an industry body grouping 343 "shinkin" small savings banks, to enable its policyholders to take out loans from automated teller machines at most of the member shinkin banks, Sumitomo Life officials said.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

Police search office of nuclear agency worker

Police on Thursday morning searched the office of a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency employee who was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of taking bribes.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

Recent yen intervention cost 3.8 trillion yen

A series of currency market interventions Japanese monetary authorities conducted from May to June to stem the yen's appreciation cost the government around 3.8 trillion yen, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

North Korean agent sought in abduction

Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant Thursday for a North Korean agent who is suspected of acquiring a Japanese passport by pretending to be an Osaka man he abducted and spirited away to North Korea in 1980, police sources said.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

Koizumi, ministers unite on austerity

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed Thursday with his key economic ministers to compile an austere budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in April 2003, ministers said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2002

USJ struggles to save image from 'sophomore jinx'

OSAKA -- The Universal Studios Japan theme park, which drew 11 million people in the first 12 months after it opened in March 2001, is having a bad second year as it struggles to regain public trust following a series of management blunders.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

TDK posts 79% surge in net profits

TDK Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in the April-June quarter was up 79 percent from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2002

Sumitomo net profits jump 20%

Trading house Sumitomo Corp. said Thursday its group posted net profits of 10.31 billion yen in the April-June quarter, up 20 percent from a year earlier.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Aug 2, 2002

School trips help cut the apron strings

My son is leaving home. I've always known, of course, that the day would come when he'd strike out on his own. But I never imagined it would happen when he was only 11 years old. Or that he'd make his big break to a mountain in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2002

What matters for Nago airport

Japan is set to build an offshore airport for U.S. military and Japanese commercial planes in Nago City, northern Okinawa, almost six years after Tokyo and Washington agreed to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City, central Okinawa. On Monday, the central government and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2002

A marine's lessons for Europe

WASHINGTON -- As expected, it has just been announced that U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Jones will soon take the reins as NATO's top military leader, otherwise known as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, or SACEUR. It will be the first time that a marine officer holds that position, which has...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 1, 2002

Giants slay Dragons as Matsui cleans up

Hideki Matsui belted his 25th and 26th homers and Hisanori Takahashi went the distance as the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants crushed the Chunichi Dragons 10-2 Wednesday night at the Tokyo Dome.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2002

Alliance planning to digitize Beijing museum exhibits

Toppan Printing Co. has teamed up with the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City in an effort to digitize images of the museum's exhibits, according to organizers who unveiled the project at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 1, 2002

'Rami' has Swallows fans squealing with delight

Call him the Shigeki Maruyama of Japanese baseball, with a little Tony Robbins thrown in for good measure.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2002

Women desire 'doll-like' eyes: Kanebo

Most Japanese women, regardless of age, desire bright eyes with lashes rolled up like those of dolls, according to a survey by cosmetics firm Kanebo Ltd.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2002

Teikyo violated donation ban, will have to return subsidies

The education ministry has determined that Teikyo University violated a government ban on donations from preadmission students and will demand that it return more than 8 billion yen in subsidies, ministry sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Aug 1, 2002

Time for Japan to face up to AIDS threat

KOBE -- For many Japanese, AIDS has long been regarded as someone else's problem.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2002

USJ checked for excessive explosives

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police inspected the Hollywood movie theme park Universal Studios Japan on Wednesday over the possible excessive use of explosives.

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’