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BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2002

FSA plots mergers of regional banks

Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Tuesday the Financial Services Agency will soon unveil an interim report on steps to promote the realignment of regional financial institutions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 10, 2002

Skist: 'Ellipsis'

If the purpose of abstraction is to get as far away from representative forms as possible, then the ultimate abstraction is something that's totally unrecognizable as anything. In the 1950s, Abstract Impressionists went to such lengths to avoid even suggesting the use of paint that judgment of their...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Hibakusha criticize recognition system

Seventy-six people exposed to radiation in the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki filed applications en masse at seven prefectural governments and in Tokyo on Tuesday, asking to be recognized as sufferers of radiation sickness and calling for a more lenient recognition system.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2002

Air conditioner shipments to fall 10%

Domestic shipments of home-use air conditioners in the year through September are expected to fall about 10 percent from a year earlier to less than 7 million units for the first time in three years, industry officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jul 10, 2002

Dollar's weakening trend set to continue

The dollar's weak trend was corrected last week, with the currency bouncing back particularly against the euro.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Top court rejects city's bid to block pachinko parlor

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by the city of Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, seeking to stop construction of a pachinko parlor in an industrial zone.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Kid seats may be subject to recall

A House of Councilors committee endorsed on Tuesday a proposed legal revision that would include child seats as subject to recall for free repairs under the Road Trucking Vehicle Law.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 10, 2002

Summer sees ceramic talents in full bloom

Crunchy powerhouses of protein and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are much consumed in the West though their health benefits have never really been appreciated here in Japan. When it comes to pottery, we sometimes see himawari (sunflowers) painted on porcelains, but I've never come across a ceramic one complete...
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2002

Fewer people to vacation abroad

Some 2.48 million Japanese will go overseas for their summer vacation this year, down from 2.66 million in 2001 and marking the first decline in four years, the nation's largest travel agency predicted Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Asian trainees keep Kawaguchi's furnaces blasting

After a hard day's work at a blast furnace in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, Vietnamese trainees cheered as they watched a recent World Cup soccer match on TV.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 10, 2002

A card-carrying regular guy

One interesting aspect of Japanese meishi (name-card) etiquette is that entertainers never give them out. It took me a while to figure out that one. Several interviews with musicians I thought had begun inauspiciously when I handed the artist my meishi only to receive nothing in return.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Koizumi lashes out at old boys' network

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday urged stricter standards for appointing executives of public corporations, in an effort to curb the notorious practice of "amakudari," the hiring of retired bureaucrats as heads of those entities.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Koizumi backs India's self-restraint

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed support Tuesday for India's policy of self-restraint in its dispute over Kashmir with Pakistan, underlining Tokyo's concern about the tension between the two nuclear powers.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 10, 2002

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

All jazz groups ultimately descend from the brass band. The legendary Buddy Bolden, often credited with being the first true jazz musician to improvise freely, led the most popular brass band in New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century. A few years later, Louis Armstrong learned trumpet in a reformatory...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 10, 2002

Matsui nails 300th HR in losing cause

Eddy Diaz went 4-for-4 and connected for two home runs as the Hiroshima Carp spoiled Giants slugger Hideki Matsui's 300th career home run by downing Yomiuri 7-4 in Hiroshima on Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 10, 2002

Azure Ray: 'Burn and Shiver'

Somewhere between heartbreak and happiness lies a mist-shrouded land of limbo, where it's always raining softly and people stare pensively out windows, contemplating love and life over steaming cups of Earl Grey. Wherever this place is, it seems Azure Ray are permanent residents. On their new CD, "Burn...
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2002

Turmoil after Diet adjourns

The regular Diet session, which was extended in late June for 42 days through the end of July, is entering a critical period. Since it opened in January, the Diet has performed poorly, with a number of key bills still awaiting action.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 9, 2002

Kanemura goes the distance in Ham win

D.T. Cromer and Sherman Obando drove in all of Nippon Ham's runs and Satoru Kanemura went the distance as the Fighters defeated the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes 7-3 Monday night at the Tokyo Dome.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2002

Japan, EU focus talks on North Korea

Japan and the European Union agreed Monday to step up their cooperation in dealing with North Korea, the Middle East peace process and other international issues at their annual summit in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2002

A maverick among conservatives

In the hotly contested Nagano gubernatorial election held in October 2000, uncommitted voters gave a smashing victory to Mr. Yasuo Tanaka, a popular writer who is vehemently opposed to dam construction. On Friday, in a politically and emotionally charged climax to the running dispute between the governor...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2002

Howard's hesitation on ICC draws fire

SYDNEY -- A split in the Howard Cabinet ranks over whether to join the United States in refusing to support an International Criminal Court is the most serious threat yet to the dream run so far enjoyed by the Canberra government.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2002

Kawaguchi puts Pyongyang on agenda for talks in Seoul

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi hopes to visit South Korea this weekend to discuss a wide range of issues, including ways to deal with North Korea, ministry sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2002

BIS calls for honesty in banking policy

The Bank for International Settlements on Monday issued a dire warning to Japan over the shaky position of its banking system, urging the government to explain to taxpayers that their money could again be needed to clean up the problem-loan situation.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2002

Include farm goods in FTAs: Takebe

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe said Monday the country should not exclude the farm and fisheries sector when it negotiates free-trade agreements, ministry officials said.

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’