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BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

U.S. rice industry to expand sales network in Japan

An association of rice producers and related businesses in the United States said Wednesday it plans to increase the number of retailers selling U.S. rice in Japan.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

Rengo exec to be named member of U.N. agency

An executive of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation will become a member of the executive council of the U.N. labor agency, becoming the seventh person to assume such a post, industry sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

Itochu plans management reshuffle

Itochu Corp. plans to promote its managing director, Eizo Kobayashi, to the position of president April 1, sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 4, 2004

Pottering in a paradise too easily lost

Whenever I get the chance I like to spend time in Okinawa, which is where I am writing this. As I said to my long-suffering editor, who is getting this article in longhand, I am here to work on the first draft of a novel in Japanese, so I sit at a table loaded with books and dictionaries, a big window...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2004

Base foes dismayed by Kadena's likely longevity

Last of three parts
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 4, 2004

New Akutagawa winners offer hope

It's been amazing to experience all the excitement surrounding the latest winners of the Akutagawa Prize, a famous literary prize awarded twice a year to promising, new authors. While TV cameras and photographers crammed Tokyo Kaikan, newspapers and magazines wrote breathless descriptions of what the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

Cut-price Bentley coupe to be launched in Japan

A cut-price coupe of the British luxury brand Bentley will be launched in Japan, possibly in May, Bentley Motors Japan Vice President Tim Mackinlay said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 4, 2004

China shines as host at arduous standoff

HONG KONG -- The second round of the six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear weapons program went off relatively well even though there was no breakthrough. While the United States and North Korea may not agree on much, both agreed that China had done an excellent job as host and mediator....
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2004

DoCoMo ready to sell Hutchison stake

NTT DoCoMo Inc. is close to agreeing on the sale of its 20 percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s third-generation mobile phone business in Britain, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2004

Coalition readies bill to bar North Korea ships

The two ruling parties agreed at an executive meeting Wednesday to seek passage during the current Diet session of a bill aimed at giving Japan another tool to impose economic sanctions unilaterally on North Korea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Girls just wanna kill men

Fukuro Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kaneto Shindo Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kaneto Shindo thoroughly deserves the title of Grand Old Man of Japanese movies. Now 92, he has been a scriptwriter and director...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Weir's far from all at sea

Russell Crowe never made it to the press conference for "Master and Commander," apparently due to an injury suffered on the set of his current film. On the plus side, the usual slack-jawed celeb-oglers were nowhere to be found and a number of interesting questions were put to director Peter Weir, himself...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Hard to the theater, landlubbers

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Peter Weir Running time: 135 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] In these days of cinematic sensitivity, men just aren't afforded the opportunity to run the...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

DPJ lawmaker denies taking aide's pay

A senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan denied Tuesday he registered as his publicly paid secretary a woman who did not work for his office.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Once upon a time he made a good film

Once upon a time in Mexico Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Opens March 6 [See Japan Times movie listings] Robert Rodriguez is one of those directors who shot to fame in the early '90s, a fabled time when the words "independent...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Cabinet OKs reform package boasting lay judges

The Cabinet approved a package of bills Tuesday designed to revamp the judicial system, including a bill that would introduce a quasi-jury system under which randomly selected citizens would sit on the bench for criminal trials.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Discriminatory registry of child upheld

The Tokyo District Court said Tuesday that the way the daughter of an unmarried couple has been registered in their family registry infringed on their privacy because it clearly shows she was born out of wedlock.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

22% say foreigners' rights secondary to locals'

Foreigners in Japan should not expect to have the same human rights protections here as Japanese, 21.8 percent of respondents in a fiscal 2002 survey said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Tokyo venture plans to market humanoid robots

A venture business in Tokyo said Tuesday it will market at the end of 2004 a doll-size humanoid robot for roughly 500,000 yen as one of the first humanoid robots to be offered to general consumers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

Edo craftsmanship in full flower

Located in Kitanomaru Park, a famous cherry blossom viewing spot in Kudanshita, central Tokyo, is the National Museum of Modern Art's Crafts Gallery. It seems appropriate that during the flowering seasons of ume (plum) and cherry the gallery should be hosting a show titled "Flower Design." The exhibition,...
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

DBJ creates infrastructure fund

The governmental Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday it has established an infrastructure investment fund with Australia's Macquarie Bank that is the first of its kind in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

Realist master on the prowl

Photographs capture the moment -- a second in time frozen on film. And yet, unless you're a Magnum hotshot, this most "real" of media can produce images that seem lifeless, flat and unmoving. As all visual artists know, portraying three-dimensional figures in a two-dimensional medium is extremely difficult....

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.