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LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 31, 2002

Encouraging kids to think for themselves

"Is it really OK for school to be this much fun?"
Japan Times
BUSINESS / THE WRITERS' SPIN
May 31, 2002

Keio professor applies soccer tactics to business

Watching World Cup soccer games may give corporate managers a good clue about productive organization. Shunsuke Takahashi, an expert on human resources management, said that in a "soccer style" organization, team members work autonomously and flexibly. Even defenders can take shots on goal.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2002

Cyclical upswing no time to relax reforms: Hayami

BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday that Japan should not relax its efforts to promote structural reforms and dispose of banks' nonperforming loans despite the recent economic uptick.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2002

Toshiba tips hand by raising stake in U.S. Audiovox unit

Electrical machinery maker Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it has raised its stake in U.S. wireless product distributor Audiovox Communications Corp. as a step toward expanding its mobile phone business in the North American market.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2002

Civil servants face reductions in salary, benefits

A Finance Ministry advisory panel has drafted a proposal for the fiscal 2003 budget that calls for curtailing the salaries of civil servants, as well as unemployment and other welfare benefits, panel sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2002

Chirac chooses neutral team

PARIS -- Not so long ago, a majority of the EU members had leftist governments. Most have since shifted to the right, starting with Spain followed by Austria, Portugal, Italy, Denmark and, on May 16, the Netherlands -- despite very low unemployment figures under the Socialist Cabinet.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Man nabbed in stolen car linked to land-transfer plot

OSAKA -- Osaka police said Wednesday they have arrested a man in Ishikawa Prefecture wanted on suspicion of forging public documents to help an acquaintance obtain the assets of a man who has gone missing.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 30, 2002

'Rami' plays hero for Swallows

Alex Ramirez arched a two-run homer into the right-field stands in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Yakult Swallows to a 2-1 "sayonara" triumph over the Yomiuri Giants on Wednesday evening at Jingu Stadium.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Personal data leaked on 3,500 Web-site users

Personal information on about 3,500 users of Web sites at two companies and a university has been leaked via the Internet, company and university sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Strong math, science skills boost salary: study

Bachelor of art graduates in Japan who are strong in mathematics and science tend to earn higher salaries than those who hate these subjects, a Kyoto University survey released Wednesday indicates.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Rokkasho is fusion-reactor candidate

Council for Science and Technology Policy on Wednesday formally selected the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, as the candidate site for an international experimental nuclear reactor.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2002

The only way to clear debt burden

Stock prices for Japan's top banks have been rising lately despite the huge deficits they have suffered in the business year that ended March 31. Increases in loan losses are good news in the sense that they reflect progress in bad-debt write-offs. In the same year, the nation's seven banking groups...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Corporate consolidation rises by 4.5%

Corporate consolidation in Japan rose 4.5 percent in fiscal 2001 due mainly to more frequent use of such new tools as equity swaps and transfers, the Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday.
SOCCER / World cup
May 30, 2002

Passion break

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan will hold a "Book Break" on Thursday, May 30, with Louis Chenaille, coauthor -- with Japan manager Philippe Troussier -- of the book "Passion."
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Morgan Stanley fund accused of tax evasion

A real-estate investment fund operated by the Morgan Stanley group of the U.S. allegedly failed to report 18 billion yen in Japanese income from the buying and selling of bad loans in 1999 and 2000, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Court overturns textbook ruling

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court decision and denied a university professor compensation for the government's screening of textbooks, which he said violated his constitutional freedom of expression.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Koizumi's office to be inspected over bomb threat

Police and security guards will conduct a special search of the Prime Minister's Official Residence in response to an e-mail threat that said explosives will be planted Thursday at the complex, government officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Osaka submits proposal for local special economic zone

OSAKA -- Local governments and business organizations in Osaka submitted a plan Wednesday to the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy regarding the creation of a local special economic zone, in line with a stimulus measure the panel is expected to propose.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Kyodo News photographed, videotaped asylum seekers

Kyodo News announced Wednesday that widely used photographs and videotape of the incident involving five North Koreans seeking asylum at a Japanese consulate in China earlier this month were taken by its reporters.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

American Express arm, Mitsui unit sign tieup

Mitsui Mutual Life Insurance Co. and American Express Financial Corp. said Wednesday they have signed a tieup in the asset management business for individual investors.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Aozora expresses fear over foreign investment

Softbank Corp. may sell part of its stake in Aozora Bank, raising the possibility of a tussle should a leading stake fall into foreign hands, Aozora Bank President Hiroshi Maruyama said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 30, 2002

The fuss-free way to get you and your stuff home

We were wondering how many inquiries would be coming in and we are all pleasantly surprised at how many we have. It is going to be a big job to reply to them all but that's what we are here for. Remember, we rely on you, the reader, to not only send in questions but help us with the answers. Please let...
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Two Afghan asylum seekers to be released

OSAKA -- Immigration authorities in Osaka said Wednesday they will temporarily release two Afghan asylum seekers from a detention house in the city of Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Shipments of DVD players up 93%

Domestic shipments of DVD players were up 92.6 percent in April from a year earlier to 185,000 units, posting a surge in the runup to the World Cup finals, an industry group said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CUP COUNTDOWN
May 30, 2002

Volunteers welcome Cup-goers

In and around the host cities of the World Cup soccer games, volunteers have been preparing in earnest to welcome spectators from abroad.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

NEC Infrontia to offer taxi IC card

Telecom equipment maker NEC Infrontia Corp. plans to try out a new integrated circuit card that allows taxi users to make payments and keep travel records, company officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Skymark Airlines to double operational scale

Skymark Airlines plans to double the scale of its operations by 2005, company officials said Wednesday.

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’