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JAPAN
May 17, 2002

73% use Net at work for nonwork

Some 73 percent of Japanese workers have used the Internet for personal purposes in the workplace, according to a recent survey by research firm Macromill Inc. The survey shows only 27.5 percent of the respondents said they have never used the Internet for personal reasons at work.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 17, 2002

Swallows blank Giants

A solo home run from Akinori Iwamura was all Yakult needed as the Swallows shut down the Yomiuri Giants' powerful offense with a 1-0 victory Thursday night at the Tokyo Dome.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2002

Japan at its inconsistent worst

Japan's overheated reaction to the May 8 North Korean refugee incident at the Japanese consulate-general in Shenyang, northeast China, is worrying.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Trading house Nissho Iwai's net profits plunge 94%

Trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. said Thursday that its group net profit plunged 94.1 percent to 1.18 billion yen in the year to March 31, due chiefly to a 28 billion yen cut in interest income and a string of special losses.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

DIC paid 308 billion yen for bad loans from Shinsei, Aozora

The Deposit Insurance Corp. bought 113 bad loans worth 444.4 billion yen from Shinsei Bank between August and the end of March at a cost of 286.9 billion yen, the Financial Services Agency revealed Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHALE WATCHING
May 17, 2002

Ecotoxicologist warns of pollutants hurting whales, dolphins, humans

While whaling experts and negotiators debate the future of whaling, some specialists worry that whale health and the safety of whale meat are not getting enough attention.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Nissin logs 21.5% fall in net profits

Nissin Food Products Co. said Thursday it posted a group net profit of 11.94 billion yen in fiscal 2001, down 21.5 percent from a year earlier due to appraisal losses on its securities holdings and growing sales costs.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

JR Tokai says revenues up 2.5%

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said Thursday its consolidated operating revenues grew 2.5 percent to 1.37 trillion yen in fiscal 2001, due to increased traffic on its Tokaido Shinkansen Line bullet train services.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Diplomats to be held 10 more days

Veteran Russian affairs expert Masaru Sato and fellow Foreign Ministry employee Akira Maejima, under arrest on suspicion of misusing ministry funds, will be kept in detention until May 25, the Tokyo District Court said Thursday.
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
May 17, 2002

School taps into popularity of jobs at U.S. facilities

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Growing up near Kadena Air Base and witnessing the rough antics of American soldiers, Yasuhiko Toyozato could be forgiven if he harbored negative feelings toward U.S. forces here.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Foreign companies slightly optimistic, survey shows

Most foreign companies in Japan expect business confidence to remain flat over the next six months, although there are signs of improvement on the horizon, according to a joint survey recently released by foreign chambers of commerce.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Unimat chief tops taxpayer list in 2001

Yoji Takahashi, head of the Unimat group, which operates major office coffee vendor Unimat Offisco Corp., was Japan's top individual taxpayer last year, according to a report listing the nation's top 100 taxpayers in 2001, released Thursday by the National Tax Agency.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

New auto industry chief to steer Japan toward cleaner technologies

The new chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday he will work to promote fuel cells and other technologies less harmful to the environment than the combustion engine.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Prosecutors give Kato a break

Prosecutors are unlikely to establish a tax-evasion case against Koichi Kato, a former Liberal Democratic Party power broker, because they don't believe he had any malicious intent, sources close to the case said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Corporate failures rack up 1.48 trillion yen in liabilities

Liabilities left in the wake of corporate failures surged to 1.48 trillion yen in April, marking a year-on-year rise of 21.8 percent, credit research institute Teikoku Databank said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
May 17, 2002

Dinosaurs walking the earth once more

A full-length model of the skeletal structure of the seismosaurus will make its world debut at "The Greatest Dinosaur Expo 2002" to be held this summer at Makuhari Messe in Chiba.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2002

Rude awakening for East Timor

JAKARTA -- The world's youngest democracy will have to stand on its own feet from Sunday. On this day East Timor will become the first newly independent nation of the 21st century. After more than 400 years of colonial rule by Portugal, 25 years of Indonesian occupation and over two years under U.N....
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

U.S.-Japan steel talks going down to the wire

Tokyo will tell the World Trade Organization on Friday that it intends to levy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel imports worth $4.88 million, according to an official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 17, 2002

Long-armed shrimp

* Japanese name: Tenaga-ebi * Scientific name: Macrobrachium nipponese * Description: Long-armed shrimp are accurately named. They are crustaceans in the family that includes lobsters and crabs, all of which have 10 pairs of legs. In the long-armed shrimp, the first five pairs are the walking legs,...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2002

We're all narrow-minded

It's a commonly held belief that we lose brain cells as we age. But, in fact, although our brains may not work as well when we get older -- learning becomes harder, memories fuzzier -- the number of cells they contain remains the same, about 28 billion. Scientists think the real problem is that the myelin...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Contractor focuses on middle-aged hires

A small contractor in Yokohama is challenging the country's rigid labor market with an unusual strategy -- recruiting the middle-aged.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
May 17, 2002

Osaka homeless fear evictions

OSAKA -- For Kazutoshi Nishimura, a 61-year-old homeless man who, in his own words, is retired and living on a park bench near Nagai Park, the approach of the World Cup soccer finals in June is a case of deja vu.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
May 17, 2002

Skepticism abounds over market direction

Despite signs of economic recovery, doubts remain over the Tokyo stock market's prospects.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Japan dismisses credit ratings

Yasuo Fukuda, the top government spokesman, said Thursday that credit-rating agencies such as Moody's Investors Service Inc. have underestimated Japan's economic strength.

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’