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Japan Times
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Condom makers jazz up contraception

The country's 60 billion yen condom industry has taken the offensive lately in a withering market, promoting a batch of new products designed to woo youths who are increasingly sexually active but reluctant to use protection.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2002

Splintered blocs in Malaysia unite on draconian law

SINGAPORE -- Malaysia's disparate opposition groups have launched a new campaign against a draconian security law in an attempt to prevent Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from further splitting their ranks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Man held for allegedly using mace in train

A 23-year-old university student was arrested Thursday in Tokyo for allegedly using a self-defense spray in a packed train, leaving several other commuters slightly injured, police said.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Cabinet Office launches China study

The Economic and Social Research Institute, a research arm of the Cabinet Office, said Thursday it has set up a study group on China.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Secom reports 73% dive in profit

Security-service provider Secom Co. said Thursday it posted a group net profit of 9.58 billion yen in the year to March 31, down 73 percent from the year before.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Officials blast transplant system as burdensome

Officials at all but one of the 18 medical centers where brain-death tests have been conducted for transplants feel that organ donations from brain-dead donors are burdensome, health ministry officials said Thursday, citing a study.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Nissan eyes big global sales boost

Nissan Motor Co. chief Carlos Ghosn announced Thursday the carmaker will add 1 million units to its global sales by the end of the 2004 business year by launching at least 28 new models worldwide.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Forex reserves hit $406.7 billion

Japan's foreign exchange reserves at the end of April were up $5.18 billion from a month earlier to a record $406.7 billion, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
SUMO
May 10, 2002

Takanohana pulls out of basho

Yokozuna Takanohana has withdrawn from the upcoming Summer Grand Sumo Tournament after failing to shake off a long-term knee injury, officials of the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

More shares bought on credit

The balance of shares bought on credit -- a sensitive indicator of investor sentiment -- rose for the second straight week last week.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Dead man thought to have fallen from stairs

OSAKA -- Police found a man with a serious head injury lying on a street in the city of Higashi-Osaka early Thursday after receiving an emergency call from a neighbor who said he noticed him after hearing something hit the ground.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 10, 2002

Crane fly

* Japanese name: Kiriuji gaganbo * Scientific name: Tipula aino * Description: Crane flies are slender insects with light-brown bodies, a black rim around the wings and long legs that dangle beneath them when they fly. This gives them their other English name (used by children): daddy longlegs. Crane...
LIFE / Language
May 10, 2002

Haiku celebrates overseas offspring, reconnects with nature

Can there be another country in the world where poetry is almost as regular a feature in newspapers as the weather forecast? Many -- perhaps even most -- newspapers in Japan carry columns of poetry on their pages. It is made easier by the fact that Japanese poems are traditionally very short, and that...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Coincident index tops 50% for first time in 15 months

The key gauge of the current state of the economy topped the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in March for the first time since December 2000, the government said Thursday in a preliminary report.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
May 10, 2002

No molds barred

These fuzzy fellas aren't cute at all. In fact, they often grow to stink. If you're not careful, they'll attack your food faster than the class glutton. What are they? Mold spores.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Mitsui unit in U.S. settles pig feed lawsuit

Trading house Mitsui & Co. said Thursday its animal feed subsidiary in the United States has agreed to settle a class-action suit lodged by U.S. pig and poultry farmers over sales of feed supplements.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Prowhaling group sends message to IWC

A prowhaling lobby group held a special gathering in Tokyo on Thursday and called for the resumption of commercial whaling.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

Bandai reports 34.5% increase in pretax profit

Bandai Co., the nation's biggest toy maker, said Thursday its group pretax profit jumped 34.5 percent to 1.99 billion yen in the year that ended March 31 thanks to brisk sales in Japan and abroad.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Ministry raps bureau officers over club scam

The Justice Ministry on Thursday took disciplinary action against two Tokyo Immigration Bureau officers over the padding of a bill related to their undercover investigation of foreign workers at a Kabukicho nightclub.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
May 10, 2002

Twice shy investors still capable of rally

Share prices soared along a broad front Thursday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, taking market participants by surprise.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Thin middle-aged men at risk: mortality study

Middle-aged Japanese men who weigh less than average have a higher mortality rate than men who weigh slightly more than average, according to a study released by a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry research group.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

ANA to push for more on-time flights

To survive intensifying domestic competition, All Nippon Airways Co. will unify flight codes of its group airlines and improve on-time flight rates, the company said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
May 10, 2002

Father and sons make JET a family affair

Last summer, Chris Buckland, 50, bicycled 2,100 km on a journey from Tokyo to Himeji, in Hyogo Prefecture. For Buckland, a collector of ukiyo-e prints, it was the fulfillment of a dream to travel the old Tokaido route from Tokyo to Kyoto, immortalized in the classic ukiyo-e illustrations of the Edo Period...

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’