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BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Wholesale, retail sales slide again

Combined sales by Japan's wholesalers and retailers dropped 5.4 percent from a year before in January, marking a 12th consecutive monthly decline, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Feb 28, 2002

Ferns: as mysterious as they are ancient

Ferns are very old plants that long predate the dinosaurs and were already abundant during the Carboniferous Period 350 million years ago, when many species grew in treelike form. Nowadays, they are perfect for bringing a natural feeling to gardens, and complementing trees and shrubs.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Snow Brand will spin off drugs division in March

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. will spin off its prescription pharmaceutical division into a joint venture to be launched with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. by the end of March to make nutritional supplements for clinical use.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Sansui Electric returns to black

Sansui Electric Co. said Wednesday it posted a consolidated net profit of 3.26 billion yen in the business year to Dec. 31, marking a turnaround from a 1.33 billion yen loss the previous year.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Automobile exports rose 5.8% in January

Exports of cars, trucks and buses rose 5.8 percent in January from a year earlier to 328,016 units, marking the first increase in three months, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2002

Bush fiddles figures as the globe warms up

Last June, in the Rose Garden of the White House, President George W. Bush declared the Kyoto Protocol "fatally flawed in fundamental ways," and dubyaed it "unrealistic, arbitrary and not based on science."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 28, 2002

Salt Lake City Games spark Gold War

MOSCOW -- Moscow is furious, Russia indignant. President Vladimir Putin frowns, the Russian Parliament wails. The people would be burning American flags in the streets if they could get some. The hotheads are already talking about boycotting McDonald's and "The Lord of the Rings." The nation feels humiliated...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2002

Myanmar asylum-seeker gratified, vexed by minister's sudden reversal

His three-year court struggle for refugee status was soon to be over when the man from Myanmar received an unexpected letter from the justice minister last week.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Daiei to get 520 billion yen from its main creditors

Struggling supermarket operator Daiei Inc. announced Wednesday a fresh three-year restructuring program that features 520 billion yen in financial support from its three main creditor banks, up 100 billion yen from an earlier plan.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 28, 2002

Tracing the evolutionary flight of the dodo

A strong contender for the title of most misunderstood animal must be the flightless dodo, the bird universally derided as fat, slow and stupid. To top it all, it's dead.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2002

Bill to pave way for signing pact on convict transfers

The government plans to submit during the current Diet session a bill governing procedures relating to the transfer of convicts between Japan and other nations, according to government sources.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 28, 2002

Make, don't play the green

If you are looking for a great game of virtual golf, try "Links Championship Edition," a PC game from Microsoft. "Links" is as close as you can get to real golf without picking up a club.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2002

Workshops for mentally ill feel fenced in

A newspaper article that called attention to the May 1981 opening of the Aoi Mugi No Ie workshop for the mentally ill, mainly schizophrenics, in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, sparked a 15-year campaign by local residents to drive the facility away.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2002

New IOC regime's shaky start

The new president of the International Olympic Committee, Mr. Jacques Rogge, no doubt spent some sleepless nights in his bed in the athletes' village at Salt Lake City. It was his first Olympics since taking over from Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, and Mr. Rogge had made an extraordinary decision to stay...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2002

Australia: a 'lucky' country no longer

The debate over Canberra's handling of several thousand Afghan and other boat people from Indonesia claiming to be political refugees says a lot about Australia. Holding the refugees in barbed-wire desert camps or dumping them on remote Pacific Islands may have upset the rest of the world, but in Australia...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Minister hints CJD settlement near

The government will do its utmost to settle a lawsuit by one Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease victim and 19 families of deceased victims who are seeking a total of 1.16 billion yen in compensation from the state and companies involved, the health minister said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Boy reformatory sees two suicides

Two boys at a Tokyo juvenile medical reformatory have committed suicide, one in September and the other this month, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Britain warned Japan about MBM in 1990

The British government warned Japan's farm ministry in 1990 that meat-and-bone meal, an animal-based feed, could be the source of mad cow disease, a ministry report to a study panel revealed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Poll eyes wages of people forced to seek new jobs

People who have taken between one and six months to secure employment after being laid off have generally managed to maintain their pay levels in their new jobs, according to the results of a Cabinet Office poll.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

NHK to show lost episode of 'Astro Boy'

NHK will air in April a long-lost episode of the popular animated series "Tetsuwan Atom" ("Astro Boy)" penned by late cartoonist Osamu Tezuka, according to NHK officials.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Feb 27, 2002

Light at end of tunnel -- but how far off?

Although there is little dispute that a ray of hope is flickering at the end of the tunnel, the steps needed to get the economy back on track remain anybody's guess.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2002

Soil pollution cases on the increase

Soil contamination incidents rose in fiscal 2000, marking the third straight yearly increase, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2002

NEC and telecom firms eye tieup as Internet provider

NEC Corp. has begun talks with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and two other major telephone carriers to create an Internet service coalition, sources 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’