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BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Analysts release ethical standards draft

The Security Analysts Association of Japan has unveiled a draft on professional ethical standards that calls for analysts to be banned from investing in securities that they recommend to investors.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 31, 2002

The virgin birth of stem cells

Parthenogenesis -- when eggs develop into embryos without being fertilized by sperm -- occurs in some insects and reptiles. There is a persistent report that a virgin birth once took place in humans, but this should be regarded as mythical.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

World Economic Forum likely to focus on Japanese recovery

Business leader Yotaro Kobayashi, who will cochair the World Economic Forum of global business leaders, politicians and academics beginning Friday in New York, said all eyes at the five-day gathering could come to rest on the Japanese economy.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Matsushita to close U.S. compressor unit

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Wednesday it will discontinue production of refrigerator compressors at its U.S. unit on March 28.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Sumitomo, Mitsui announce tieup of construction arms

General contractors Sumitomo Construction Co. and Mitsui Construction Co. formally announced on Wednesday their plan to integrate their management but said the timing of the move and numerical business targets are still under discussion.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2002

Yet more political corruption

The issue of political corruption is again coming to a head. This time around, a former secretary to Mr. Koichi Kato, one-time secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, is suspected of tax evasion, while an ex-aide to Mr. Michihiko Kano, deputy chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, is charged...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Snow Brand admits units in Kanto also in on scams

Snow Brand Food Co. acknowledged Tuesday that two of its Kanto-based meat units also misstated imported beef as domestic meat in early November in an attempt to reduce inventories and win government subsidies related to the outbreak of mad cow disease in mid-September.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Police hand over case of gut-checking professor

Police on Tuesday turned over to prosecutors their case against a former university professor in Tokyo who in December allegedly stabbed a student from another university with a sword to find out if the victim was serious about studying Middle East affairs.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Ministries working on food safety agency

The farm ministry and the health ministry are negotiating the establishment of a food safety agency in fiscal 2002, ministry officials said.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Electronic customs fees to plunge

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that fees for an electronic customs system for cargo ships making port calls will will drop drastically beginning in April.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Jobless rate in December rises to new high of 5.6%

Japan's unemployment rate climbed to a record-high 5.6 percent in December, pushing the average jobless rate for 2001 to a new high of 5 percent, the government revealed Tuesday in a preliminary report.
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2002

Chinese, when convenient

HONG KONG -- In an unusual move, China in recent weeks twice denied visa applications by a group of South Korean lawmakers. Relations between China and South Korea have been good in recent years, so it is strange that Korean legislators who wish to visit China should be denied the chance to do so.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Japan-China trade panel to hold first talks next week

Japan and China will hold the inaugural meeting of a panel in Shanghai on Feb. 7 and 8 to negotiate trade in three farm products at the center of a recently settled bilateral trade row, the Japanese government said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2002

Japanese-British links after 100 years

LONDON -- The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed on Jan. 30, 1902. It was a significant and unique step for both countries. Britain had not previously concluded alliances of this nature in an area so distant from its shores; it was Japan's first alliance with a European power and confirmed its status...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 30, 2002

Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble: 'Mnemosyne'

The collaboration between saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the a cappella vocal quartet Hilliard Ensemble is an avant-garde blend of modern European jazz and early music. On "Mnemosyne," their recent collaboration, the origin of their songs extends back to the second century B.C. with a Greek hymn to Delphic...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Showa Denko revises earnings, expects net loss

Chemical manufacturer Showa Denko K.K. said Tuesday it revised downward its fiscal 2001 group earnings projection to a 34.5 billion yen net loss from a break-even estimate due to additional advanced writeoffs of about 31.6 billion yen in restructuring costs.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

JAL, JAS give merger details

Japan Airlines Co. and Japan Air System Co. on Tuesday unveiled details of their upcoming merger, saying they plan to cut 73 billion yen in costs by fiscal 2005 by shedding 3,000 workers and sharing aircraft and facilities.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Liberty Mutual Insurance to pull out

Major U.S. nonlife insurer Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. plans to withdraw from the Japanese market at the end of March because the country's business prospects are poor, industry sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 30, 2002

Scanner

In the land of ubiquitous cell phones, it's hard not to eavesdrop on the chatterboxes around you. Scanner, aka Robin Rimbaud, a British sound artist, has taken technology-abetted voyeurism to another level. Dubbed a "telephone terrorist," he rose to notoriety in the late '90s by filtering "found" cell-phone...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Industrial output plunged 7.9% in 2001, early figures show

Industrial output in 2001 declined 7.9 percent from the previous year for the first drop in three years and the biggest plunge since 1975, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 30, 2002

The Dismemberment Plan

In addition to the usual semi-coherent tour diary and merchandising gambits, The Dismemberment Plan's Web site contains a list of the 10 greatest songs of all time that, apparently, changes on occasion. Though the idea of such a mutable list is seemingly contradictory, it sums up the aesthetic of the...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Fujitsu reports 106 billion yen loss in latest quarter

Major electronics manufacturer Fujitsu Ltd. incurred consolidated losses of 106.1 billion yen for the October-December quarter of fiscal 2001, compared with net losses of 69 billion yen in the same period the previous year, company officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2002

A real sound and light show

Ever go to an exhibition and think, "Hey, I can do that"? If the passivity of being an art gazer is getting you down, you might want to join the kids enjoying the latest innovation at the Urawa Museum of Art, a hands-on drawing room.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2002

Woodblock art comes of age

Traditional Japanese woodblock prints (mokuhanga) were, until the beginning of the last century, generally disdained as merely mass-produced commodities that were as likely to be used as wrapping paper as to be viewed as art. But the early 20th century witnessed a change in attitudes, leading to the...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2002

Nissho Iwai to eliminate 5,000 jobs in restructuring

Major trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. on Tuesday announced a three-year restructuring plan featuring a cut of 5,000 jobs from its current consolidated workforce of 19,000.

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’