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BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2001

Kokusai Securities plans merger

Kokusai Securities Co. plans to merge with two other medium-size brokerages affiliated with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in 2002 to form Japan's fourth-largest brokerage, sources close to the deal said Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 24, 2001

Giants decide to offload Martinez

The Yomiuri Giants will not offer slugger Domingo Martinez a contract for next season, officials of the Central League club revealed late Thursday.
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2001

U.S. reportedly to urge Asia steel cuts

The U.S. will send officials to Japan, South Korea and China in the next two weeks to urge a cutback in steel production, the Financial Times reported Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Japan signs convention on Net crime

Japan signed a treaty Friday aimed at eradicating Internet-related crimes at an international conference on cybercrime in Budapest, government officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2001

Macchinesti: the accidental Ferrari of coffee shops

After the Japanese "kissaten," where coffee was coffee and not a lot more, came Doutor. Then came that all-conquering import, Starbucks, and a stream of similar lifestyle-focused camp followers of both American and Japanese descent. Now, suddenly, we have Macchinesti.
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2001

BOJ urges banks to clarify outlooks

Banks should promptly clarify their business outlooks for the financial market to help them pull out of their bad-loan straits, a senior Bank of Japan official said during a recent interview with Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Debate over female on throne muted as nation awaits baby

As Japan awaits the long-anticipated birth of a child to the Crown Prince and Princess, debate over revising the law to allow women to assume the Imperial throne remains somewhat subdued.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 24, 2001

Injured Yawara-chan to skip meet

Reigning Olympic and world champion Ryoko Tamura will pull out of next month's international women's judo meet in Fukuoka after failing to fully recover from a knee injury picked up earlier this year, informed sources said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 24, 2001

Amy Jorrisch

"From my grandparents I always had an avid interest in theater. They took me to everything they could get tickets for. I have vivid memories of my grandfather's phenomenal singing voice, that seemed to send me a message to follow my dreams. But I intended to stay away from theater as a profession," said...
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Obituary: John Nason

John Nason, an American educator who as a college president helped release more than 3,000 Japanese-American students interned during World War II, died Nov. 16 in Kennett Square, Pa., a newspaper reported Thursday. He was 96.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2001

WTO entry to change Chinese livelihoods

CAMBRIDGE, England -- So they finally made it. China has been admitted to the World Trade Organization. And so has Taiwan. Now that the bilateral and multilateral negotiations are over and China's trade partners have extracted all that they were able to in concessions from the new member, the fun begins....
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2001

NTT seeking to boost regional earnings

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. will try to boost earnings at its two regional carriers by 265 billion yen on a pretax basis next business year, partly through transfers of employees to lower-paid subsidiaries, NTT sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2001

Putin seizes the moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a very lucky man. Instead of running a Russian spy network in some sleepy Central European country, as his training and career once suggested he would, he skyrocketed to the top position in the Kremlin. There, inexperienced and vulnerable, he faced not the consolidated...
SUMO
Nov 24, 2001

Musashimaru closes in on title

Grand champion Musashimaru needed to do little more than flex his muscles to brush aside nemesis Kotomitsuki on Friday and move within striking distance of his first Emperor's Cup of the year at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 24, 2001

Thank God it's Fwaiday

This morning I taught English at the Shiraishi kindergarten. Nothing like a little chaos for breakfast. This class is so active, I recommend teaching kindergartners as a way to lose weight. Just walking into the classroom, I can feel the calories leap from my thighs as they realize I will soon be engaged...
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Rikkyo to get Rampo literary trove, home

Rikkyo University in Tokyo will inherit the home and nearly 20,000 books left by the late mystery writer Rampo Edogawa (1894-1965) from Ryutaro Hirai, his eldest son and a professor emeritus at the private university.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

149 artisans, tech wizards get awards

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has announced the names of 149 people to be given awards as contemporary artisans and technicians for their excellence in traditional handicrafts and industrial technology.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Gangsters arrested over loan-sharking

OSAKA -- The 62-year-old head of a group affiliated with a major crime syndicate and three other senior members of the gang were arrested Friday on suspicion of usury, police said.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

Tottori mountain-top restrooms get 70 million yen upgrade

YONAGO, Tottori Pref. -- Weary climbers will be able to relieve themselves in style after local authorities shelled out some 70 million yen for two environment-friendly toilets on a mountain top.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2001

Another U.S. role in Afghanistan

The Taliban regime has collapsed. The citizens of Kabul apparently welcomed the incoming Northern Alliance troops and feted their "liberation" from five years of oppression.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Blueprint on public corporations agreed upon by coalition leaders

Leaders of the ruling coalition on Thursday approved Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's blueprint to abolish or privatize seven major government-backed corporations.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2001

UFJ writeoffs will balloon to 2 trillion yen

UFJ Holdings Inc. said Thursday its member banks' total bad-loan writeoffs will balloon sixfold from original estimates to an unprecedented 2 trillion yen for the full business year ending March 31, on the back of likely failures among major borrowers.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Obituary: Kazuo Majima

Kazuo Majima, an Upper House lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party, died of a heart attack Thursday morning at a hospital in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, his family said. He was 69.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even through immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’