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BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

Kawasaki Heavy wins Embraer deal

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it has struck a basic agreement with Brazilian aircraft makerEmbraer SA to develop and manufacture the main wings of Embraer's next-generation small jets.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Iwate sculptors seek to shape cultural ties

IWATE, Iwate Pref. -- Iwate Prefecture is probably not the first place people would expect to stumble on artists of international renown.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

State eyes stricter rules to make boating safer

The Transport Ministry launched an initiative Wednesday to revise safety rules and regulations to stem the rising tide of accidents involving motorboats, yachts, ski jets and other recreational vessels.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
May 10, 2001

Fuji (wisteria)

"Now that I have reached the age of 60, and my life seems about to evaporate like the dew, I have fashioned a lodging for the last leaves of my years. It is a hut where, perhaps, a traveler might spend a single night. Creeping vines block the trails and the valleys are overgrown, but to the west...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 10, 2001

Long-protected holy mountain to be gutted by highway project

Japan's Environment Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, recently told Mick Corliss of The Japan Times that she would like to incorporate an "environmental perspective" into public-works projects. If she is serious, there could be no better place to begin than Mount Takao.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

Growth indexes deep in the doldrums

Japan's key gauge on the state of the economy stood at 14.3 percent in March, staying well below the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent for the second straight month, after February's 10 percent, the government said Wednesday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 10, 2001

What's your cerebrotype?

In "The Prince," Machiavelli set out his manifesto of duplicity and deception. His name stands for cunning, for forming alliances with those in power. The theory of Machiavellian Intelligence proposes that with the advent of social interaction, the advantage gained by manipulating others was the driving...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

Dollar down as investors switch to equities

Triggering the dollar's fall in recent weeks was a switch in the global investment flow back into equities.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Koizumi rules out tax increases

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the Lower House plenary session Wednesday that the government will not hike taxes to mend Japan's debt-ridden finances, but will instead try to curb spending and the issuance of state bonds.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2001

Europeans wonder if Koizumi can deliver

BRUSSELS -- Despite the initial popularity and purported radicalism of Japan's new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, there is no evidence yet to show he has the vision or the ability to pull the country out of its economic slump and carry through the reforms necessary to meet the regional and global...
MORE SPORTS
May 10, 2001

Beach Volleyball's Ishizaka aiming to become golf pro

Former beach volleyball player Yukiko Ishizaka, who competed for Japan in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics, announced plans Tuesday to try and join the women's professional golf ranks. Revealing her long-held ambition, the 33-year-old Ishizaka said "I would like to win a tournament on the Japan Tour...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 10, 2001

Nomo still getting job done his own way

As interest in Major League Baseball in Japan grows exponentially with each passing day, it could be easy to forget the man who is most responsible for the current tidal wave of attention the game in North America is enjoying here.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
May 10, 2001

A few sites for baseball fans

http://mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sea/homepage/sea_homepage.jsp The Seattle Mariners' official site is part of Major League Baseball's sprawling footprint on the Web. MLB did a very smart thing this year in taking over every team's site and hiring beat writers to go head-to-head with the ink-stained...
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Tanaka again reverses a personnel transfer

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka kicked up some more dust Wednesday by ordering the former chief of the Financial Affairs Division to return to his post despite being named minister to France earlier in the week.
MORE SPORTS
May 10, 2001

Ex-Giants GM Hasegawa dies

Former Yomiuri Giants general manager Jitsuo Hasegawa died at his residence in Tokyo of pneumonia early Wednesday, family sources said. He was 90. His funeral will be held on Friday in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2001

WHO takes on the tobacco lobby

Tobacco causes 4 million deaths each year -- one life every eight seconds. Unless action is taken, that number is expected to grow to 10 million by 2030. Government representatives convened in Geneva last week under the auspices of the World Health Organization to resume discussion on the world's first...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2001

Shiokawa rules out leap to austerity

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that he will strive to carry out the two-step approach to fiscal reform unveiled this week by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, although he ruled out an immediate shift to belt-tightening policies that could hurt the fragile economy.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Matsuo fraud claims hit 267 million yen

Katsutoshi Matsuo, a former Foreign Ministry official accused of swindling the government, was served a third arrest warrant Tuesday, bringing the total amount he is suspected of embezzling to 267 million yen, police said.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Mischievous staff prompt Tanaka to freeze transfers

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday she has frozen ministry personnel transfers after bureaucrats reassigned a staff member against her specific orders.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Koizumi, Putin to stay the course on treaty talks

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have confirmed their two nations will continue peace treaty negotiations based on the same line taken by Putin and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Crowd-pleasing in Udine

Given the media frenzy over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Western interest in Asian cinema may be news, but it's hardly new. Back in 1998, the organizers of Udine Incontri Cinema, a small film festival in a quiet Italian town near the Austrian and Slovenian border, shifted their focus to commercial...
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2001

Why India endorses NMD

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President George W. Bush's publicly announced plan to push ahead with defenses against nuclear missiles reflects his administration's unilateral determination to assertively advance U.S. national interests and put some muscle into foreign policy. From repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol...
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Guatemalan president to visit Japan

Guatemalan President Alfonso Antonio Portillo Cabrera, who will visit Japan for a week from May 15, hopes to enhance relations between the two countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Hattori said Tuesday.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports