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BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Towel makers call for ban on imports

An industry association representing Japanese towel makers filed a petition with the government Monday to invoke import restriction measures to combat a steep increase in towel imports from China and Vietnam.
JAPAN / BENCH REFORM
Feb 27, 2001

Battle to change closed-shop legal system hits poignant note

Had it not been for the death of her newborn baby, Fukumi Kushige would have shared the apathy of most Japanese toward the nation's legal system.
JAPAN / BENCH REFORM
Feb 27, 2001

Battle to change closed-shop legal system hits poignant note

Had it not been for the death of her newborn baby, Fukumi Kushige would have shared the apathy of most Japanese toward the nation's legal system.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Meiji Life, Nippon Fire in joint deal

Meiji Life Insurance Co. and Nippon Fire & Marine Insurance Co. announced Monday that they will jointly develop a regional sales network and market nursing care insurance.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Meiji Life, Nippon Fire in joint deal

Meiji Life Insurance Co. and Nippon Fire & Marine Insurance Co. announced Monday that they will jointly develop a regional sales network and market nursing care insurance.
OLYMPICS
Feb 27, 2001

Committee starts inspection of island site

OSAKA -- The International Olympic Committee's evaluation committee began their four-day visit to Osaka on Monday by discussing the city's bid for the 2008 Games with Osaka government and business leaders, and by visiting Maishima island in Osaka Bay.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Feb 27, 2001

Making music in no-man's land

Through my work in the music industry, I have secured record deals with local labels for foreign musicians and have organized releases and tours overseas. As a columnist and DJ, I've been sent CDs from countless bands seeking promotion. I know there is no easy route to success in the business. And for...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2001

Soar with Madame Butterfly

MADAME BUTTERFLY: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San, by Jan van Rij. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001, 192 pp., 24 b/w photos, drawings, map, $24.95 (casebound). Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" has become more than just a pretty piece of music. It has turned into something...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

MMC to cut 9,500 jobs, close Oe plant by 2003

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Monday it will cut some 9,500 jobs, or 14 percent of its group workforce, by 2003 and close down its key Oe plant in Nagoya as part of a major restructuring plan.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

MMC to cut 9,500 jobs, close Oe plant by 2003

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Monday it will cut some 9,500 jobs, or 14 percent of its group workforce, by 2003 and close down its key Oe plant in Nagoya as part of a major restructuring plan.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

MHI to send generators to Belgium

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. will ship three replacement steam generators to a nuclear plant in Belgium on Wednesday to increase the plant's power generating capacity, the company said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Approval rating for Mori declines to 7%

The approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in the latest Kyodo News survey is down to a mere 7 percent, a drop of 12 percentage points from a similar poll in December. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, has leaped to 82 percent from 65 percent.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2001

The guide to the Chinese economy

CHINA'S NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY, by Susumu Yabuki and Stephen M. Harner. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999, revised edition, 327 pp., $32. In this thoroughly revised edition of Susumu Yabuki's 1995 book, Stephen Harner (translator of the 1995 book) joins Yabuki to paint a broad picture of China's...
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

MHI to send generators to Belgium

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. will ship three replacement steam generators to a nuclear plant in Belgium on Wednesday to increase the plant's power generating capacity, the company said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Approval rating for Mori declines to 7%

The approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in the latest Kyodo News survey is down to a mere 7 percent, a drop of 12 percentage points from a similar poll in December. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, has leaped to 82 percent from 65 percent.
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 27, 2001

World Cup ticket glitch: Part IV

Internet ticket sales in South Korea and Japan for the 2002 World Cup were temporarily suspended Monday morning due to a computer glitch, just one day after the start of applications following a 10-day delay.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2001

Fairy tales for modern Japan

GHOST OF A SMILE: Stories, by Deborah Boliver Boehm. Kodansha International, 2000, 288 pp., 2,900 yen (cloth). Imagine Lafcadio Hearn venturing to 21st-century Tokyo reincarnated as a single American woman with a penchant for the exotic and erotic, and you will have a sense of the stories in "Ghost of...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2001

Unearthly entertainment

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is God's gift to film journalists. He speaks slowly and distinctly, in a rumbling baritone, weighing each word -- and giving even the most fumble-fingered reporter time to get everything down. He is also patient with questions that, after the 20th media interview, he has heard 20 times...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Blackmans seek privacy after ordeal

The father of murdered British hostess Lucie Blackman arrived in Japan on Monday morning, asking that the family be granted some privacy before they return to Britain with her remains and outlining a trust fund in her name.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Matsushita in plastics agreement

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. has said Monday it has agreed with Sweden's Perstorp AB to cooperate on amino molding compounds, a key element in electrical-insulation plastic devices such as power outlets.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Matsushita in plastics agreement

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. has said Monday it has agreed with Sweden's Perstorp AB to cooperate on amino molding compounds, a key element in electrical-insulation plastic devices such as power outlets.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2001

The IOC gets down to business

The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to select the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics at a Moscow general meeting in July, according to the IOC rule that says selection should be made seven years before the summer or winter games are held. To collect the necessary data, the committee...
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2001

Ministry considers expansion of earlier college admissions

The education ministry plans to lift the restrictions on college admission for 17-year-old students who have not yet completed three years of high school in order to increase the number of promising applicants in various fields, ministry sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2001

British bill puts Tamil Tigers on notice

Britain's new antiterrorist legislation that comes into force Monday has generated mixed reaction in various circles within Britain as well as internationally. While the British government has hailed the bill as a powerful means to curtail terrorism worldwide, opponents of the legislation claim it is...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2001

Japan in sore need of direct financing

The Tokyo stock market remains in a slump, with its key indicator threatening to fall below 13,000, as uncertainties linger over the future and selling pressures intensify with the unwinding of cross-shareholdings toward the end of the fiscal year.

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