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Mayumi Negishi
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2006
Foreign income exceeds trade
Japan's income account surplus exceeded its trade surplus in 2005 for the first time since records started being taken in 1985, which means the country earned more from sales of assets than it did from sales of goods to the rest of the world, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006
Monday charges loom for Livedoor
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, after a three-year probe, asked prosecutors Friday to indict Livedoor Co., former President Takafumi Horie, three other executives, and advertising subsidiary Livedoor Marketing Co. for lying to investors in order to inflate the stock price of the...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2006
Japan failed to fully inspect U.S. meat processing plants
Japan did not keep its promise to send officials to check U.S. meatpacking plants before resuming U.S. beef imports in December, farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa admitted Monday.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006
Bargain-hunters circling Livedoor group in search of value
What's in a name?
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2006
Yoshinoya shares take a dive in wake of beef ban
The renewed ban on U.S. beef imports hit Yoshinoya D&C Co. on Monday, with Yoshinoya shares going limit down to 173,000 yen before ending at 189,000 yen, a 2,400 yen drop from Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2006
TSE plans to upgrade capacity Monday
The world's second-largest bourse, embarrassed by its inability to handle a crushing selloff that erupted earlier in the week, said Friday it would work over the weekend to raise its maximum trading capacity to 5 million deals by Monday.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2006
Livedoor raid stirs up fear of Net stocks
The Nikkei stock average fell below the 16,000 line Tuesday as worried investors sold off Internet stocks amid the dust kicked up by prosecutors' search of Livedoor Co. over suspected securities law violations.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2006
Aneha scam making buyers wary, for now
To buy or not to buy a condominium? That is the question people are asking, fearing the slipshod construction borne out in the widening scandal over the falsification of quake-proofing data might be industrywide.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2005
Cabinet approves austere 2006 budget worth 79.7 trillion yen
The Cabinet formally approved on Saturday a 79.686 trillion yen general account budget for fiscal 2006 that would help slow down growth of the nation's debt.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2005
State allocates 50 billion yen in 2006 budget
The government announced Thursday how to spend an as-yet-unallocated 50 billion yen in the 79.69 trillion yen fiscal 2006 budget.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2005
U.S. expects sluggish beef exports in '06
U.S. beef exported to Japan is estimated to total about 100,000 tons in 2006, one-third the level prior to the ban imposed in December 2003, the president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2005
79.69 trillion yen budget submitted to Cabinet
The Finance Ministry gave the Cabinet a 79.69 trillion yen fiscal 2006 draft budget Tuesday that will allow it to keep new government bond issuance below 30 trillion yen for the first time in five years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2005
Doha Round still snagged on farm trade
It's time for Japan's negotiators to protect rice farmers in other ways besides high tariffs, argues an economist at Hitotsubashi University, after six days of frustrating world trade talks that ended Sunday in Hong Kong.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2005
2 trillion yen in tax increases to take effect in fiscal 2006
The ruling coalition approved over 2 trillion yen worth of tax increases Thursday to be implemented in fiscal 2006. The hikes include the elimina tion or reduction of tax breaks, a cigarette levy increase and higher tax rates on wine and so-called third-category beers.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2005
Tax breaks may soon be pulled; hikes eyed
The ruling coalition Thursday recommended scrapping income, residential and corporate tax breaks and raising liquor and tobacco levies in its reform proposals for fiscal 2006, and agreed to discuss a possible consumption tax increase for fiscal 2007.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2005
LDP again eyes raising tax on cigarettes in 2006
The Liberal Democratic Party reopened discussions Wednesday on raising the tax on cigarettes after Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki told executives of the LDP's tax panel the government needs the extra revenue to start putting its finances in order next year.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2005
LDP moves to hike tax on 'third-category' beer
The Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel decided Tuesday to raise the tax on beerlike drinks not classified as beer or low-malt "happoshu" in the latest clash between the revenue-hungry government and the beer industry.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2005
Ban on U.S. beef lifted, but don't expect import flood, just price turmoil
The government on Monday approved the resumption of U.S. beef imports, lifting a two-year ban that has been in place since the discovery of mad cow disease in what had been one of Japan's biggest sources of low-cost beef.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2005
Panel gives final OK for young U.S. beef
is just one step. The real test is still to come, of Japan's ability to check (that) the U.S. is implementing precautions" against BSE, said Yasuhiro Yoshikawa, who heads the prion research group under the commission that drafted Thursday's report. "The report was based on a number of preconditions,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2005
Beef-safety report being misused: panelist
The key messages in Thursday's report by the Food Safety Commission's prion committee have been misinterpreted by the media and the government, and the panel itself was used to serve political ends, the panel's deputy chairman declared Thursday.

Longform

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