Tetsushi Kajimoto - The Japan Times

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Tetsushi Kajimoto

For Tetsushi Kajimoto's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

JAPAN

Aug 6, 1999

Supply-side overhaul first step to competitiveness

JAPAN

Jul 1, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Will breakup fuel competition?

Fourth in a series

JAPAN

Jun 11, 1999

Analysis: Job measures short-sighted

Can the emergency package of job security and industrial competitiveness measures endorsed by the government Friday help jolt the country out of record-high unemployment?

JAPAN

Apr 29, 1999

State-employed Sony candidate upset with civil servant law

JAPAN

Mar 15, 1999

MITI readies pollutant tracking bill

JAPAN

Mar 8, 1999

State moves to draft stronger consumer protection law

JAPAN

Jan 25, 1999

Thai canal envisioned to promote trade

To boost regional investment and cross-border trade in Southeast Asia, Gen. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former Thai prime minister, is advocating a bold plan to cut a canal across the narrow part of southern Thailand between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.

JAPAN

Jan 5, 1999

Century of Change: Job security feels tug of evolution

More than two decades ago — just as Japan was impressing the world by emerging from the first oil crisis with a leaner economy — Taichi Sakaiya, now head of the Economic Planning Agency, warned in a novel that the nation would face a midlife crisis before the turn of the century.

JAPAN

Oct 16, 1998

Diversity urged for energy security ahead of APEC meet

Staff writerGINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- Australia must make the most of its rich natural resources and knowledge of efficient energy infrastructure to help Asia-Pacific economies meet the surging energy demands of the next century, said Warwick Parer, Australian minister for resources and energy."One of the important things that came out of APEC is that, even though there's been an Asian financial crisis, growth is still expected to be something like 40 percent over the next 12 years," Parer told The Japan Times following the energy meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum here Oct. 9 and 10."We are very keen on energy efficiency and have been pushing that for a long time. Because of our own experience, we can make a major contribution by providing not just raw materials but also technology of mining and other energy infrastructure," he said, boasting that Australia's current exports of mining technology amounts to 1 billion Australian dollars a year.Ministers from 18 APEC economies plus three observers, including Russia, took part in the two-day meeting, which was chaired by Japan, to discuss ways for the regional economies to achieve energy efficiency while simultaneously sustaining economic growth and protecting the environment.Predicting that coal will continue to be a major source of energy in the APEC region, Parer underlined efforts his government is making in clean coal technology through such projects as combined cycle coal gasification to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions.As a supplier of liquid natural gas, Australia hopes to strengthen its market competitiveness by achieving planned development and expansion of major gas fields across western and northwestern sections of the country, Parer said.Asked if he supports Japan's stance for stockpiling oil in the APEC region in case of emergency, Parer said, "Each country can make its own decision about what it does for stockpiling."We believe a better way to go is to have transparent market situations" to encourage private-sector investment in efficient energy infrastructure and trading networks, he said.Parer suggested that Japan and other Asian economies improve energy security by increasing their use of other resources, such as natural gas, to decrease their reliance on oil.

JAPAN

Oct 9, 1998

Asian energy talks get under way in Okinawa

Staff writerGINOWAN, Okinawa, Pref. -- Ministerial-level officials from 18 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum gathered here Friday for two days of meetings in a joint effort to promote energy efficiency and market competitiveness in the region.The Third APEC Energy Ministers Meetings are being chaired by trade chief Kaoru Yosano.Referring to the region's deepening economic crises in his opening address at the Ginowan Convention Center, Yosano urged participants to "correctly recognize the effect the economic crisis has on the energy sector, and steadily promote various policies that would make the energy sector contribute toward a recovery in economic growth."Yosano also urged the APEC economies to share a common understanding on an outlook for energy supply through policy dialogue involving the private sector, warning that the region will see an increase in energy consumption in the medium to long term.Despite the current economic downturn, the Asia-Pacific region will see strong energy demand in the long run, with China leading growth in the industrial sector toward 2010, according to the revised APEC Demand and Supply Outlook issued Friday by Asia-Pacific Energy Research Center.Supply infrastructure is needed in order for the APEC economies to meet such demand, the research center warns. Established under the APEC Energy Action Program at its Osaka meetings in 1995, the Tokyo-based think tank warns that the prospective rise in the region's carbon dioxide gas emissions will challenge the legally binding targets set by U.N. conventions on global warming in Kyoto.Pointing to greater dependence on oil imports, the think tank predicts the region will see a significant rise in energy consumption, which will exceed 40 percent from the 1995 level to 2010, with growth in production hovering around 30 percent.While stressing the need to secure a stable oil supply, Yosano called for development of natural gas and electricity infrastructures and necessary market mechanisms to boost private-sector investment in the region.APEC economies participating in the gathering include Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, South Korea and the United States. In addition, Russia, Vietnam and Peru are also taking part for the first time in the energy ministers' meetings, because those states will become official APEC members in November.Abundant in energy resources, Russia is expected to play a significant role in the meetings, according to Japanese government officials.

JAPAN

Sep 21, 1998

Global Warming: Industrialized nations told to look home first

Third in a series

JAPAN

Jun 16, 1998

MSDF Hovercraft debuts in Oshima disaster drills

JAPAN

Jun 4, 1998

JICA member takes on Ghana ball team

JAPAN

Apr 27, 1998

GSDF ready reservists sworn in

JAPAN

Mar 20, 1998

Aum Three Years Later: Victims struggle for redress

Last of three parts

JAPAN

Feb 23, 1998

Overseas calls made free, after word from our sponsor

JAPAN

Feb 6, 1998

British torch bearer to show world land mines' cruelty

JAPAN

Jan 30, 1998

NTT's caller ID service makes screening easier

Staff writerEver been harassed by incessant prank calls? Felt nervous about picking up the phone, not knowing who's on the other end of the line?Based on such apprehensions and other misuses of the telephone, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has shrewdly developed a new business. Starting Sunday, the telecommunications giant will offer the Caller ID Display Service, enabling clients to see the caller's number before picking up the phone. To benefit from the new service, applicants must first purchase a special telephone with a display window or a separate adapter. Subscribers will then be charged 400 yen a month for residential use or 1,200 yen for business use, in addition to an initial 2,000 yen to install the system.Callers from general subscriber telephones will have their numbers displayed to anyone with the caller ID service, unless they specifically ask NTT for "per-line blocking," designed to conceal their numbers from anyone they call. NTT also offers another method of maintaining caller privacy. Called "per-call blocking," the service requires callers to dial 184 before placing a call to indicate their wish to have their numbers concealed.These two blocking methods, however, can be overruled by receivers equipped with the Anonymous Call Rejection system. Though the caller ID service has been largely welcomed among business circles and those plagued by unwanted phone calls, it has stirred controversy among experts and the media over the privacy of callers."With an increasing number of stalkers, for example, some people receive prank calls hundreds of times a day," said Akira Ishitobi of NTT's service management department. "We've developed the system as an effective countermeasure against such nuisances at the instruction of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry."According to a random poll conducted by NTT in 1995, 80 percent of the some 410 general telephone subscribers surveyed had received prank calls at some time. About 62 percent of such nuisances were silent calls, in which the caller does not say anything, 42 percent were wrong numbers, 38 percent were telemarketers and 35 percent were obscene calls, according to the multiple-answer poll."The ID display service provides subscribers with an opportunity to decide whether to accept a phone call," Ishitobi said. "It'll put them on equal terms with callers who previously had the upper hand." And NTT claims that the Caller ID Display Service will also work miracles for businesses.By adopting the service to their Computer Telephone Integration systems, businesses will be able to call up relevant client information from their databases the moment a customer calls, NTT says. Some companies have already taken up the service; NTT began test-marketing it last April in Fukuoka, Nagoya and Yokohama.Daiichi Kotsu Sangyo, based in Kitakyushu, is among the firms using the new service to facilitate business operations. A Fukuoka branch of the taxi and real estate firm has taken advantage of the system for allocating cabs to customers who make reservations by phone."Thanks to the service, the number of phone reservations has been boosted 25 percent, while we have managed to cut the number of telephone operators by nearly half," said Masatoshi Konishi, an operations manager for the Fukuoka district. "It spares us the time of going over such details as our customers' names and numbers as well as the whereabouts of their homes and workplaces.

JAPAN

Dec 3, 1997

Nago battles over U.S. heliport plebiscite

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- This sleepy northern Okinawa city is gearing up to hold the first plebiscite in the nation on allowing the introduction of a U.S. military base, and the campaigns for and against the planned U.S. Marine Corps offshore heliport are getting heated.

JAPAN

Nov 21, 1997

Okinawa development steps unveiled

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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