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JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

TSE plunges to lowest level in 151/2 years

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was again plagued by seemingly endless declines Friday as the key Nikkei index closed at its lowest level in 15 years and seven months.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Tokai Bank to close fundraising unit

Tokai Bank said Friday it will wind up its wholly owned subsidiary, Tokai Bank (Deutschland) GmbH, which has helped Japanese firms raise funds by issuing bonds denominated in the German mark.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Japan, South Korea firms see bigger benefits in forging more alliances

Kyodo News Relations between Japanese and South Korean business enterprises have deepened in the past two or three years with increases in business alliances and joint ventures as well as full-scale sales offensives in the Japanese market by firms such as Hyundai Motor Co.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Jobless rate stays at 4.9%; spending remains in a lull

Dour economic indicators released Friday provided further evidence that Japan's economic recovery is stalling, with unemployment staying at a record-high level of 4.9 percent in January and consumer spending remaining flat.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Lawmaker's firm punished for illegal subcontracting job

The Infrastructure Ministry on Friday punished a construction firm owned by Mamoru Nishida, a former home affairs minister, for making 385.5 million yen from an illegal subcontracting job, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Foes of Isahaya project get more good news

Yoshio Yatsu, head of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, on Friday expressed qualified readiness to open the lock gates of a huge reclamation dike that traverses Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget passage offers Mori no relief

Normally, a prime minister will breathe a sigh of relief when the annual budget package clears the Lower House. But for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the chamber's approval of the 82.65 trillion yen fiscal 2001 budget could mark the beginning of the end for his administration.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 3, 2001

New frontiers for hogaku

Music in Japan tends to be highly categorized. Ongaku is the Japanese generic term for music, but most Japanese understand it to refer to Western music (the word yogaku is more specific). Hogaku (Japanese music) indicates both Japanese music in general or, more specifically, the music of the Edo Period....
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2001

The critical mass

The current exhibition of 127 sculptures at the Yokohama Museum of Art is not only interesting from an artistic point of view, but also provides a fascinating insight into much of the intellectual Sturm und Drang of the 20th century.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Bill gives traffic law new teeth

The government approved a bill Friday to revise the traffic law by toughening penalties for flagrant violations including drunken driving and driving without a license.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 3, 2001

Wake us for the next dance

The abundance of new dance and theater available in Tokyo during the months of February and March is a sure indicator of just how profoundly new work in this city depends on grants and other handouts from funding bodies. These budgets, such as they are, must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Union wants to pressure Myanmar

The secretary general of a major global trade union body wants the international community to review its relations with Myanmar to pressure the military leadership to stop using its people as forced laborers.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 3, 2001

JOC panel mulls next president

A panel of the Japanese Olympic Committee met Friday to consider candidates to replace president Yushiro Yagi when his term of office expires later this month. While details of the meeting were not made public, the JOC committee was reportedly divided on recommending Yagi for another term, despite his...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Official claims innocence in HIV scandal

A former high-ranking Health and Welfare Ministry official repeated a not guilty plea Friday to the charge of professional negligence in an HIV infection scandal involving the deaths of more than 500 hemophiliacs as his lawyers made final arguments in the Tokyo District Court.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget wins approval

The House of Representatives on Friday approved the 82.65 trillion yen state budget for fiscal 2001, a move guaranteeing its enactment in time for the April 1 start of the fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Coalition eyes stock-revitalization package, job-creating steps

The government and ruling coalition are devising tax-incentive and other measures as an emergency package to turn around the nosediving stock market and thaw the frozen real estate market, coalition officials said Friday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 3, 2001

JRFU unveils new coaching staff

The Japan Rugby Football Union announced its new coaching lineup on Friday, a staff consisting of experienced Kiwi Ross Cooper and Australian Gary Wallace, who will assist newly appointed head coach Shogo Mukai. Cooper, former head coach of Romania and an ex-All Black selector, will become Japan's new...
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Broadcasting regulations under ministry scrutiny

The Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry is considering how to relax regulations on the management of commercial broadcasters, ministry sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2001

Mori's time is running out

There is an increasing likelihood that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, lambasted at home and abroad as a symbol of political incompetence, will announce a decision sometime this month to step down to end the leadership crisis. This is hardly surprising, given Mori's abysmal performance since he was appointed...
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2001

OSE swallows up Kyoto Stock Exchange

OSAKA -- The Osaka Securities Exchange on Thursday formally absorbed the defunct Kyoto Stock Exchange, which closed the previous day after 117 years in business.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2001

Japanese textile firms request duties

Five major Japanese textile makers have asked the Finance Ministry to impose antidumping duties on polyester staple fiber allegedly being imported from South Korea and Taiwan at unfairly low prices.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2001

Further credit easing may be needed: panel

Members of a Cabinet Office panel on economic and social policies agreed Thursday that further credit easing by the Bank of Japan would become necessary if companies and banks speed up their restructuring efforts.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2001

The challenge facing Turkey

Turkey teeters on the brink of a financial and economic crisis. A political feud sparked the troubles, the effects of which have been felt far beyond the country's borders. The Turkish government has moved quickly, but some of its new policies may well create their own difficulties. International support...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb