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JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Lower House starts tackling administrative reform

The Lower House entered substantive debate Tuesday on two sets of bills designed to reorganize the central government and decentralize state powers, underlining the need to create a new government to meet the changing needs of society.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Tokyo Telemessage seeks protection from creditors

Plagued by a plummeting number of subscribers and intense competition with cellular phone operators, Tokyo Telemessage Inc., a leading pager service, sought court protection from creditors' claims on its assets Tuesday, company officials said.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

DoCoMo profits rise 70% in '98

NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. posted 3.1 trillion yen in consolidated sales in the business year that ended March 31, up 18.7 percent from the previous year, due to an increase in cellular phone subscribers.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Daiwa posts 250 billion yen pretax loss

Daiwa Bank suffered pretax losses of 250 billion yen in fiscal 1998, largely due to bad loan writeoffs of 368.7 billion yen, the bank announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

InterFM plans special Beatles broadcast

InterFM is inviting listeners to submit the name of their favorite Beatles tune for a special program airing May 30.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

New Defense Role: Next step is to free up SDF

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Major banks have done all they can: JBA head

Katsuyuki Sugita, the chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, said Tuesday the nation's major banks have taken enough measures to dispose of their bad loans.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Sales tumble as consumers remain missing in action

Consumers continued to rein in their spending in April as the nation's total sales slipped 2.9 percent from a year before to 45.657 trillion yen, the 22nd month of consecutive decline, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Railway improvement studies to begin next month

The Transport Ministry will start feasibility studies next month on the improvement of urban railway networks as well as the direct connection of bullet train lines to local lines, ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Chip makers Toshiba, Fujitsu post net losses for '98

Toshiba Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd., the country's major chip and computer manufacturers, on Tuesday reported net losses on an unconsolidated basis for the business year that ended March 31.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Some wary as pension plight casts 401(k) in rosy light

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Top steelmakers report dire earnings

The nation's five major steelmakers Monday announced dire earnings reports for fiscal 1998, with three of them slipping into the red and the other two suffering huge plunges in profits.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Chronology of alliance, Japan buildup

May 1947: The Constitution, based on an Occupation- compiled draft, debuts with the war-renouncing Article 9.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Fuji Heavy sets record sales, profits

Helped by brisk sales of hits such as the Legacy wagon and Forester sports-utility vehicle, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. posted on Monday its highest-ever fiscal results on a nonconsolidated basis, company officials said.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Sixteen top banks report 20 trillion yen in bad loans

Sixteen of the nation's top 17 banks had a total of 20.03 trillion yen in bad loans at the end of fiscal 1998, according to earnings reports released by Monday.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Diet enacts defense bills, but doubts on alliance linger

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

April trade surplus shrinks 12.6% but rises against U.S.

The nation's trade surplus in April fell 12.6 percent from the year before to 1.07 trillion yen, as the fall in exports exceeded that of imports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Obuchi, Perry go over Pyongyang policy

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Monday told William Perry, U.S. policy coordinator for North Korea, that Japan strongly supports the comprehensive approach to Pyongyang that Perry is putting together and expressed hope Perry's visit there this week will prove successful.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Obuchi calls defense bills 'truly significant'

Following Diet approval of bills to implement Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi took time to appease international unease.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Ishihara firing from hip at status quo

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 23, 1999

Break the corporate extortion habit

The report that as many as 59 leading Japanese companies were victims of extortion by "sokaiya" corporate racketeers, so-called rightist groups, organized gang members and other criminals in 1998 was treated as a major revelation by the mass media. The news came as the result of a survey conducted early...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 1999

Save whales with science, not sentiment

The death of Lennie's pet mouse in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" conveys the tragedy and guilt that overpowers us all when good intentions produce the exact opposite of what we hoped to accomplish.
COMMUNITY
May 23, 1999

Osaka fashion school has French leg up

OSAKA -- Carine Zeppelini, a French fashion designer, did not want to return to France at the end of her contract because she enjoyed teaching at ESMOD Osaka, a branch of the famous Paris-based international school of fashion.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 23, 1999

Whoever knows

A few columns ago I wrote about pen pals. A Japanese woman who had spent many years in the United States found readjustment to Japan difficult. She discovered she had little in common with her former Japanese friends; to them, she was a foreigner. Her American friends wanted to communicate by e-mail...
COMMUNITY
May 23, 1999

Collector's 1,800 lighters like old flames, not for discard pile

KYOTO -- To the average person, a cigarette lighter is just a 100 yen convenience store item to be tossed in the garbage when the fuel runs out.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 23, 1999

Slim down for summer with the chopstick diet

When my mother announced she would finally be coming to visit me in Japan this September, I asked her if she had any questions. She replied, "Yes, do I have to eat with those sticks?" This is when I realized that perhaps a lesson in "chopsticking" would be helpful. Mom, this one's for you: Chopsticks...
COMMUNITY
May 23, 1999

Whaling town Taiji dreams for miracle IWC reprieve

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. -- Nestled between clear Pacific waters and richly forested mountains and valleys, Taiji and it's pristine surroundings have remained largely unspoiled thanks to the town's isolation in southeast Wakayama and the community's long-standing relationship with the sea and its resources....
EDITORIALS
May 22, 1999

Red alert for the Loonies

There was gloomy news last week in the sphere of international politics -- so gloomy, in fact, that had it not been for Israel's spirited rejection of its most unhelpful prime minister ever, Benjamin ("Turn-the-clock-back Bibi") Netanyahu, monitors of social progress everywhere would now be inconsolable....
EDITORIALS
May 21, 1999

'New economy' under siege

The U.S. economy's strength has prompted speculation that it is a "new economy," in which information technology boosts productivity and cuts margins, allowing high growth, low unemployment and almost no inflation. Academics are arguing over the validity of the theory, but among its adherents is Mr....

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