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JAPAN
Aug 3, 2003

Questions raised as Japan steams ahead on China bullet train

The race to win the contract for the high-speed rail link between the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai has entered the home stretch, with Japan ready to pull out all the stops to beat its German and French rivals.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

Main street land values fall again

The average price of land on main streets in Japan stood at 121,000 yen per sq. meter as of Jan. 1, down 6.2 percent, or 8,000 yen, from 12 months earlier, the National Tax Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2003

EBook market hit 1 billion yen in '02

The Japanese market for eBooks soared to 1 billion yen in 2002, according to a recent market survey conducted by publishing house Impress Corp.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2003

Too rich, too complex to be run by slaves

HONG KONG -- China's new premier, Wen Jiabao, on his first visit to Hong Kong in his new job gave a resounding speech, declaring that local people were in charge of their own destiny. The question now is whether he meant it and whether the leaders in Beijing are prepared to trust the maturity of Hong...
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

Full-year record for yen-bashing set in first half

Japan used more than 9 trillion yen to intervene in the foreign-exchange market between January and July, breaking its record for a full year, according to data released Thursday by the Finance Ministry.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2003

'Preemptive' bailout system in doubt

For at least the past six months, the Financial System Council, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has tackled a delicate question: Is it necessary to create a system for bailing out banks "preemptively" so that the government can supply cash to lenders with potential problems? The...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Osaka tourism gambling on casinos

OSAKA -- Local convention and tourism officials said Wednesday they would welcome the chance to build casinos here should the central government decide to legalize gambling.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2003

China under more pressure to revalue the yuan

Japan and the United States are stepping up calls on China to revalue the yuan, charging that while growing economically, it is spreading deflation and trade deficits by exporting goods at an unfairly low exchange rate.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2003

Koizumi denies postal plan report

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied Wednesday he plans to set up an official committee on privatizing Japan's postal services to boost studies that his private panel conducted in 2001 and 2002.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Major firms searched for bid-rigging clues

The Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday searched more than a dozen companies, including major machinery makers, in Tokyo and Osaka for evidence of bid-rigging in connection with local government construction contracts for sewage pumps.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2003

Beijing bids farewell to Beidaihe

It is going to be a hot summer for the Chinese leadership. The new leadership, headed by President Hu Jintao, has reportedly decided to end the annual summer meetings at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, where top-ranking officials swam, relaxed and held "informal discussion sessions" that set policy for...
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2003

Canon Sales sees net profit slip 33%

Canon Sales Co. said Monday its group net profit for the business first half through June 30 fell 33 percent from a year earlier to 1.11 billion yen, despite a 4.6 percent rise in sales to 360.02 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2003

SARS fears still hurting flights to Asia: JAL head

Japan Airlines System Corp. President Isao Kaneko said that although flights to the United States and Europe are recovering from the effects of the Iraq war, SARS fears continue to affect flights to the rest of Asia.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2003

More transparency needed in investigations of suspects

Little progress is reported in Japan-U.S. talks on legal proceedings in the alleged rape of an Okinawan woman by a U.S. serviceman. A hitch has developed over the demand by U.S. authorities for greater protection of the suspect's rights.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2003

Political reformers of Japan unite!

The new buzzword in Japanese politics these days is "manifesto." The Japanese language does not use capital letters, but if it did, you can be sure "manifesto" would be written with a capital M to convey the weighty tone with which it is pronounced by those who believe it is the answer to Japan's political...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 27, 2003

Yet another reason to head to Roppongi

Home is where the heart is, as they say. Well, the hottest new home for the after-office crowd in Roppongi, it would seem, is Heartland bar in the Roppongi Hills complex. This is where, as every evening unfolds, you will find a steady flow of both foreign and Japanese coworkers and friends dropping by...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2003

Have a Bali good time at Shiseido's spa

BALI, Indonesia -- Imagine, if you will, a paradise.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2003

Take another shot at Four Party talks

SEOUL -- While the United States and North Korea remain stuck in a standoff over the format of future meetings to deal with the North's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, a scout on the upper deck has sighted an iceberg -- not landfall ahead. The warnings of this seasoned statesman issued...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Toshiba gets Honeywell LCD license

Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has obtained a license from Honeywell International Inc. to use two Honeywell U.S. patents relating to liquid crystal displays found in a wide variety of electronic consumer and business products.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Chongryun tax breaks face hard scrutiny

OSAKA -- For nearly half a century, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) has been the primary voice of the North Korean community in Japan, representing nearly 200,000 people.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Mitsui Mining, Dia Kensetsu mull seeking IRCJ assistance

Natural resources firm Mitsui Mining Co. and condominium builder Dia Kensetsu Co. are considering seeking a bailout from the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2003

Sony net profit nosedives 98% amid sluggish sales

Sony Corp.'s group net profit for the first quarter of this fiscal year nosedived 98 percent to 1.1 billion yen from a year earlier, the company said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2003

Rainy season pours cold water on recovery

The rain clouds hovering over most of Japan are not just drenching people -- they are also blighting the earnings outlook for corporate Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2003

Howard aims for leading regional role

SYDNEY -- A weeklong diplomatic flourish through East Asia behind him, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has no time to pause for breath before the next push into Australia's newfound activism in regional security, the South Pacific's most chaotic young nation, the Solomon Islands.

Longform

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