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COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2002

West Coast optimists say the sun also rises

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the only explanation for it is that there are two Americas. The East Coast America, with its dark cynicism and worldly seen-it-all sangfroid, sees Asia as mostly a problem and a threat. But West Coast America, soaking up its proximity to Asia and reveling in local Asian ethnicities...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2002

Ministry to prop up sinking Kansai airport

To save debt-ridden Kansai International Airport Co., the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has drawn up a bailout plan to provide the semipublic airport operator with about 9 billion yen in subsidies a year and offer government guarantees on short-term bonds to be issued by the company.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2002

Billions in taxes misused: report

Government organizations and state-funded corporations improperly spent more than 24 billion yen in taxpayer money in fiscal 2001, the Board of Audit said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Nov 29, 2002

Department stores gear up for yearend gift season

Department stores nationwide go into full swing this weekend for the all-important yearend gift-shopping season, hoping to finish on a high note a year marked by battered sales.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Two arrested in swindle of NTT Communications

Two people, including a former employee of NTT Communications Corp., were arrested Wednesday for allegedly defrauding the firm out of some 200 million yen by padding payments for electronic devices, Tokyo police said.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Diet enacts law on intellectual property rights

The Diet enacted a basic intellectual property law Wednesday that the government hopes will promote the emergence of eminent scientists like Koichi Tanaka, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2002

Bills for splitting public entities pass

The Diet passed nine bills Wednesday to convert designated special-purpose public corporations, including the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan, into nine independent administrative entities.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Game software firms Enix, Square to merge on April 1

Game software makers Enix Corp. and Square Co. said Tuesday they have agreed to merge on April 1 to bolster their earnings base and development capacity.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Soy sauce maker sees profit soar

Kikkoman Corp., Japan's largest soy source maker, said Tuesday that its group net profit for the first half of the business year jumped 40.5 percent to 3.62 billion yen from a year earlier, largely thanks to brisk sales in the U.S.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Sony to shut down audio operations at Indonesian unit

Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will stop manufacturing audio equipment at its Indonesian subsidiary by next March in line with efforts to restructure its plant operations in Southeast Asia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 26, 2002

Japan tries to reform refugee system

Japan has often been criticized for closing its doors to asylum seekers. Following the high-profile incident in May at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China, in which Japanese officials let Chinese police take a family of North Korean asylum seekers out of the compound, the government has...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Asia emerging as economic dynamo, WEF says

As Japan remains trapped in its bad-loan mess and Southeast Asia struggles to regain competitiveness after a regionwide financial crisis five years ago, China may appear to be the only bright spot in Asia.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 25, 2002

'Asianization' and 'Wimbledonization' can avert final collapse

An economy is like a balloon. Pump hot air into it and it will soar up into the heavens. If it soars too high for too long, it eventually gets worn or torn, or both, and starts to collapse.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2002

Bank monitor to be established in campaign to cull bad loans

A new task force to monitor banks' progress in disposing of their sour loans will be set up within the Financial Services Agency by the end of March, it was learned Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 25, 2002

Gilded Age of excess returns to America

NEW YORK -- During a recent talk in this city on his lifelong subject, the Iwakura Embassy, businessman-scholar Saburo Izumi reminded those gathered that the Japanese group visited the United States during the Gilded Age. This appellation comes, of course, from American writer Mark Twain (and C.D. Warner)...
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2002

Flawed civil service proposal

To carry out the first major reform of the national civil service system in 50 years, the government plans to introduce legislation in the Diet next year to revise the national public service law. Under present plans, the new law would be implemented beginning in fiscal 2006. A task force of the Cabinet...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2002

Designed to deceive

The next time you visit a department store, head over to the luxury-goods section, stop in front of a leather bag by Louis Vuitton or Gucci, and just reach out and touch it.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2002

A time bomb at the sea bottom

The Spanish coast is now threatened by the biggest oil spill in history. Predictably, as much time is being spent on figuring out who is to blame as is being spent on cleanup efforts. At issue are the "flags of convenience" that allow ships to be registered in countries with which they have only a marginal...
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

ACCJ: Don't cut guaranteed yields

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan on Friday urged the government not to allow life insurance companies to cut their guaranteed yields on outstanding individual life insurance policies.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Ad slump eats into TV Asahi profit

Asahi National Broadcasting Co., better known as TV Asahi, said Friday its group net profit for the first half of the 2002 business year dove 73.1 percent to 1.46 billion yen due to a decline in advertising revenues.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2002

A vital role for Japan in Asia

SINGAPORE -- As Japan becomes mired in its own political, economic and financial problems and grapples with serious geostrategic concerns on the Korean Peninsula, there is great temptation for it to look inward. Such a shift, however, is to the detriment of the region, which is experiencing one of its...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 23, 2002

Marketing Cardiff as cultural capital of Europe

This is quite a month for Bet (Elizabeth) Davies. On Nov. 28, she will receive an award from the Japanese ambassador in London on behalf of the government for services rendered to to the Japanese community in Wales, and her work in bridging Japan and the U.K. in general.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Yoshimoto Kogyo profit up 111%

Entertainment house Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. said Friday its half-year group net profit soared 111.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.21 billion yen, despite its group pretax profit and revenues being almost flat.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Snow sees 45 billion yen loss in first half

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Friday it posted a group net loss of 45.36 billion yen for the first half of this business year, due largely to hefty restructuring charges aimed at reviving the ailing dairy giant.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

More and more homes going with solar power

Solar panels on roofs and verandas are becoming a more familiar sight in Japan as people acquire the systems with help from subsidies amid government efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions and combat global warming.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2002

Matsumotokiyoshi profit up 22%

Matsumotokiyoshi Co., the nation's largest drug store chain, said Thursday its group pretax profit for the first half to Sept. 30 rose 21.9 percent from a year earlier to 6.8 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2002

Plunging ad revenues hit Nippon Television profit

Nippon Television Network Corp. said Thursday its group net profit for the first half to Sept. 30 plunged 45.3 percent from a year earlier to 10.87 billion yen. Group pretax profit fell 35.9 percent to 23.1 billion yen on a 9.3 percent drop in operating revenues to 170.37 billion yen.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

Prince dies after collapse on embassy squash court

Prince Takamado died Thursday night at a Tokyo hospital after collapsing during a squash lesson at the Canadian Embassy in the afternoon, the Imperial Household Agency said. He was 47.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2002

Japanese movies eyed for makeover

With "The Ring," the horror film based on the 1998 Hideo Nakata hit "Ringu," sailing past the $100 million mark in the United States, remakes of Japanese and other Asian films are suddenly hot in Hollywood.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?