Search - business

 
 
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2003

Don't ignore greater threat

HONOLULU -- The big debate raging in Washington these days is over which country poses the greater threat: North Korea or Iraq (with some throwing Iran into the mix, just to keep the old "axis of evil" intact).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 2003

Canning chaos with charisma

Noriko Kondo is often described as a "charismatic role-model for housewives." Always seen smiling, she pops up all the time in homemaking magazines and on television offering tips on how to organize the chaos in the average Japanese kitchen, closet or creaking set of drawers in homes filled to capacity...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 23, 2003

More fun than a tube of monkeys

Recently, performing primates have made a big comeback in Japanese show business, thanks mainly to the Nikko Saru Gundan (Nikko Monkey Army), and the human/monkey comedy team Taro-Jiro. Both acts are the latest additions to the traditional Japanese performance art known as saru-tsukai, which almost died...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Bill seeks to ensure genetic engineering doesn't get out of hand

The government is facing an unusual challenge -- regulating a science that has not yet proved harmful.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 22, 2003

Time proves relevant for aging Japan hands

"Oh really?" the girl says to me -- with the "r" stretched so painfully the word sounds as if it has been ripped from the back of her throat.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2003

Keidanren calls for hike in sales tax

Senior members of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) called for a hike in the consumption tax in a meeting Thursday with New Komeito executives.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Public-private forum backs U.S. Iraq stance

Members of the Japan Forum on International Relations, a public-private proposal group, issued an appeal Thursday supporting the U.S. stance on the Iraqi crisis. [Full text of appeal]
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Jet-setter Dewi Sukarno takes on Japan

After securing a quiet nook in the lounge of a plush Tokyo hotel-cum-meeting-place, Madame Dewi spreads out a portfolio of personal photographs on the coffee table before her.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2003

Osaka cops make arrests in case of the floating head

OSAKA -- An Osaka woman and her brother were arrested Thursday for allegedly killing her husband, dismembering his body with an electric saw and dumping the remains in the sea.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2003

Suzuki looking to get the jump on rivals with 490,000 yen car

Getting the jump on deflation, Suzuki Motor Corp. has taken the wraps off a 490,000 yen car.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 19, 2003

New sports newspaper to start

is going to launch a weekly bilingual sports paper this summer, the sports media company has announced. The newspaper will put more weight on the coverage of international sports, primarily north American sports, than domestic sports news.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2003

Desperate firms offer shareholders incentives

The number of companies offering shareholders special benefits, including compact discs and gold coins, has been increasing and now stands at three times the figure a decade ago.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2003

Showa Shell profits increase

Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. chalked up a consolidated net profit of 18.67 billion yen in the business year that ended in December, up sharply from the previous year's 2.61 billion yen.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Tokyo Sowa execs guilty of fraud

Five former executives of bankrupt Tokyo Sowa Bank were found guilty Tuesday of falsely making it appear the bank had adequate capital reserves through a bogus capital increase scheme worth 18.9 billion yen.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Businesses told of fossil fuel tax plan

Environment Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Tuesday officially told the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) of the ministry's plans to introduce a tax on fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2003

U.S. firm to buy up Nippon Conlux

Mars Inc., a leading U.S. maker of automated payment systems for vending machines, will buy all the shares of Nippon Conlux Co., a major Japanese producer of coin mechanisms and note validators, through a tender offer from Tuesday to March 13, company officials said Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2003

Cigar maker hopes to light up Japanese market

Altadis, the world's leading cigar maker, is set to increase its share in the small but fast-growing Japanese market by primarily targeting fashion-conscious young professionals, according to the firm's Asia-Pacific sales manager.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Poverty fuels Afghanistan's drug trade

ISLAMABAD -- The recent crackdown on opium producers by Afghan officials, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 poppy farmers in eastern Afghanistan, promises only to intensify global concerns about the central Asian country becoming the world's largest source of raw material for heroin.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Fears of 'anti-Americanism' overblown

MANILA -- In 1996 Samuel Huntington published his epochal work "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." In it, he argues that, since the demise of the Cold War, cultural divides have become the focal points of international conflicts. Judging from recent editorials in American and...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2003

Sumitomo Mitsui will issue 250 billion yen in shares

In an effort to boost its capital, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. will issue an additional 250 billion yen in shares by the end of March, it was learned Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2003

Profits perpetuate horrors of child labor

MADRAS, India -- There is Dickensian distress in India, where child labor persists despite a law and a court order. Fifteen million children below 14 continue to work in the most horrific of conditions in blatant violation of the Indian Supreme Court ruling, which had called for the enforcement of the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 16, 2003

Notes from the front

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of Hokkaido Television, Asahi TV will present a special installment in its Human Vision series of social-historical video documentaries. "Kiri no Nikki: Aryushan kara no Dengon (Diary in the Fog: A Message from the Aleutians)" (Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.)...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2003

Democracy in Myanmar going nowhere

Myanmar has no formal greeting words. A surprise? But we have variations that are more practical to our lives, depending on the time and circumstances. If you meet someone along the way, the most common words are: Where do you come from? Where are you going? Or, how are your father's, mother's or your...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 16, 2003

When you need a hand ...

Married with two children, 46-year-old Kumiko Mashima thinks her life is just about perfect. She met her loving husband through an omiai -- a formal introduction arranged by a go-between with a view to marriage -- and they both adore their daughters. But before she found her way into her husband's arms,...
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

No decision yet on insurer yield cuts

The government has made no final decision on whether to allow financially troubled life insurers to cut the yields they have guaranteed to policyholders, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Friday .
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

WTO farming plans trigger huge Tokyo protest

More than 2,000 representatives of farm groups from Japan and nine other countries demonstrated Friday in Tokyo against plans for a substantial reduction in agricultural tariffs.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2003

LDP may field DPJ member in Kanagawa governor race

The Liberal Democratic Party is reportedly considering an unusual tactic for the Kanagawa gubernatorial election in April -- fielding a current Diet member of the Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2003

Local boy with a liking for the finer things in life

Living in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "furusato" (hometown), it seems likely that Hisataka (Issa) Koizumi is related.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 15, 2003

'Yaido': the deep art of beheading people

Have you ever had the urge to behead someone? Now you can. Behead as many people as you like, and additionally slice off their limbs. But there are some restrictions: only between the hours of 7 and 9 on Tuesday nights at a particular dojo in the city of Okayama. Ueno-sensei would be your teacher --...
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2003

Japanese unit of McDonald's logs huge loss

Ltd. said Friday it posted a group net loss of 2.34 billion yen for the business year through December, sinking into the red for the first time in nearly three decades under the heavy cost of store closures. The firm also said outlet openings will be reduced to 75 from 117 in 2002, leading to the first-ever...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan