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BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2002

Nation's economic chiefs to consider tax reforms

Japan's various economic chiefs were to meet Wednesday evening to discuss tax reforms, including tax cuts, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 2, 2002

West-blessed authoritarian

MOSCOW -- U.S. President George W. Bush visited Russia just as a new wave of terrorist attacks was expected in North America. This grim background toned down the euphoric atmosphere of the Bush-Putin summit. Yet two things definitely stood out during the visit: the signing of an important arms-reduction...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2002

Snow Brand Milk posts 71.74 billion yen net loss

Struggling Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Thursday it posted a group net loss of 71.74 billion yen for the 2001 business year, 35 percent worse than the year before, due to plunging sales in the wake of a food mislabeling scandal at its meat packing subsidiary.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

What the label doesn't say

Scandals about deception in product labeling have been in the news of late, with both the expiry dates and the origins of dairy and meat products called into question. While not as big a news item, the labeling standards for whale meat take deception to further, murkier depths -- and to dangerous ones....
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2002

Mutual Sino-American respect

Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao's weeklong visit to the United States, which culminated in a meeting with President George W. Bush on Wednesday, seems to have achieved its purpose: introducing China's next leader to U.S. officials. The 59-year-old Mr. Hu is expected to become secretary general of the...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2002

Koizumi to depart on Hanoi, Dili, Oceania trip

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday will visit East Timor, which will gain its independence on May 20, as part of a weeklong trip that will also take him to Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

Koizumi urged not to visit Yasukuni

The newly appointed South Korean ambassador to Japan on Friday indirectly urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to abstain from visiting Yasukuni Shrine in August, a visit which strained Tokyo-Seoul relations last year.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2002

Banks not short of capital: Hayami

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Monday said he does not think Japan's major banks are short of capital, but cautioned they need to make further efforts to increase profitability.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2002

Vested-interest policymakers irked over report that pulls few punches

Lawmakers within the ruling coalition were left aghast by a scathing report submitted last week by a panel investigating the government's handling of mad cow disease.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2002

Japan has golden chance for revival

Improved corporate governance at Japanese firms coupled with better public policy can "lead to a magnificent revival" in the country's economy, according to James K. Glassman, who delivered the 2002-'03 Mansfield American-Pacific Lecture, jointly sponsored by Keizai Koho Center.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2002

Ex-foreigner on a Diet 'mission'

In February, Marutei Tsurunen made political history when he became the first Westerner to take a seat in the Diet. This was as much of a surprise to him as anyone. After being first reserve in the proportional representation list of Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) after last July's Upper House...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 7, 2002

Harmonie: Harmonizing great food in the key of fine wine

Keen-eyed Nishi Azabu-watchers will have noted the arrival of a whole slew of new restaurants in recent months. The influx has been especially noticeable on the southwest quadrant of the crossing known to old-timers as Kasumicho Crossing and to foreign punsters as Hobson's Choice.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2002

Extend tariff investigation: LDP

Senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party asked trade minister Takeo Hiranuma on Monday to extend by six months an investigation into whether tariffs should be imposed on towel imports from China and Vietnam.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2002

DoCoMo set to post appraisal losses

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Thursday it may, if necessary, post appraisal losses on its overseas investments for the 2001 business year due to stock price movements.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2002

New postal players face flat-rate service

New players in Japan's postal services would be obliged to set flat rates nationwide for ordinary mail of up to 250 grams after partial liberalization in 2003 under government-drafted legislation, Liberal Democratic Party officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Mar 20, 2002

Institutional investors turn to Japan stocks

The shift among investors toward Japanese stocks -- the primary catalyst for the yen's rise in recent weeks -- has helped drive the Nikkei average back above the key 11,000 level.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 10, 2002

A few blooming good wines

The month of March moves us toward spring and the brilliant profusion of cherry trees in bloom. During the gray, damp days on the late edge of winter, we daydream of hanami parties. In Tokyo, we'll play a guitar on a blanket in Inokashira Park, eat sushi rolls under the tunnel of blossoms in Aoyama Cemetery,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2002

Bush suffers economic jet lag

What is it about a trip to East Asia that turns the minds of shrewd politicians like President George W. Bush and his national security advisers into mush? Once again, an American president and his entourage have traveled to Asia. And once again, jet lag, inadequate oxygen in Air Force One or something...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 25, 2002

Memoir sheds light on Chinese atrocity

NEW YORK -- My businessman friend Michio Hamaji, whose avowed mission is to improve international understanding, recently brought me a Japanese book titled "Charz." He told me it's a childhood memoir describing a Chinese atrocity in the late 1940s. If translated into English and published in the United...
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2002

Campaign reform: elites win, voters lose

WASHINGTON -- Only in Washington could a measure designed to gut First Amendment freedoms and entrench incumbents be declared to be "reform." Only in Washington could such "reform" advance with so much sanctimonious support from media and self-anointed public-interest elites.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Chino cements image as ADB's best chief ever

MANILA It was the most important night of the year. As "Show 2001" got off to a start, the hall was packed to standing room only, and talented employees -- mostly Filipinos -- strutted their stuff in aid of local charities.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 21, 2002

Living under pressure

Life, as we knew it only a few decades ago, needed sunlight and warmth. No one imagined that anything could survive in extreme environments -- in intolerable places such as high-pressure, high-temperature deep-sea vents or under Antarctic ice sheets.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Ogata gets government call

The government hopes Sadako Ogata, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will become the new foreign minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Thursday, adding that the post Makiko Tanaka was fired from should be filled by today.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 31, 2002

The virgin birth of stem cells

Parthenogenesis -- when eggs develop into embryos without being fertilized by sperm -- occurs in some insects and reptiles. There is a persistent report that a virgin birth once took place in humans, but this should be regarded as mythical.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2002

Yet more political corruption

The issue of political corruption is again coming to a head. This time around, a former secretary to Mr. Koichi Kato, one-time secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, is suspected of tax evasion, while an ex-aide to Mr. Michihiko Kano, deputy chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, is charged...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2002

O'Neill underlines Japan's fundamentals

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa voiced resolve Tuesday to resort to all means necessary to combat the nation's economic woes and enable Japan to contribute to global growth again.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
Jan 22, 2002

Have fears of spring crisis ebbed or not?

Sentiments on the Tokyo stock market have been dampened by fears that Japan may slide into a deflationary spiral, allied to another Dow Jones average fall under 10,000.
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 19, 2002

Role of forests seen leading environmental debate

Last of three parts Staff writer Forests are now at the forefront of climate-change debate in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2002

Populist politics behind Argentine crisis

Those who would blame Argentina's economic woes on free-market policies or pegging the peso to the U.S. dollar choose to be willfully blind to reality. Although the most evident and most disastrous results are economic in nature, the bases of the problems are political.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2002

State appeals ruling on A-bomb survivor

The welfare ministry filed an appeal Tuesday against a Nagasaki District Court ruling that ordered the state to compensate a South Korean survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing for health-care benefits he was denied.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.