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BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2001

State may help stock-buying body

The government is likely to provide 33 percent of the funds for a proposed stock-buying body at the center of plans that will help banks divest themselves from the stock market, a senior official from the Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Poll shows LDP support down to 28%

Public support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has dipped to 27.9 percent, falling below the 30 percent mark ahead of the pivotal House of Councilors election in July, according to the latest Kyodo News poll released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2001

LDP ignores advisory panel, endorses watered-down NTT bills

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party endorsed a set of bills Tuesday to rewrite laws governing Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. that would lead to looser-than-planned regulations on the dominant telecom carrier, LDP officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Foreign Ministry to gloss over textbook uproar

The approval Tuesday of a controversial history textbook will probably prompt a new wave of criticism from China and South Korea, where concerns have already been voiced over the original draft.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Burying the Dover dead

As Dutch and British courts try suspects for the manslaughter of 58 illegal Chinese immigrants last June, Calum MacLeod meets the families chasing snakehead shadows. FUJIAN, China -- Winter days are quiet for the people of Lianfeng, a small village on a finger of land poking into the East China Sea....
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2001

Nissan to ride Suzuki into minicar market

Nissan Motor Co. announced Monday it will enter the minivehicle market by procuring products from minicar maker Suzuki Motor Corp. and marketing the cars under the Nissan brand.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2001

U.N. should have power to save historic sites: Hirayama

The United Nations should be empowered to protect culturally valuable sites in war-torn, politically unstable and poverty-stricken areas by registering them as World Heritage sites at its own initiative, UNESCO goodwill envoy Ikuo Hirayama says.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2001

Tokyo Mutual gets court approval to start rehabilitation

Failed Tokyo Mutual Life Insurance Co. said Saturday that it has received approval from the Tokyo District Court to begin rehabilitation procedures.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

A crime for the times

Italy, a country we are celebrating this year in Japan, is at the cutting edge of all sorts of things: food, fashion, fast cars, films and some interesting criminal practices. Oh, and bizarre opera plots. Sometimes it seems as if those last two get a bit entangled.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

Not-so-brilliant green tea

Green-tea drinkers have been a little blue this past month in the wake of bad news from a group of Tohoku University researchers: Green tea, according to the Japanese scientists' recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, may not be such a panacea after all. But consumers should not feel either...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 2001

The courage to air dirty laundry

Problems can't be solved until they're acknowledged, and it is considered the job of the media to bring hidden social problems into the open. The media, however, can't be counted on to provide perspective, which means that what are often perceived as new problems are actually old ones.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

Japanese workers turn increasingly to unusual avenues for their careers

Kyodo News At a restaurant in Tokyo's fashionable Ebisu district, eatery manager Mitsuho Abe skillfully slices fresh pieces of raw flatfish with a kitchen knife and prepares potherb mustard salad.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2001

FSA nearing completion of writeoff plan for banks' bad loans

Financial Services Agency chief Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday that the FSA has virtually completed drawing up measures to help Japanese banks accelerate their direct writeoffs of bad loans.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Obituary: Noboru Kojima

Noboru Kojima, an award-winning author of books on World War II, died of a stroke Tuesday at a hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, his family said. He was 74.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Microsoft, NTT unit link up on Xbox

Microsoft Corp. and NTT Communications Corp. said Thursday they have formed a strategic alliance to develop and provide broadband online game services for Microsoft's Xbox home video game machine.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Japan to keep pressing U.S. on global warming

Japan will continue to urge the United States to ratify a 1997 treaty designed to prevent global warming, even though Washington has announced plans to withdraw from the landmark pact, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Economists expect growing gloom among makers: poll

Private-sector economists expect Monday's Bank of Japan "tankan" quarterly survey to show a decline in business confidence among major manufacturers for the first time in two years and three months, according to a Kyodo News survey conducted Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 29, 2001

Report: Yoshii waived by Rockies

Japanese pitcher Masato Yoshii failed to make the Colorado Rockies' 40-man roster and was waived by the team, Kyodo News Service reported Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Agriculture Minister vows to open Isahaya floodgates

Agriculture Minister Yoshio Yatsu on Tuesday announced that he will open the water gates of a dike closing off a large part of Isahaya Bay to see if it improves water quality in the Ariake Sea.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2001

Cable makers to form high-voltage venture

Hitachi Cable Ltd. and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Japan's No. 1 and No. 3 power cable makers, said Tuesday they will form a 50-50 venture on Oct. 1 to integrate their high-voltage power cable businesses.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Ex-minister Yoshikawa to retire

Former Labor Minister Yoshio Yoshikawa notified the ruling Liberal Democratic Party through a secretary on Monday that he will retire from politics at the end of his current six-year term, aides said.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Ticket agencies join the digital age

Kyodo News The Internet set the scene, cellular phones followed, and now convenience stores have jumped on the bandwagon, drastically changing the way people in Japan buy tickets for concerts, plays and sports events.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2001

Bush's crash course in global diplomacy

U.S. President George W. Bush has just concluded a crash course in Northeast Asian politics. In the past three weeks, he has hosted South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Now Bush has to make sense of those visits, digest the various messages...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

LDP panel pushes for collective defense

A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party called Friday for a change in government's interpretation of the Constitution so that Japan can engage in collective defense to reinforce its alliance with the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

Longform

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