Search - news

 
 
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2000

Mizuho executives express confidence in future

Chief executives of the Mizuho Financial Group expressed confidence Friday that their company is destined to lead the Japanese banking industry and become one of the world's top banks.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Jobless rate eased to 4.6% in August

Japan's unemployment rate eased to 4.6 percent in August, down 0.1 percentage point from July, marking its first monthly downturn in three months, the Management and Coordination Agency said Friday.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 30, 2000

Korean folk traditions come alive on porcelain

Folk art motifs on the painted plates of Kim So Sun In our contemporary world, where art is commissioned for anything from airplanes to automobiles, the transposition of 17th-century Korean folk art to modern porcelain dishes should not prove too surprising. In a wonderful burst of innovation, artistKim...
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Sanwa set to control ailing Senshu Bank

OSAKA -- Senshu Bank, an ailing regional bank based in Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, said Thursday that it will become a subsidiary of Sanwa Bank, a major commercial bank.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Stability, surge may be in store for stocks

The Tokyo stock market has remained in a corrective phase through much of this month, sending the key Nikkei average slumping to its year-to-date low.
OLYMPICS
Sep 29, 2000

Jones bags 200 meters

SYDNEY -- It was billed as the showdown between Australia's indigenous darling, Cathy Freeman, and U.S. star Marion Jones.
OLYMPICS
Sep 29, 2000

Welcome to Sydney's juiced-up Games

SYDNEY -- It was easier to follow at the start.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2000

Police promises are not enough

A feature of the National Police Agency's new white paper for 2000 is its recognition of the need to repair the tarnished image of Japan's scandal-tainted police forces. In a preface titled "Aiming to Regain the Nation's Trust," the document for the first time ever in a report of this kind tackles the...
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 28, 2000

Hawks' magic number still five

The Orix BlueWave routed Nippon Ham 10-0 on Wednesday, but the Fighters loss did not affect the Daiei Hawks magic number for clinching the Pacific League pennant, leaving the league leaders still needing five wins to win the championship.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

AOL, DoCoMo form alliance

America Online Inc. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Wednesday in Tokyo that they will form a strategic alliance to integrate their wireless and fixed-line Internet services, with NTT DoCoMo becoming AOL Japan's top shareholder.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Koreas need peace, not a peace treaty

SEOUL-- This week's defense minister-level meeting on Cheju Island is welcome news as the two Koreas take another historic step forward in their rapidly developing rapprochement. But the road ahead will be long and convoluted. According to one well-placed South Korean official, "we are in the realm of...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Tokai residents fear more accidents

Nearly a year after the nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in the deaths of two people, 60 percent of town residents surveyed are still concerned about further nuclear accidents but say they need their jobs in the nuclear industry, a Kyodo News survey showed Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Is JCP's softer tone a smoke screen?

The Japanese Communist Party has adopted a proposal to revise its pro-Marxist-Leninist constitution, which is more than four decades old.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2000

Abductions issue threatens normalization: Pyongyang

North Korea has warned it may walk away from normalization negotiations with Japan if Tokyo continues raising the issue of alleged abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2000

Hopes to retool energy policy confounded

Kyodo News One year after a disastrous nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan is still trying to formulate a new national energy policy.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2000

A feminist ties the knot

A lot of fun has been had this month at the expense of longtime American feminist icon Gloria Steinem. After decades of pointing out the drawbacks of marriage, the 66-year-old Ms. Steinem recently surprised and titillated the world by going off and getting married.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Leaders agree to coordinate Pyongyang policies

ATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung reaffirmed the importance of coordinating their North Korea policies in their talks here Saturday, the first since the two Koreas' historic meeting in June.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2000

Beijing's de facto currency devaluation

Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji approached Hong Kong officials to seek advice on the potential impact of greater flexibility in the valuation of the yuan and a possible devaluation. Of course, officials in Hong Kong are quite interested in the impact of changes in China's exchange-rate regime. Nonetheless,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2000

Mr. Estrada takes the offensive

After nearly six months of fruitless negotiations, Philippine President Joseph Estrada has ordered military action to free kidnap victims and arrest their captors. Mr. Estrada's patience has run out. But if he thinks the army can fix what ails the southern Philippines, he is mistaken. Some of the kidnappers...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2000

MITI urges dialogue on oil prices

International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma on Friday played down the impact of soaring crude oil prices on the economy and stressed the importance of dialogue between oil-consuming and -producing countries.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Whales' diets threaten fish stocks, whaler says

The eating habits of whales are changing and are likely to affect the fishery industry, according to the head of Japan's "research whaling" fleet, which returned to port Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Mori, Cohen agree to keep watch on Pyongyang

Japan, the United States and South Korea must still closely watch North Korea despite Pyongyang's recent gestures of detente, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen agreed Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

High level of carcinogen found at old Nissan plant

A concentration of trichloroethylene 1,600 times above the national environmental standard has been detected at the site of a former Nissan Motors Co. plant in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, company officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 23, 2000

The tide turns and Gore seizes the moment

In political campaigns, when things go well, they really roll. When things sour, nothing seems to work.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2000

Oil prices, euro to top agenda for G7, but solutions unclear

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami will join their Group of Seven counterparts for a meeting in Prague on Saturday that will inevitably focus on soaring oil prices, the euro's weakness and the potential damage these trends pose for the world economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2000

Rebirth of Sino-Russian alliance unlikely

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Chinese Premier Li Peng was having the time of his life. First, academics at Far Eastern State University bestowed a doctorate of law on him. Then women dressed in white and beaded caps like boyars' daughters on their wedding day danced to traditional music. And Yevgeny Nazdratenko,...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

NCB's Honma dies 16 days after bank's rebirth

Nippon Credit Bank President Tadayo Honma passed away Wednesday morning of heart failure. He was 60.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

BOJ to maintain easy money policy

The Bank of Japan will continue maintaining an easy monetary policy following the lifting of its "zero-interest-rate" policy last month, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight