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LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

Sometimes it's best to follow your toe

If it's possible to have a "green thumb," as some grape growers fortunately do, can one also possess a "golden toe" -- a knack for stumbling onto serendipitous discoveries? I've begun to think so. In fact, I'm keeping notes for what could be titled "The Little Book of Serendipitous Slip-Ups," "Glorious...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2000

MOX OK with Kepco, scandal or no

OSAKA -- After five months of denial and public assurances that nothing was wrong, Kansai Electric Power Co. has admitted it failed to properly investigate charges of data falsification at a British manufacturer of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel intended for use in Fukui Prefecture nuclear reactors....
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2000

The right connections

Market watchers worldwide are all abuzz about the "globalization of the American economic model." By that they mean the rising contribution of the information-technology sector to economic growth, the soaring valuations of Internet-related stocks and the use of those shares to finance highly leveraged...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

Life of North Korean spy laid bare

When Pak Chung Sun met her former boyfriend in Seoul in January, he was no longer the reticent, tender-hearted gentleman with whom she had lived a quarter of a century ago in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Insurance policyholder safety-net bill approved

The Cabinet endorsed a bill Tuesday to rewrite the insurance business law with a view to creating a safety-net system to protect policyholders in the event of a life insurer's collapse.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

DaimlerChrysler, MMC mull equity, output tieup

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is negotiating with DaimlerChrysler AG about a comprehensive alliance that would give the world's fifth-largest automaker an equity stake in the Japanese carmaker, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Recovery mood to yield brisk April activity

Much of the uptrend in share prices has run out of steam as corporate investors stepped up sales to take profits and unwind cross-shareholding ties.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Coincident index marks seventh month over 50%

The diffusion index of coincident indicators, which gauge the current state of the economy, remained above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in January for the seventh straight month, according to the Economic Planning Agency.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Looser restrictions on foreigners eyed

Japan is planning a major shift in its stringent immigration policy that would accept foreign workers in substantially wider areas, including agriculture and nursing care services, it was learned Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Shoplifting stains welcome mat

FUSHIKI MINATO, Toyama Pref. -- While the Fushiki Chamber of Commerce has stepped up efforts in recent years to improve relations with Russian visitors, a number of thefts in the town have left some residents wondering if cars, and the ruble, would be better left as rubble.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

U.S. left its mark on Japanese education

HONOLULU -- Japanese-U.S. cultural relations are filled with ironies. Perhaps the greatest is that many of the thousands of foreigners hired by the Japanese government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) are far better known in Japan than they are in their own countries. A second fascinating irony is that...
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2000

'Amakudari' practice thriving

Two-thirds of the 375 former high-ranking officials who left the government in 1998 have obtained posts in public corporations tied to their former government ministry or agency, according to official documents.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Debit cards aim to break spending habits

Full-scale use of the debit card system, which allows consumers to pay for purchases with ordinary bank cards, is to begin in Japan on Monday amid hopes that it will alter the deeply ingrained habit of consumers paying in cash and also become an effective business tool.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 5, 2000

The arts

A woman who first came to Japan some 40 years ago remembers that in those days there were many dinner clubs that featured dancing and floor shows. One act she has never forgotten: A Chinese family sat in a row at a table with the grandmother in the middle and the youngest at the two ends. They were dressed...
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2000

Hokkaido Bank seeks 45 billion yen

Hokkaido Bank, the second largest lender in the northern prefecture, formally asked the Financial Reconstruction Commission on Friday for some 45 billion yen in public funds to shore up its capital base, the bank said.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2000

Cultist designed bank program

An Aum Shinrikyo follower in her 30s was involved in the development of computer systems for Wakayama-based Kiyo Bank and several other financial institutions, it was learned Friday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2000

Tide turning against coalition

Only three weeks ago, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's tripartite coalition was in a celebratory mood after the opposition forces ended their boycott of the Diet and all proceedings returned to normal.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

Online exchange mulled for after-hours trading

Major trading house Mitsui & Co. announced Thursday that it will launch a joint venture with 11 brokerages to establish the nation's first after-hours online trading exchange for individual investors.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

Fundamentals to be key yen-dollar factor

The euro's tumble against the dollar has helped shore up the yen. After hitting a six-month high of 111.73 yen at one time Feb. 22 in Tokyo, the dollar has given up much of its recent gains.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2000

Aum computer firm got list of 3,000 Honda execs

Aum Shinrikyo obtained a list of some 3,000 officials of Honda Motor Co. through a computer software company linked to the cult, the Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2000

Gone, but not forgotten

Mr. Joerg Haider, the controversial leader of Austria's Freedom Party, has resigned as head of the party. The move is intended to quiet the firestorm of international criticism that followed the decision to include Freedom in the new coalition government in Vienna. In fact, it changes very little. Although...
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2000

Agencies examine software supplied by Aum-linked firms

Government agencies and major companies opted to double check various computer systems Wednesday after it was discovered that some of the the software may have been developed by a firm controlled by Aum Shinrikyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2000

New vehicle sales rise for second month running

Sales of new vehicles rose 1.5 percent in February from a year earlier to 362,830 units, the first two consecutive year-on-year monthly increases since the April 1997 consumption tax hike, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2000

Machinery orders presage smooth sailing

The latest batch of encouraging economic and corporate earnings reports could presage a more stable stock market in the near term.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2000

How not to liberalize trade

LONDON -- Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once famously described -- or is alleged to have described -- the Japanese language as an unfair obstacle to trade. How, she is said to have demanded, could foreign suppliers possibly penetrate the rich Japanese market when it was protected by an impenetrable...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Advisers, clients face tax fraud complaints

Tax authorities have filed complaints with prosecutors against three business consultants and three of their clients over concealment of some 1.5 billion yen in income.

Longform

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