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JAPAN
Sep 8, 2000

MITI kills off proposal for carbon tax

A key government panel reviewing the nation's Basic Environment Plan released an interim report calling for the introduction of economic measures to resolve environmental problems.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2000

Dai-ichi Mutual to tie up with American Family

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and U.S. insurer American Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus on Thursday announced that they will tie up to cross-sell and jointly develop products.
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2000

Japan Telecom to match NTT rate cut

The president of Japan Telecom Co. said Tuesday that the company will soon match the major cuts in telephone rates announced last week by the two Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. regional carriers.
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2000

Regional banks seek 95 billion yen injection

Chiba Kogyo Bank and Yachiyo Bank on Monday asked the government for a combined 95 billion yen in taxpayers' money to bolster their fragile capital bases.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Mitsui Marine named in fraud claim

The president of a Tokyo construction firm has filed a criminal complaint against an employee of Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and one of the insurer's former agents on suspicion of fraud, sources close to the case told Kyodo News on Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2000

NCB not afraid to ask state to buy loans: execs

Nippon Credit Bank will not hesitate to ask the government to buy back loss-incurring loans if necessary, top executives said Monday, as the newly privatized bank began its first day of operations.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2000

Palm, DoCoMo to offer wireless Internet access

Palm Computing K.K., the Japanese unit of personal digital assistant leader Palm Inc. of the United States, will join hands with NTT DoCoMo to offer wireless Internet access via PDA terminals from next spring, it was learned Monday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 5, 2000

NHL's Crisp pumped for Japan games

Former NHL player and coach Terry Crisp shakes hands with Nashville Predators hopeful Yujiro Nakajima in Tokyo on Monday in front of the Stanley Cup. If the Nashville Predators put on half the show that Terry Crisp did Monday afternoon, the National Hockey League has nothing to worry about.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2000

Asia takes capitalism on its own terms

ASIAN VALUES, WESTERN DREAMS: Understanding the New Asia, by Greg Sheridan. Allen & Unwin, 1999, 326 pp., 14.99 British pounds (paper). A lot of people thought -- hoped, really -- that the Asian economic crisis would end all that nonsense about "Asian values." The region's stumbles were supposed to...
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Ruling parties eye bill to curb bribes

The ruling coalition has drafted a bill designed to stiffen political penalties against lawmakers who abuse their government connections to receive bribes.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2000

A fragile outpost in space

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who are intrigued by and optimistic about the International Space Station; those who are outraged by and skeptical of it; and those who look blank and say, "What International Space Station?"
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2000

Tokyo disaster drill features SDF in big way

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's annual major disaster-relief drill Sunday will feature the participation of Self-Defense Forces troops on an unprecedented scale -- 7,100 service members, 1,090 vehicles, 80 aircraft and five ships -- at 10 venues throughout the capital.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2000

Miyake chief rules out total evacuation

Miyake Mayor Ko Hasegawa on Thursday said he will recommend that women, children and the elderly leave volcanic Miyake Island but ruled out an islandwide evacuation.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Dollar fall probably correction, not trend

The dollar has failed to climb past the psychological resistance level of 110 yen and is now hovering around 106 yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Japan aims to pass U.S. in IT in five years

Japanese business leaders and Cabinet members agreed Wednesday to map out a national strategy by the end of the year to promote information technology, setting a goal of outrunning the United States as a "super-express IT power" in five years.
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2000

Keep Iraq on the agenda

A growing number of reports suggest that Iraq is again developing ballistic missiles. Predictably, the government in Baghdad has dismissed the charge. We cannot be sure what is going on: Efforts by the United Nations to inspect Iraqi programs to develop weapons of mass destruction are still blocked by...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 30, 2000

Architects reach for the sky

www.geocities.com/PicketFence/5192/ The address above is actually a really nice metaphor. The "picket fence" it refers to is the chain formed by the world's tallest buildings. Add "center_of_india.html" to the end of the address and take a look at an artist's rendering of what some day might be the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2000

Little reason to celebrate in East Timor

Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2000

Taisho Life collapses amid scandal

The Financial Services Agency on Monday ordered Taisho Life Insurance Co. to suspend its operations following the arrest earlier in the day of the head of the insurer's largest shareholder, in connection with the insurer's capital-building methods.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2000

Life, nonlife insurers tie up

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. on Monday formally announced a comprehensive tieup that includes joint marketing of each other's products and integration of Dai-ichi's nonlife insurance subsidiary with Yasuda.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

End this dysfunctional relationship

LEAVING JAPAN: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship. By Mike Millard. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2000, 200 pp., $37.95. The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance...
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2000

Shattering the myth of race

When two rival scientific groups jointly announced in June that they had completed a working draft of the entire sequence of the human genome -- the genetic material found in every cell of every human being -- the achievement was rightly greeted as a milestone of modern medical research.
COMMUNITY
Aug 27, 2000

SHARE and help the world

SHARE is Japan's version of Medecins Sans Frontieres, a small nongovernment aid organization that sends volunteer doctors, nurses and health workers to assist in stricken areas abroad. It also helps those in need on the domestic front -- women involved in the sex industry and people who have overstayed...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2000

MMC may face charges over defect coverup

The Transport Ministry is considering filing a criminal complaint against Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for violating the Road Vehicle Law by concealing information on defective vehicles, a Transport Minister Hajime Morita said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2000

Softbank gets approval to take over NCB

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Friday officially approved the Sept. 1 transfer of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a consortium led by Internet investor Softbank Corp.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

Digital technology casts doubt on photo evidence used in court

Courts in the future will give less credibility to photos as evidence, due to the growing quality of computer-enhanced images, the president of the world's third-largest producer of image-editing computer software said.

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