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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 1999

Both sides to blame for Sino-U.S. troubles

HONG KONG -- As the United States debates the security implications of the Cox report on Chinese spying in the U.S., and as China continues to deny the spying and to denounce the NATO attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, it is easy to lose sight of a basic reality: There is a remarkable symmetry...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 1999

France's Corsican question

PARIS -- "France," according to one of its best-known poets and political thinkers, Paul Valery, "is the most heterogeneous country that ever existed." The present tragedy in Kosovo makes this sound hyperbolic, yet there is an element of truth in it. The French who live on the shores of the Mediterranean,...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Competitiveness Commission to hear smaller firms' views

To reflect broader business opinions on the nation's industrial policy planning, the government will ask nonmanufacturers to participate in ongoing meetings of its joint advisory panel with the private sector, trade chief Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Sega announces new global strategies

Can Sega make a comeback? Which company will come up with the key digital home electronic appliance of the future?
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Men's jobless rate hits record 5%; women fare better

The unemployment rate for men in Japan rose to a record 5 percent in April, offsetting a slight gain for women and keeping the overall figure at an all-time high of 4.8 percent for the second month in a row, the government said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Miyazawa lukewarm on taxing unprofitable firms

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa expressed ambivalence Friday toward a proposed local tax revision that would allow firms in the red to be taxed.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Lower House panel passes wiretap bills, snubs opposition

The Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee ignored an opposition boycott and approved a package of controversial bills Friday evening that would allow law enforcement authorities to wiretap private communications during investigations into organized crime.
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

RCC plans to purchase bad loans in June

The Resolution and Collection Corp. hopes to start buying bad loans from healthy banks in late June or July, its president said Thursday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
JAPAN
May 26, 1999

Bill on official flag, anthem still on the way: Nonaka

The government still intends to submit a bill to make the Hinomaru the official flag and "Kimigayo" the national anthem during the current Diet session, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday, denying reports that the government had given up on the bill for this session.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Ishihara firing from hip at status quo

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 23, 1999

Break the corporate extortion habit

The report that as many as 59 leading Japanese companies were victims of extortion by "sokaiya" corporate racketeers, so-called rightist groups, organized gang members and other criminals in 1998 was treated as a major revelation by the mass media. The news came as the result of a survey conducted early...
EDITORIALS
May 22, 1999

Red alert for the Loonies

There was gloomy news last week in the sphere of international politics -- so gloomy, in fact, that had it not been for Israel's spirited rejection of its most unhelpful prime minister ever, Benjamin ("Turn-the-clock-back Bibi") Netanyahu, monitors of social progress everywhere would now be inconsolable....
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

Ishihara to visit Yokota Air Base

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Friday that he will pay a visit on June 2 to Yokota Air Base, whose return the outspoken governor has pledged.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Dollar hits 7 1/2-month high against yen

The dollar continued its upward climb against the yen Thursday with widening interest rate differentials between Japan and the United States working in its favor.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Big shots endorse plan to rejuvenate manufacturing

To help Japan's ailing manufacturing firms in their restructuring efforts, an advisory panel of government and business leaders endorsed a set of proposals Thursday that include tax cuts to dispose of excess facilities and extended benefits for the unemployed.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Miyazawa drops extra budget hint

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hinted Wednesday that the government may prepare an extra budget to expand the government's job creation fund.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Rising fears prompt calls to keep Aum in check

The government must respond to growing fears neighbors of Aum Shinrikyo facilities have and make efforts to restrict the cult's activities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 19, 1999

Back bayous of the Danube Delta

Adrift on a boat, with a wall of freshly leafed willows passing steadily on each side, I could not help thinking of Ratty and Mole's adventures on the river in "The Wind in the Willows." There were fresh mole hills to be found on the banks, and here and there holes in the riverbanks that might just have...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Diet session may run to early September

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party decided Monday to seek an extension of up to 85 days for the current Diet session to accommodate a supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 as well as other legislation to finance industrial competitiveness measures.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Toyota parts affiliates connect in U.K.

In a move to its auto parts operations to Europe, Toyoda Gosei Co. has set up a joint venture with fellow Toyota affiliate Toyota Tsusho Corp. in Rotherham, England, to produce weatherstripping, it announced at a Monday news conference at the British Embassy in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 1999

Mr. Rubin moves on

Mr. Robert Rubin, the U.S. secretary of the Treasury, will step down from his post this summer. The move was expected. Mr. Rubin had talked to confidants about his desire to return to Wall Street. Still, the announcement surprised markets. The dollar, bond prices and the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Honda posts record sales, profits for fiscal '98

Thanks to growing sales in the North American market, Honda Motor Co. set new record highs both in consolidated sales and profits in fiscal 1998, despite dwindling sales at home, Honda officials said Friday.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Tokyo Sowa capital falls short of minimum

Tokyo Sowa Bank announced Friday that its capital-to-asset ratio had fallen to 2.4 percent -- well below the regulatory threshold of 4 percent -- at the end of March.
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Adecco counting on pickup in temp labor trend

Leading employment agency Adecco SA is pinning high hopes on the fast growth of Japan's hitherto undercultivated temporary workforce, Adecco Chief Executive Officer John P. Bowmer said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Okuda takes Nikkeiren post, pledges better employment

Toyota Motor Corp. President Hiroshi Okuda assumed the post of chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) on Thursday amid expectations he will reinvigorate the nationwide employers' group.
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

PC shipments up 10% in '98

Domestic shipments of personal computers hit a record-high 7.54 million units in fiscal 1998, up 10 percent from the previous year, an industry association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Organ donor's private info kept under wraps

Following criticism that protection of privacy was lacking when organs were donated in late February in the nation's first legal transplants involving a brain-dead patient, cautious steps have been taken to avoid an excessive release of information on the second such donor.
JAPAN
May 11, 1999

Philippine activists protest dam project

Three activists from the Philippines called on the Export-Import Bank of Japan and a group of Japanese banks to withdraw support for a controversial dam project that the activists say will destroy the lives of riverside residents.
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Assembly rejects Ishihara's vice governor nominee

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's attempt to appoint his right-hand man vice governor was blocked Monday by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, casting a shadow over his relations with the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito-controlled body.

Longform

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