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JAPAN
Feb 12, 2003

Matsushita to propose cutting annual pay hikes

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is planning to reduce or abolish regular annual pay hikes awarded under its seniority-based system, company officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2003

Starting all over again

Gowasan means "call off," "start again," or "bankruptcy." The term is originally derived from abacus calculation, where it refers to the shaking of the abacus to return all beads to their starting point after completing a calculation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 12, 2003

Kathleen Edwards: Failer

Singer-songwriters who take the confessional route run the risk of alienating listeners when they invite them into their psyches. Personality problems and moral inconsistencies are bound to be noticed. That's why so many artists hide their nakedness behind self-deprecation.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Life was but a stage for Japan's troubled genius

MY FRIEND HITLER And Other Plays of Yukio Mishima, translated by Hiroaki Sato. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 316 pp., $49.40 (cloth), $18.95 (paper). Though he is most famous as a novelist, Yukio Mishima was also a prolific dramatist. From 1949, when his first play was published, to 1969,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Role models for a changing nation

One welcome exception to the gloomy news in Japan last year was the unexpected awarding of a Nobel Prize in chemistry to an apparently ordinary company worker. Koichi Tanaka's steadfastness, lack of personal ambition and open, nice-guy persona were a refreshing throwback to a less cynical age, and his...
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

How green is your green?

What a difference a decade makes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

'10,000 yen painting' is an early van Gogh

An oil painting in Tokyo once valued at just 10,000 yen has been identified as an early work by Vincent van Gogh, it was revealed Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Marubeni to dissolve China food unit

Trading house Marubeni Corp. said Friday it will dissolve its unprofitable Chinese subsidiary Tianjin Ronghong Sales & Distribution Co. by the end of fiscal 2002.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 7, 2003

Woodgate latest casualty in ongoing fire sale by Leeds

LONDON -- Little over a year ago Jonathan Woodgate was public enemy No. 1 in English football following his conviction for affray after an attack on a student, Sarfraz Najeib.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2003

Kadokawa to buy film concern Daiei

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. said Thursday one of its units will pay 1.44 billion yen to acquire the entire operations of film producer Daiei Co.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2003

Hitachi-Mitsubishi chip deal OK'd

Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. obtained approval Thursday from their shareholders on a plan to spin off and integrate their semiconductor operations under a joint venture to be set up April 1.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Burgers to stay cheap but cheese will cost you

will end its discount campaign on cheeseburgers and "frankburger" hotdogs at most of its fast food outlets next week, company officials said Tuesday. In August, McDonald's cut the price of cheeseburgers to 79 yen and frankburgers to 75 yen, but beginning Monday, consumers will have to pay 120 yen for...
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Sumitomo posts 24.4% profit rise

Sumitomo Corp. said Tuesday it chalked up a group net profit of 36.62 billion yen for the April-December period, up 24.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Gunze plans to liquidate sales unit

Apparel maker Gunze Ltd. said Tuesday it will liquidate its sales arm, Gunze Sales Inc., on March 31 as part of organizational changes at the parent firm.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Sharp group net profit triples on year

Sharp Corp. said Tuesday that its group net profit during the October-December quarter logged a three-fold rise from the same period the previous year, hitting 13.97 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2003

Hitachi shoots into black

Hitachi Ltd. announced Tuesday that it posted a group net profit of 1.3 billion yen in the October-December quarter -- in stark contrast to a net loss of 115.8 billion yen a year earlier -- due to reduced costs and solid sales growth.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

Mitsubishi Electric sees profit surge

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Monday its business group posted a net profit of 1.1 billion yen during the October-December term, a turnaround from a net loss of 38.4 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

JGBs prove a hit with individuals

The first Japanese government bonds specifically targeting individuals moved quickly on Monday, the first day investors were allowed to place orders for them at commercial banks, securities houses and post offices.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 4, 2003

Refunded cash for working at home and a sumo day out

Greetings Greetings from 10,000 meters -- I am beginning this week's column from somewhere high over the Pacific Ocean on United Flight 897 bound for Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

Service firms in Darwinian struggle to get to top of food chain

Global food service giants are making inroads into the nation's office and hospital cafeterias, triggering mergers and acquisitions in the world's second-largest institutional meal market.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Jobless rate returns to 5.5%

A drain on retail and restaurant jobs that hit women particularly hard pushed the unemployment rate in December back up to a record 5.5 percent for the third time in a year.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years