Search - international-report

 
 
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2000

Industrial output declines 0.8%; ministry unfazed

Industrial output in November declined 0.8 percent from the previous month, reversing an uptrend logged in October, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2000

English-education reform gets watered down

Imagine the fuss if Japan's car industry was producing a million defective cars a year. But for some reason no one bothers much if Japan's English-education industry produces roughly that number of defective English speakers each year.
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2000

1.8% growth eyed in 2001 forecast

The government is putting the final touches on its economic growth projection for fiscal 2001, with the Economic Planning Agency eyeing a target of around 1.8 percent, which would mark a third straight year of growth, government sources said.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2000

Conference to address endocrine disrupters threat

Amid mounting concerns over chemicals believed to mimic the functions of endocrines, scientists and policy experts from around the world will open a conference in Yokohama today to present new information and discuss the threat these synthetic chemicals pose to human health and the environment.
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2000

WHO pushes 'Massive Effort' on disease

Gro Harlem Brundtland has a mission. She said as much in her BBC Reith Lecture on population and health early this year. She will be saying it again this week in Okinawa at the followup meeting to July's G-8 summit.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2000

DoCoMo confirms push into U.S. via AT&T share deal

NTT DoCoMo Inc. officially announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement to acquire a 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless Services Inc. of the United States for 1.79 trillion yen, securing a foothold in the country for its next-generation mobile phone technology.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2000

Japan reconsiders the free trade agreement

Next January, Japan and Singapore will kick off a round of government-to-government negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement. The plans in the works reportedly call for signing the pact by the end of 2001 so that it will take effect in 2002.
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2000

Confusion rocks the alliance

The deadlock over the results of the U.S. presidential election is likely to undermine the administration that will be inaugurated next January. It remains to be seen if the United States, the world's only superpower, will continue to lead world affairs in the 21st century as it did in the last one....
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2000

Loochie Brothers rock out for Amnesty

At the close of the millennium, it is a sad fact that torture continues to be carried out in over 150 countries worldwide. "Rock Against Torture," an Amnesty International benefit concert to be held Nov. 19 at What the Dickens in Ebisu, aims to raise funds for the human-rights watchdog and publicize...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2000

A chance to reshape U.S.-Japan ties

Foreign policy is never a cutting-edge issue in U.S. presidential elections, and this year's campaign is no exception. Even when the candidates have ventured into the territory, the focus has been on China, North Korea or the role of U.S. forces in Europe or Africa or even Haiti. When Japan makes the...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hard lessons Japan failed to learn

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2000

Executives must obey the law

In a recent major shareholder suit, the Osaka District Court ordered 11 former Daiwa Bank executives to pay a total of $775 million (about 83 billion yen) in compensation for the $1.1-billion loss the bank suffered from illegal bond trading by a former employee of its New York branch. The ruling has...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Khatami to get red carpet; Mori to walk diplomatic tightrope

Reformist Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will receive a red-carpet welcome when he arrives in Tokyo at the end of this month on what Japanese officials describe as a historic visit that will usher in a new era for bilateral ties after years of near-estrangement.
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.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2000

Copyright law for a new age

The rapid spread of computer networks is creating a flood of digitalized information in a broad range of fields, including publishing, music, broadcast, movies and plays. This is leading to the rampant piracy of writers' copyrights and musicians' performing rights. Legal action is urgently needed to...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2000

Japan, Singapore to begin formal free-trade talks soon

In a significant departure from its traditional trade policy, Japan will open formal negotiations with Singapore by the end of this year on concluding a free-trade agreement between the two Asian countries, according to government sources.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Singapore free-trade talks to open

In a significant departure from its traditional trade policy, Japan will open formal negotiations with Singapore by the end of this year on concluding a free-trade agreement between the two Asian countries, government sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2000

1.4 trillion yen spent to curb yen's rise

In a rare detailed report released Monday, the Finance Ministry said monetary authorities spent 1.3854 trillion yen April 3 on a dollar-buying binge to curb the currency's rapid appreciation.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2000

Lebanon's Daily Star does battle on a new front

BEIRUT -- The Daily Star did not need to send a reporter to the front line to cover the first salvos of the 15-year civil war that nearly broke Lebanon's back. The newspaper's offices were already there.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2000

Panel calls for state bodies to disclose data

A government task force on Thursday proposed enacting a new law to promote information disclosure at 147 government-affiliated corporations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000

Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence

It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2000

G8 nations vs. the rest of the planet

On July 17, the United Nations University hosted a symposium on "The Kyushu-Okinawa Summit: The Challenges and Opportunities for the Developing World in the 21st Century." The conference was jointly organized by the Tokyo-based Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, the Toronto-based...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2000

G8 must act to save forests

There are few losses more profound than a forest laid waste and vanished.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2000

A new breed of workers

The traditional images of the Japanese "salaryman" and "office lady" are under threat from an unanticipated source: the young men and women expected to step into those roles. What some see as a crisis in Japan's employment picture others recognize as a potentially lasting social change. The Labor Ministry...
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2000

Official cool to NTT's call to revise law

A top posts and telecommunications regulator on Monday brushed aside a call by the head of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to revise the law governing NTT's operations to resolve a row between Japan and the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2000

Pakistani Islamists put a lid on reform

ISLAMABAD -- There are still no signs of religious activists taking to the streets across Pakistan, but the country is once again in the grips of a new controversy over religious tenets and their application in daily life.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2000

Japan's national security policy ignores public sentiment

The impression that one gets when looking at the evolution of Japan's security policy in recent years is that the Japanese public has consented to steps taken by Tokyo. After all, that is the fundamental expectation that democracies nurture. Following this reasoning, Tokyo should be developing a security...

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