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BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Fuji Heavy logs profit, record sales

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. announced Friday that its group profit increased for the first time in two years and that it logged record consolidated sales in the 2001 business year, due to cost cuts and the weakened yen.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Mitsui O.S.K.'s group profit dips

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. said Friday its group net profit fell 3.6 percent in fiscal 2001 due primarily to higher sales costs, lower transportation fees and the sluggish global economy.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Takeda Chemical pretax profit up

OSAKA -- Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. said Friday its group pretax profit increased 37 percent to 359.21 billion yen in fiscal 2001 from the previous year due to brisk sales of medical products at home and abroad, and the weak yen.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Yasuda in final talks on tieup with Saison

Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the nation's third-largest nonlife insurer in terms of assets, is in final talks to turn Saison Automobile & Fire Insurance Co. into an affiliate, Yasuda Marine said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Trading house Nissho Iwai's net profits plunge 94%

Trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. said Thursday that its group net profit plunged 94.1 percent to 1.18 billion yen in the year to March 31, due chiefly to a 28 billion yen cut in interest income and a string of special losses.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Unimat chief tops taxpayer list in 2001

Yoji Takahashi, head of the Unimat group, which operates major office coffee vendor Unimat Offisco Corp., was Japan's top individual taxpayer last year, according to a report listing the nation's top 100 taxpayers in 2001, released Thursday by the National Tax Agency.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2002

Rude awakening for East Timor

JAKARTA -- The world's youngest democracy will have to stand on its own feet from Sunday. On this day East Timor will become the first newly independent nation of the 21st century. After more than 400 years of colonial rule by Portugal, 25 years of Indonesian occupation and over two years under U.N....
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Japan dismisses credit ratings

Yasuo Fukuda, the top government spokesman, said Thursday that credit-rating agencies such as Moody's Investors Service Inc. have underestimated Japan's economic strength.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Yamanouchi suffers 5.8% decline in pretax profit

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. said Thursday its group pretax profit fell 5.8 percent to 100.02 billion yen in fiscal 2001 due to a rise in research and development costs and a decline in sales and royalty revenues abroad for its antigastritis medicine.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Minebea to liquidate overseas units

Minebea Co., a maker of miniature ball bearings, at the end of September will liquidate two subsidiaries in the United States and Singapore as part of operational restructuring.
SOCCER / World cup / COHOSTING
May 16, 2002

World Cup pie gets bigger

The head of soccer's world governing body FIFA is never likely to be called a shrinking violet. In the world of sport, perhaps only the head of the International Olympic Committee has a more powerful voice. When he talks, everyone listens.
JAPAN
May 16, 2002

Ministry warns of drastic increase in pension premiums

Company employees will be forced to pay about a quarter of their salaries as pension premiums in fiscal 2025 if current pension levels are maintained, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2002

Yamaha Motor posts record profits for '01

Yamaha Motor Co. said Wednesday it posted record group pretax profits of 32.7 billion yen in fiscal 2001, up 30.3 percent from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2002

Sharp to form AC tieup in Egypt

OSAKA -- Sharp Corp. will form a technology tieup with an Egyptian company to produce air conditioners for sale in the Middle East and Africa, Sharp officials said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
May 16, 2002

Put your Spidey skills to the test

This summer, Spider-Man is the luckiest superhero alive. Not only does he have a hit movie that has left critics and audiences impressed, he's also in a very good new game for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and especially Xbox.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2002

Tokyu Construction names Ochiai new president

Tokyu Construction Co. on Tuesday named Senior Managing Director Kazuo Ochiai as its new president, replacing Kuniyoshi Ihara, who will continue in his concurrent job as chairman.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2002

NEC, Fuji Heavy to team up on battery development

NEC Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. said Tuesday they will establish a joint venture later this month to develop a high-performance rechargeable battery for hybrid vehicles.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2002

LDP approves two bills to break apart JNOC

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party gave the go-ahead Tuesday to two bills designed to effectively dissolve the debt-ridden Japan National Oil Corp. in March 2004.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2002

Just a word in your ear

A visitor to "Sesshu -- Master of Ink and Brush" at the Tokyo National Museum, Ueno, stops in front of one of the paintings. She has just been told to do so by the audio guide she's holding in her hand, which then launches into a detailed explanation of the painting's historical background and notable...
BUSINESS
May 14, 2002

Itochu, Hitachi to team up on info systems development

Hitachi Ltd. and Itochu Corp. said Monday they have agreed to form a comprehensive alliance in the information technology sector.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2002

IY Bank admits double-billing 4,000 accounts for bank fees

IY Bank, the banking unit of retailer Ito-Yokado Co., said Monday that 4,000 accounts were erroneously double-billed for monthly fees.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 12, 2002

All right, now here's the skinny . . .

People with list fetishes can get off on the new TV Asahi variety show, "Japan's Best 100" (Sunday, 6:56 p.m.), which each week runs down the Top 100 products, services or ideas related to a given topic. The premiere show covered "all you can eat" restaurants throughout Japan. Perhaps as a kind of rebuttal...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 12, 2002

Poetry that's music to the ears of millions

POEMS OF THE GOAT, by Chuya Nakahara, translated by Ry Beville. American Book Company, Richmond, VA, 2002, 77 pp., $15/2500 yen (paper) Why do some writers get translated and others -- better, more deserving -- remain obscure? This is a question that Ry Beville, a young Virginia native, asked himself...
JAPAN
May 11, 2002

Media bodies terrified by privacy legislation

Newspaper editors, publishers, broadcasters and freelance journalists across the country are vehemently protesting that two bills now in the Diet would gravely undermine freedom of the press.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 11, 2002

Takanao Muramatsu

Bright and bouncy Harajuku in Tokyo has been good to a lot of people. Takanao Muramatsu published a book, "Harajuku Success Story," for which he interviewed more than a hundred people who succeeded in business in Harajuku. The trendy district has been good to Muramatsu too. He commemorated the name in...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’