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BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2001

NEC to expand merit-based pay

NEC Corp. said Thursday it will allocate a larger proportion of systems engineers' income through its merit-based pay system in response to increasing competition in the field of information technology.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2001

Father of train crash victim accepts graduation certificate

The father of a 17-year-old boy killed a year ago in a collision between two subway trains in Tokyo's Meguro Ward received a graduation certificate in his son's name on Wednesday from the high school the boy attended.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Troubled Mycal may ax two stores

OSAKA -- The ailing Mycal Corp. supermarket chain may close the Ofuna Saty store in Yokohama and Shinsaibashi Vivre store in Osaka as part of its three-year restructuring plan, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Nissan bonus payments to meet union demands

Nissan Motor Co. announced Wednesday it will pay its union members a bonus this year equal to 5.2 months in salary, meeting the demands of the automaker's labor union.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Four Tokyo 'shinkin' banks to unite

banks said Wednesday they will merge on an equal footing, possibly in January, to create the nation's eighth-largest shinkin bank in terms of deposits. The combined deposits of Asahi Shinkin Bank, Edogawa Shinkin Bank, Kyoseki Shinkin Bank and Bunkyo Shinkin Bank were 1.637 trillion yen as of Jan. 31,...
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Matsushita Communication in tieup

Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. said Wednesday that it has teamed up with U.S.-based Iridian Technologies Inc. to license basic biometric recognition technology and jointly develop next-generation systems for recognizing irises.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2001

Genetically modified corn slips into human food chain

The safety of the nation's food has recently been called into question following the discovery of StarLink corn in a shipment of corn imported from the United States.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2001

10 Nishi-Azuma climbers rescued

Ten middle-aged and elderly climbers were rescued Wednesday near the top of Mount Nishi-Azuma, which straddles the border of Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures, after spending two nights in a snowbound hut, police said.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2001

Eyes in the sky to combat illegal dumping

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. -- Searching for garbage from space -- it sounds like a science fiction plot of questionable quality.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 7, 2001

Bluetooth hopes to deliver 'new dimension in wireless technology'

Can't get enough of the Internet at your home and office?
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2001

Technical glitch forces J-Phone to delay launch of 3G mobile telephone

Cellular operator J-Phone Group announced Tuesday that it will postpone the planned launch of the next-generation mobile phone service (3G) from December to June 2002, due to technical problems caused by the latest version update of an international standard for the multimedia cellular phone.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2001

Deadline on breakup of NTT unlikely to be issued

A set of telecommunications-related bills the government aims to pass in the current Diet session is unlikely to include a proposed two-year deadline for the breaking up of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., the telecom minister said Tuesday.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 7, 2001

Climb rain forests to the clouds

If you've climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah Province, Malaysian Borneo, under the impression that you were heroically scaling the highest peak in Southeast Asia, I have bad news.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2001

Agribusiness at a crossroads

LONDON -- Every industrialized country in the world has this idealized image: the farmer, full of robust common sense, tending his pig or his flock on his small land-holding, sturdily helped by his hardworking wife and children. He is close to the earth and nature. It is true that, in Japan or America's...
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2001

Nonbank lenders join forces to enter 'shoko' market

Consumer financing firm Acom Co., Softbank Finance Corp. and nonbank lender Nissin Co. said Tuesday they have basically agreed to cooperate in the "shoko" collateral-free, high-interest loan business.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

Subscribers to i-mode top 20 million

The number of subscribers to NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s i-mode mobile phone service has topped 20 million, reaching the mark only two years after it began, NTT DoCoMo said Monday.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 6, 2001

High voltage rock 'n' roll

"I need oxygen," gasps singer Yuda, and there's little of that in Shimokitazawa's Yaneura live house tonight. One of the smallest venues in Tokyo is packed to the rafters to see Electric Summer, a band reaching for the stars and demonstrating they have the rocket fuel and never-say-die adventurous spirit...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2001

Salmonella detected in imported heart sacs

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has detected salmonella in unused U.S.-made heart sacs -- products suspected of causing inflammation in some 70 heart patients in Japan, ministry sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2001

Mitsubishi Motors raises net loss forecast to 250 billion yen

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has revised its consolidated net loss figures for the year through March 31 to around 250 billion yen due to slumping sales, recalls and restructuring spending, MMC officials said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2001

DoCoMo to raise discounts, reduce rates in price war

NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to raise its family phone discount rate to 20 percent from the current 15 percent and to reduce call rates for its mobile phone service, although the size of the cut has not yet been decided, in response to competition from other carriers, company officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2001

KSD paid Murakami's 'rent' in cash: prosecutors

Masakuni Murakami, a senior LDP lawmaker who resigned before being arrested in connection with the KSD bribery scandal, had an affiliate of the mutual aid organization hand over the monthly rent for his offices in cash rather than having it paid into a bank account, investigative sources said Saturday....
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2001

Japan's art for all seasons

Japan is a country with four seasons. This has long been an accepted fact, and most visitors to the country have been assured of it on numerous occasions. The progress of the seasons is a usual topic of conversation and is always mentioned at the beginning of any personal letter. Poetry, especially haiku...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2001

Gwyneth and Ben's last tango in L.A.

My friend Mari has a dilemma -- she just split up with her boyfriend of three years. They work in the same company, on the same floor, and Mari had hoped it was leading to a church wedding in Tuscany. Instead, it ended after a screaming, 10-hour argument, and with the boyfriend owing Mari a total of...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Penal Code change would target credit card fraud

The government endorsed a bill Friday that increases the maximum jail term for credit card fraud to 10 years from the current five years and imposes heavier fines, officials said.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Japan, South Korea firms see bigger benefits in forging more alliances

Kyodo News Relations between Japanese and South Korean business enterprises have deepened in the past two or three years with increases in business alliances and joint ventures as well as full-scale sales offensives in the Japanese market by firms such as Hyundai Motor Co.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2001

Antigraft law takes effect despite criticism of loopholes

An antigraft law that bars politicians and their secretaries from accepting money or goods in exchange for influencing local and central government officials took effect Thursday, despite criticism that it is full of loopholes.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 2001

Ex-OL, self-described everyman take Naoki prize

The winners of the Naoki literary prize for the second half of 2000 have been announced. This time, both winners -- "Planaria" by Yamamoto Fumio and "Vitamin F" by Shigematsu Kiyoshi -- are short-story collections, as were three of the other four short-listed works.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2001

Coca-Cola West moves in on Mikasa

Coca-Cola West Japan Co. on Thursday purchased a 30.8 percent stake in Mikasa Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and plans to increase its stake to 51 percent through a tender.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami