Search - company

 
 
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2001

Troubled, short-lived leaders now the norm

Japan has had nine short-lived prime ministers over the past 12 years since the late Noboru Takeshita was forced to resign in 1989, having only two serve for two years or longer.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Ex-actress wins translation award

"The last profession I would recommend to anybody is translating contemporary Western plays," said actress-turned-translator Mayuko Tokizawa. The otherwise dissuasive comment is an encouragement coming from Tokizawa, cowinner of the eighth annual Yuasa Yoshiko Award, Japan's accolade for translators...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Appliance unions to seek 500 yen raise

Labor unions at Japan's top electrical appliance makers are expected to settle for a 500 yen hike in the average basic monthly wage for fiscal 2001, union sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2001

'Perverse' individualist embraces opportunity where others see gloom

Makoto Naruke describes himself as a "perverse man" who avoids following the crowd and does things that others dare not. Many people questioned his actions when he quit as Microsoft Co. president last April, but Naruke simply pointed out he became sick of the post after nearly nine years of service....
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2001

JR firms see stagnant sales growth

The seven Japan Railway companies on Friday unveiled their business management plans for fiscal 2001, with four of them projecting sales of almost the same level as that of the current fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2001

Bill to tighten copntrol over NTT, boost competition

Telecom Minister Toranosuke Katayama said Friday he is ready to persuade Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to accept a proposed bill tightening regulations on NTT aimed at promoting competition within the telecom market.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2001

A real woman is hard to find

The problem with "women's movies" is this: Too often, they make you think that the world out there belongs to men. Otherwise, how could they keep painting the same old pictures of women struggling to gain self-respect, raise children, find true love, bond witheach other, etc.? In the real world, women...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Today could have Mori giving notice

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to express his intention to resign today, a senior official of the LDP's largest faction said Friday.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 10, 2001

I'm a loser bunny . . . so why doncha pay me?

On a busy sidewalk in Harajuku, a man dressed in a suit sits drinking from a hip flask of Scotch, surrounded by five pink, fluffy rabbits.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

Fifth suspect held for harboring Red Army chief

OSAKA -- A man in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of harboring Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group, investigative sources said.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

MPD officer arrested for bribery

Metropolitan Police Department officer was arrested Thursday on suspicion of accepting bribes from a company president in exchange for influencing police officers investigating a case involving his firm, police sources said.
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.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji