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BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2000

Sakura to purchase Minato Bank in 'friendly takeover'

Sakura Bank said Friday that it will acquire a controlling stake in Minato Bank, a second-tier Kobe-based regional bank -- the first takeover bid in the Japanese banking sector.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 10, 2000

A thick Kyoto sound, with all the right elements

"Thick," "intense," "heavy." These are the words people use to describe the new "Kyoto sound." The Kyoto band Elements is at the forefront of this movement, shown by the sellout sales of their latest recording, "Singular Sky," upon its release last month.
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2000

Daio Paper asks FTC to block Nippon-Daishowa integration

Daio Paper Corp. announced Friday that it has presented a report to the Fair Trade Commission stating that the planned business integration between Nippon Paper Industries Co. and Daishowa Paper Mfg. Co. violates the Antimonopoly Law.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jun 9, 2000

Twang with a twist strolls into Tokyo

The early days of country music are a catalog of demon yodelers, drunken banjo pickers and dreamy cowboy poets. It is difficult to find any hint of this raw beginning in country's current offerings. Nashville tends to look toward the Top 40 rather than its own twisted past for inspiration; the Dixie...
COMMUNITY
Jun 8, 2000

A mouthful of Crazy English goes down very well in Japan

Li Yang seems an unlikely proselytizer for internationalism through English language study. Not only is he not a native speaker of English, but prior to last week he had never even set foot outside of mainland China.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2000

Service allows cellphones to replenish debit cards

NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to experiment from next March with a service that will allow mobile-phone users to transfer money from their bank accounts to plastic cards used for electronic commerce, company officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2000

Russian women turn to the Net for love and a life abroad

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Yelena Sokolova was in a deep depression after she divorced her husband, and some friends decided to lift her spirits. They scanned a picture of her and placed it with a personal ad on an Internet site for those seeking marriage.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2000

Windswept town realizes gusts can be a clean money-spinner

TOMAMAE, Hokkaido — They tower above the ocean on bluffs and farmland, spinning like otherworldly contraptions misplaced on Hokkaido's bucolic coast. But the livestock don't seem to mind.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2000

Swing voters, blacklist loom large for poll

Swing voters are increasing, posing a threat to the ruling camp — the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and New Conservative Party — because many of them are critical of the current administration, pundits say.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2000

Midsize life insurers continue to polarize

Polarization among the nation's midsize life insurers is accelerating due to a business environment that is becoming increasingly severe, according to the fiscal 1999 earnings reports the seven firms had released as of Monday.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2000

Companies must re-engineer anew

Information technology has revolutionized the economic system of the United States, and it is believed the U.S. economy is now in a long-term, high-growth phase in which growth is being led by rising productivity.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2000

FRC, Softbank-led group near NCB deal

The Financial Reconstruction Commission and a consortium led by Softbank Corp. have bridged their differences over the purchase of the failed Nippon Credit Bank, a participant in the negotiations said Saturday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 4, 2000

Songs to be sung

Some of the world's most beautiful poems were sung in Japan well before the introduction of writing to record them. The writing came from China some 1,200 years ago, the songs are an even older oral tradition that was not recorded in words and preserved until the 8th century. The poems demonstrate the...
LIFE / Travel
Jun 4, 2000

Unlikely hero fights for Mindanao

MANILA -- The potential locked up in the island of Mindanao -- in its resources, its environment and, perhaps most importantly, its people -- is just waiting to be tapped.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2000

Large-scale mergers rose in 1999

The number of large-scale mergers of business companies as defined by the Antimonopoly Law increased in fiscal 1999 over the previous 12 months, the Fair Trade Commission said Friday.
OLYMPICS
Jun 3, 2000

Mizuno plans to dump ads featuring Chiba

Sporting goods manufacturer Mizuno said Thursday that it will not use swimmer Suzu Chiba in commercials it plans to air before the Olympics since the freestyle swimmer was left off the Japanese national team for the Sydney Games in September.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2000

DoCoMo tieup eyes i-mode-friendly ads

Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. and major ad agency Dentsu Inc. announced Thursday they have jointly set up an agency specializing in ads to be posted on DoCoMo's i-mode wireless Internet service.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2000

Softbank's bid for NCB stalls after disagreement with FRC

Talks broke down Wednesday between the Financial Reconstruction Commission and a consortium led by leading Internet investor Softbank Corp. on buying the defunct Nippon Credit Bank, the FRC said.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2000

Daihyaku Life told to cease operations

The Financial Supervisory Agency announced Wednesday that it has ordered Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance Co. to suspend operations -- the third collapse in the nation's life insurance sector.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2000

Tokio, Yasuda see double-digit profit gains

Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., two major Japanese casualty insurance firms, on Wednesday reported double-digit net profit increases for their group businesses in fiscal 1999.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Motherly love a hurdle for teens

In today's society, families are having fewer children, fathers are working more and mothers are clinging to their children with greater intensity, hampering children's growth, according to psychologist Yoshiomi Takahashi.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

BOJ assets ballooned by 33% in fiscal 1999

The balance of the Bank of Japan's assets rocketed 33.2 percent higher to 106.2 trillion yen in fiscal 1999 due mainly to huge lending to the money market arising from its zero-interest rate policy, the BOJ said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 31, 2000

Passerby hurt as man leaps to his death from store roof

A man who jumped to his death Tuesday from the roof of a department store in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward seriously injured a passerby in the fall, police said.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 31, 2000

Musical festivals

It's time again for the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto. The first was held nine years ago when many outstanding Japanese musicians gathered together, as they have every year since, to honor their teacher, Hideo Saito, with a combined musical performance.

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