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BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2004

Outlook of most large companies positive: poll

Large companies with a positive business sentiment in the January-March quarter outnumbered their negative counterparts, but the employment outlook remained negative, according to a Finance Ministry survey released Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

Ailing firms increasingly exiting from pension scheme

An increasing number of companies are withdrawing from the Employees Pension under the guise of bankruptcy, an indication the safety net for employees is increasingly coming under threat.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2004

McDonald's Holdings posts 7 billion yen net loss

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Friday it posted a net loss of 7.12 billion yen for 2003, with weak sales and heavy restructuring costs forcing the company into its second consecutive losing year.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 12, 2004

The road to pinpointing corporations that care

When it comes to sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, the media never tire of airing dirty laundry.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2004

Nissho Iwai, Nichimen trading units set to merge

Nissho Iwai-Nichimen Holdings Corp. said Tuesday it will merge its core trading house units Nichimen Corp. and Nissho Iwai Corp. on April 1 to cut costs and speed up decision-making.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 2, 2004

The unofficial truth about Japan and its official economic recovery

So it's official. Or so the officials say. The Japanese government's latest monthly report on the state of the economy proudly announces that recovery is now steadily in progress.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2004

Online matchmakers hand ailing truckers a lifeline

Yasunori Fujikura knows the nuts and bolts of the trucking business -- as well as the pain of being behind the wheel in these tough times.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2003

Consumer-loan firms find eager allies

Switch on the television, and soon enough you'll see a commercial in which a famous comedian playing a hotshot young businessman screams every time his girlfriend orders expensive items in stores or restaurants. Then all his problems go away when the name of a consumer-loan firm pops into his mind, and...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 11, 2003

Guiding U.S. corporations to the greener side

Elizabeth Sturcken could easily have passed for a hotshot IT executive, dressed for the part in a business suit and low heels. Instead, the 37-year-old resident of San Francisco is a major player in the drive for environmental change.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2003

UFJ Bank to buy Nippon Shinpan

UFJ Bank Ltd. said Friday that it will acquire consumer credit firm Nippon Shinpan Co. as part of an ongoing effort to expand its retail banking business.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 16, 2003

Spring is in the air

It's party time in Tokyo -- again. You know, that twice yearly event when the capital's trendy restaurants and coffee shops seem to be overflowing with leggy, blonde models from overseas. They're here to make a few bucks, have a few parties -- and also have a stab at furthering their careers.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2003

Resona forecasts huge full-year loss

Bailed-out banking group Resona Holdings Inc. said Friday it expects a group net loss of 1.71 trillion yen for the year to March 31, reversing its June estimate of a 63.5 billion yen profit.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2003

NTT posts nation's largest operating profit

NTT Corp. posted the nation's largest operating profit for the fiscal first half of 2003.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 25, 2003

F.W. Rustmann

In 1992, F.W. Rustmann founded CTC International Group. This initiative, he reports, represented "an effort to fill the growing need for U.S. corporations to collect business intelligence and to protect their proprietary information. CTC is a pioneer in the field of business intelligence and a recognized...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2003

Mizuho, nine others cut back projections

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and nine other banks responded to business-improvement orders Friday by cutting their projected fiscal 2003 earnings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2003

Foreign execs coached through local game

The American executive blurted out a series of questions he had been unable to ask for a year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 2, 2003

Time running out for shrinking Japan

Last week when I started to research this article I went looking for foreign factory workers.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2003

Japan missing out on Chinese legal advice: lawyer

Japanese firms should make better use of local legal services to control the risk of doing business in China as the country continues its progress toward the "rule of law," a Shanghai-based lawyer said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

Baron of porn spills it all

HONG KONG -- His pictures beamed across the nation's television stations and front pages of all of its newspapers from down market tabloids to sober-sided broadsheets: the grin on his face was as wide as a melon and he held, fanlike, a huge wad of currency notes for all the world, like a television game...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2003

Uniqlo to sex up its product line as part of image makeover

Tadashi Yanai, chairman and chief executive of the company that owns the Uniqlo chain, used to liken his casual clothing stores to "vending machines" that continuously spit out products to thirsty consumers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 26, 2003

Thinking to build a house? Think Foothill Homes

A house is just a building. A home is filled with the warmth and individuality of its inhabitants. Which is where Robert Neil Hugo comes into the picture.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2003

Keidanren chief seeks reform ideas

OYAMA, Shizuoka Pref. -- Business leaders should take the initiative in pushing structural reforms aimed at reinvigorating the stagnant economy, Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Jul 24, 2003

Got milk delivery? Doorstep service doubles in last 10 years

Although once destined to share the same road to oblivion as black and white TVs and rotary telephones, doorstep milk deliveries have been staging a solid comeback.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2003

Popular nightclub a microcosm of pain, potential of deflation-beset Japan

Tokyo nightclub owner Sakura Masui is nowhere close to the modern-day geisha girl she appears to be, shuffling demurely in a purple kimono as she pours drinks and chats in hushed tones.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2003

Capital investment slides for sixth quarter in row

Capital investment dropped 3 percent in the January-March period from a year earlier, down for the sixth consecutive quarter, according to a Finance Ministry survey released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2003

Keep political donations transparent

Stung by a series of corruption scandals since last year, the ruling-coalition parties have begun talks aimed at updating some of the rules governing the financing of political campaigns in Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party seeks to raise the legal limit on donations that do not require disclosure...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Banks remain in the red for second straight year

Japan's seven major banking groups stayed mired squarely in the red for the second year in a row, spending more than 5 trillion yen to dispose of bad loans and shouldering over 3 trillion yen in stock-related losses for the 12 months ended March, business results confirmed Monday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 2003

Changes in consumer concerns

CONSUMER POLITICS IN POSTWAR JAPAN: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism, by Patricia Maclachlan. Columbia University Press, New York, 2002, 270 pp., $18.50 (cloth) This excellent study richly evokes the struggle and frustrations of Japanese consumer organizations in the post-World War II...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 1, 2003

Flailing Japanese companies, government turn to U.S. recovery 'guru'

Japan, still struggling to find a way out of its bad-loan quagmire, is looking for salvation from a "guru" credited with turning around whole sectors of U.S. industry.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

Sony group profit soars sevenfold

Sony Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in fiscal 2002 skyrocketed to 115.52 billion yen -- more than 7.5 times its 15.3 billion yen profit the previous year -- on strong movie sales and cost cutting.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan