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COMMUNITY
Jun 30, 2002

Sagae folk enjoying the fruits of their labor

Japan may be famously crazy about cherry blossoms, but the sakuranbo of Sagae City, Yamagata Prefecture, don't attract attention until long after their white flowers have fallen off. Sakuranbo are fruit cherries, and Sagae and neighboring Higashine cultivate more of them than anywhere else in the country....
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2002

Lower taxes by March possible, Fukuda states

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda sounded a hopeful note Tuesday that tax cuts could be introduced by the end of March.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2002

Capital spending down in January-March

Capital spending by firms in all industries fell 16.8 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier to 11.05 trillion yen, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2002

Snow Brand Milk posts 71.74 billion yen net loss

Struggling Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Thursday it posted a group net loss of 71.74 billion yen for the 2001 business year, 35 percent worse than the year before, due to plunging sales in the wake of a food mislabeling scandal at its meat packing subsidiary.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Contractor focuses on middle-aged hires

A small contractor in Yokohama is challenging the country's rigid labor market with an unusual strategy -- recruiting the middle-aged.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2002

Colleges now cast as economic saviors

The government is turning its eye to the nation's universities in a bid to uncover a potential gold mine in venture business ideas and help lift the economy out of its prolonged slump.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2002

Uniqlo's profits on the wane

With Uniqlo's boom in casual clothing fading away, Fast Retailing Co. on Thursday cut its earnings projections for the business year to August from its previous estimate in January.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2002

Restructuring has Imperial Hotel ready to strike

As foreign hoteliers invade the Tokyo market, the prestigious Imperial Hotel Ltd. is busy planning a counteroffensive.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 12, 2002

The man who gave the JET program liftoff

The JET program marks its 15th anniversary this year. Today the country's largest teacher-exchange program, it all started from the simple dream of a young British banker called Nicolas Maclean.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2002

Sumitomo, Mitsui Chemicals unite to weather tough times

As a global wave of consolidation sweeps through the chemicals industry, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Japan's second-largest chemicals maker, is trying to get a jump on its domestic rivals by merging with industry No. 3 Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2002

Misawa Homes considering 120 billion yen writeoff

Misawa Homes Co. said Monday that it is considering writing off 120 billion yen in latent losses on property-backed loans, property assets and shareholdings in the business year ending March 31.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2002

Haseko calls on major banks for 150 billion yen in support

Struggling condominium developer Haseko Corp. unveiled a sweeping restructuring plan Thursday, calling for 150 billion yen in financial support from major creditor banks and a 10 percent cut in personnel expenses in three years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Feb 21, 2002

Japanese companies begin to build their brands

In October 1999, Nissan Motor Co. chief Carlos Ghosn said he planned to boost Nissan's brand power as part of a turnaround plan for the then ailing automaker. Many Nissan workers were initially confused.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2002

Jewelry 'middle market' slipping away

Following the pattern seen in Japan's clothing and accessories industries, in which ultra-expensive designer bags by Louis Vuitton are snatched up with as much vigor as cheap clothing from Uniqlo stores, the "middle market" is rapidly disappearing from the nation's gemstone and jewelry industry.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

Are cell phones becoming too disruptive?

Masahito Tagami spent some 900,000 yen on a relay antenna system when he opened an "izakaya" restaurant in the basement of a building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, last April, so that customers could use their mobile phones.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Tandoori meets takoyaki in Kansai's Little India

KOBE -- The port city of Kobe, with the largest concentration of Americans and Europeans in the Kansai region, a few of whom have lived in Japan since the Taisho Era (1912-1926), has long been known as one of Japan's most Westernized cities.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

Toshiba to pull out of DRAMs

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday it will terminate its business in dynamic random access memory chips next year in a reorganization aimed at securing profitability in its semiconductor business in fiscal 2002.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2001

Bad loans not only drag

I have often been asked of late whether the disposal of banks' bad loans will be followed by an economic pickup.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2001

Capital spending by manufacturers suffers 2.7% drop

Capital spending by Japanese manufacturers fell 2.7 percent in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier as the global economic slowdown, especially in information technology, depressed prospects for growth, a Finance Ministry survey showed Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2001

JAS marks down its profit estimate for '01

Japan Air System Co. on Thursday lowered profit projections for its current business year in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States, but also reported its highest-ever interim operating profits due to restructuring efforts.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2001

Postal unit fined for not declaring income

An affiliate of the Postal Services Agency failed to declare about 120 million yen in income over a three-year period up to March this year, informed sources said.
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2001

U.S. to ride second IT wave of recovery

Despite the global economic woes fueled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the U.S. economy will probably come out of its slump as early as the second quarter of next year, according to a senior Wall Street watcher who was recently in Japan.
BUSINESS
Oct 10, 2001

Yoshinoya's discounts bring in record profits

Yoshinoya D&C Co., Japan's largest operator of "gyudon" beef-on-rice restaurants, scored record sales and pretax profits on a consolidated basis for the first half of its current business year, company officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2001

ASEAN meet warns of China's rise

Japan and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations must consider how they can cooperate to compete with China, which is becoming more economically powerful, Asian business leaders said in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2001

Koizumi, Mbeki plan science pact

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South African President Thabo Mbeki will agree at a meeting in Tokyo this week to start negotiations on a science and technology cooperation pact, government sources said Saturday.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Sanyo revises downward its first-half forecast

OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co. said Friday it has revised downward its group earnings forecast for the first half of the business year, projecting sales of 1.04 trillion yen, down 1.9 percent from previous expectations.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Evacuated Miyake islanders get to grips with urban jungle

Motome Miyazawa's voice booms across rows of taro plants at a farm in Hachioji, western Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

Venture capitalists bank on restructuring mood

During the heady days of the information technology boom of the late 1990s through early 2000, many foreign venture-capital firms were lured to Japan in search of Internet-related business startups.

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