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BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2004

BOJ board votes to leave monetary policy untouched

The Bank of Japan Policy Board left its monetary policy unchanged Thursday amid strong signs of economic recovery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2004

IRCJ positive on working to rehabilitate Kanebo

The president of the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan said Wednesday the government's revival body is positive about providing support to revive cosmetics maker Kanebo Ltd.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2004

Shinsei Bank's impressive revival

Thursday's listing of Shinsei Bank on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is good news. It is proof of how a failed and nationalized bank can reinvent itself as a going concern through efficient and innovative private management. The downside is that it took trillions of yen in taxpayer money to revive the bank,...
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2004

MFG names new Mizuho Bank chief

Mizuho Financial Group. Inc. said Friday that MFG Vice President Seiji Sugiyama will become president of Mizuho Bank, the group's largest retail unit.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2004

Shinsei Bank share price surges on TSE debut

Shinsei Bank shares debuted Thursday on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, marking a dramatic revival from the collapse of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan five years ago.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2004

Head of DaimlerChrysler Smart unit reportedly to be named MMC chief

Andreas Renschler, president of DaimlerChrysler AG subsidiary Smart GmbH, will take the helm of struggling automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. as early as April, industry sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2004

Full-fledged wage talks launched

Annual spring wage negotiations got into full swing Thursday with manufacturing-sector labor unions submitting their demands to management.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Feb 5, 2004

Japan mulls its future with Koizumi

What stance should Japan take in a world dominated by the American superpower? Is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi no more than an errand boy for bullyboy George W. Bush, as a Shukan Gendai headline implied last March? Is he an incompetent know-nothing who has casually thrown away Japan's precious pacifist...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2004

Japan turns up heat on North Korea as sanctions bill clears Lower House

The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that will allow Japan to unilaterally impose economic sanctions on North Korea, paving the way for its endorsement by the full Diet by the end of next week.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2004

Trade, tourism thrive on DPRK border

LONDON -- I spent the first two weeks of this year on a whistle-stop tour of Northeast China -- an area once known as Manchuria. The term Northeast China usually means the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Japan needs to emerge from behind America's apron: Wolferen

Japan may be the world's No. 2 economic power, but where diplomacy is concerned, Karel G. van Wolferen likens it to a boy who has to ask his parents (i.e. the United States) if he can go outside to play.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2003

Taxpayers face 2 trillion yen bill for bad loans

Taxpayers may have to bear nearly 2 trillion yen to cover soured bank loans to small businesses that were guaranteed by the government under a 1998-2001 program, according to a tally compiled by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2003

Coalition says consumption tax hike in 2007 could save pension system

The ruling coalition finalized an annual tax reform package Wednesday that vaguely advocates a consumption tax hike in fiscal 2007 as a means of saving the ailing public pension system.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2003

Saitama governments to pump Resona with taxpayer money

The prefectural and municipal governments of Saitama are willing to use roughly 1 billion yen in local taxpayer funds to claim a stake in Saitama Resona Bank, the local arm of Resona Holdings Inc., Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2003

Sound reasons inspire unusual strikes

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- News from France concerning the recent work stoppage by diplomats of the prestigious Quai d'Orsay is unusual, to say the least. Thousands of diplomatic officers, both in Paris and abroad, have abandoned their duties in protest of huge budgetary restrictions that have torpedoed...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

Mergers expected to halve number of municipalities

Mergers will bring the number of cities, towns and villages in Japan to half the current figure by March 2005, according to a Kyodo News survey made available this week.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2003

Japan Highway to focus on profit

The newly appointed president of Japan Highway Public Corp. pledged Thursday to prioritize the quasigovernmental firm's profitability and the repayment of its huge debts ahead of its planned privatization in fiscal 2005.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2003

Rakuten to add online brokerage to its portfolio

Rakuten Inc. officially announced Thursday it will acquire an online brokerage, DLJdirect SFG Securities Inc., marking the latest shopping spree by the nation's largest Internet shopping mall operator.
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2003

Planned bank edges toward fruition

The planned Nippon Industrial Bank, which will specialize in extending loans to small and midsize businesses, was granted a preliminary license from the Financial Services Agency on Oct. 31 to open in April, planners said Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2003

Economic assessment raised on business confidence boom

The government upgraded its assessment of the economy after business confidence in Japan improved significantly in the July-September period from the previous quarter.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 3, 2003

Valentine, Marines seal deal

Former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine has agreed to return to Japan to manage the Lotte Marines of the Pacific League, the team's general manager told Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2003

'Unfair' currency rate hit

Japan's attempts to weaken the yen in foreign-exchange markets give its automakers "an unfair advantage" in the United States, a top executive of General Motors Corp. said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2003

Bubbles feed on more than irrationality

GUATEMALA CITY -- Government officials in China and South Korea are confronted with the troubling prospects of a real estate bubble evident in soaring prices in parts of Shanghai and Seoul. After all, it was the bursting of the asset bubbles in Japan that set the stage for a lost decade of sluggish economic...
BUSINESS
Oct 16, 2003

Government says economy remains on track for recovery

The government said Wednesday the economy remains on a recovery track, but it cautioned against a possible adverse impact from fluctuations in the foreign-exchange and stock markets, as well as turbulence in the global economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2003

Dollar peg undermines China's economy

As Beijing is pressured to halt currency intervention, arguments are generally proposed in terms of the possible benefits to other countries. Such an argument is less compelling than one that points out how China might benefit from an end to its peg against the U.S. dollar. In any event, China's fixed...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2003

A veiled but strong G7 message

China maintains a de facto fixed exchange rate for the yuan. Japan has continued to intervene aggressively to prevent a sharp rise in the yen. In a veiled criticism of both countries' currency policies, a communique issued last weekend by Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers called for...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic