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BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Aso rejects latest plan for RCC to pay more

A key LDP policymaker balked Wednesday at a proposal to allow the state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. buy collateral-backed bad loans at effective book value.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2002

Ministry wants to boost child-care leave for men

Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi has submitted to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a set of measures to deal with the nation's declining birthrate, including steps to have more men take paternity leave.
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2002

Past returns to haunt Taiwan's Kuomintang

HONG KONG -- The Kuomintang's chickens have come home to roost. The KMT, which was swept off the China mainland in 1949 by Communist forces, ruled Taiwan from then until two years ago, when it was defeated in the presidential elections by Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2002

Political lull comes to an end

This past summer was rather quiescent both politically and economically. About the only big story was former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's resignation from the Diet over allegations that she misused the state-funded pay of her legislative secretaries.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2002

Public backs road entity privatization

A majority of the people polled by Kyodo News support privatization of the nation's four public road entities but oppose a total freeze on construction of highways that would not be commercially viable.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 6, 2002

New transfer rule won't help rumor mill

LONDON -- The FIFA-imposed transfer window, which means Premiership clubs will not be able to sign any new players until Jan. 1, has brought different reactions from various parties.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 1, 2002

How can we be No. 3?

In a revelation no less stunning than if Mount Everest was suddenly surpassed as the world's tallest mountain or the Nile outstretched as the world's longest river, a July news report announced that Tokyo is no longer the world's most expensive city.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2002

SMBC eyes Arai-Gumi bailout move

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is considering providing Arai-Gumi Ltd., a medium-size construction company, with a bailout worth billions of yen, sources close to the deal said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2002

Protecting Japan's interests

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi's advisory panel on ministry reform came up with its final report in late July. On the basis of the panel's recommendations, the ministry this month will formulate an action plan on ways of implementing reform. A spate of scandals involving the ministry have prompted...
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2002

Market chaos poses danger to economy, Cabinet warns

The government on Thursday warned that downside risks are increasing for the Japanese economy due to volatility in global financial markets, but that the uptrend in Japan remains intact.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2002

Cities waging a new kind of bidding war

With Japan's public works projects having long been tainted by bid-rigging and bribery, the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture is taking an aggressive approach toward curbing such corruption.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2002

Little support for full deposit guarantee, survey shows

Respondents to a recent Kyodo News survey voiced mixed views over the government's plan to cap its refund guarantee on all deposits at 10 million yen on April 1.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

New law may raise prospects for homeless

In the Kamagasaki day-laborer district of Osaka, news about the soon-to-be passed bill to provide aid for the nation's homeless has been greeted with a mixture of hope and indifference.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Subcontractor mystery clouds airport expansion

OSAKA -- The bulk of subcontract work for the second phase expansion of Kansai International Airport has been given to a group believed incapable of handling airport construction, according to documents on subcontracted work and sources familiar with the matter.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 24, 2002

J. League introduces new boss

Former Kashima Antlers president Masaru Suzuki was officially elected J. League chairman at a J. League extraordinary executive committee meeting on Tuesday at a Tokyo hotel.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2002

Japan's Afghanistan support praised

An official from the UNICEF office in Afghanistan on Friday praised Japan's financial support for Afghan education projects as part of efforts to ensure peace in a society that has suffered decades of civil war and years of drought.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Governors' income averages 23 million yen

The governors of 44 prefectures made an average of 23.46 million yen in 2001, according to a Kyodo News tally conducted Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

I brewed it my way

In 1994, within months of microbreweries being legalized in Japan, two began operation, followed by around 50 the next year. Although the general public took little notice back then, this regulatory rejig was to reshape my life.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2002

Labour spinning backward

LONDON -- When its press becomes the story, a country is in a strange shape.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

China gives permission to salvage 'spy ship'

Beijing gave the go-ahead Tuesday for Japan to salvage a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in China's exclusive economic zone in December after a running gunbattle with Japan Coast Guard vessels.
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2002

See you at Almond

Earlier this year, the Dentsu Research Institute predicted that Japan's co-hosting of the World Cup would benefit the economy to the tune of 3.182 trillion yen. While Tokyo isn't hosting any of the games, its glitzy Roppongi district will likely play host to thousands of soccer fans from around the world...
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2002

The only way to clear debt burden

Stock prices for Japan's top banks have been rising lately despite the huge deficits they have suffered in the business year that ended March 31. Increases in loan losses are good news in the sense that they reflect progress in bad-debt write-offs. In the same year, the nation's seven banking groups...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2002

Aozora expresses fear over foreign investment

Softbank Corp. may sell part of its stake in Aozora Bank, raising the possibility of a tussle should a leading stake fall into foreign hands, Aozora Bank President Hiroshi Maruyama said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2002

Monetary policy to remain as is, central bank says

The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged Tuesday, deciding to keep the banking system awash with funds.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2002

'Pain' of NTT workers acknowledged

Telecommunications minister Toranosuke Katayama on Tuesday described the transfer of 100,000 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. employees to 100 new subsidiaries as "(necessary) pain in a transitional period."
BUSINESS
May 10, 2002

School vacation in fall seen as economic salve

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is drawing up an economic revitalization package featuring the introduction of a fall vacation for schools and a three-year plan to promote outsourcing of public-sector services, according to an interim draft report.

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