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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2001

Putin seizes the moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a very lucky man. Instead of running a Russian spy network in some sleepy Central European country, as his training and career once suggested he would, he skyrocketed to the top position in the Kremlin. There, inexperienced and vulnerable, he faced not the consolidated...
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2001

Sumitomo Mitsui sees 150 billion yen loss

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. announced Wednesday a sharp increase in loan-loss charges and large losses in its shareholdings, prompting it to revise its 2001 earnings forecast from a consolidated net profit of 180 billion yen to a 150 billion yen net loss.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2001

Thai leader urges more investment, trade

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called on Japanese business leaders Tuesday to increase long-term investment and trade in Thailand.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2001

Asahi Bank forecasts net loss of 520 billion yen

Asahi Bank on Tuesday said it projects a 520 billion yen unconsolidated net loss for this business year as it sets aside a hefty 400 billion yen in loan loss reserves to rein in its ballooning bad-loan problem.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2001

Thai leader urges more investment, trade

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called on Japanese business leaders Tuesday to increase long-term investment and trade in Thailand.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2001

University probes accident at cosmic ray laboratory

The University of Tokyo is conducting an investigation into a major accident that occurred Monday at its Super-Kamiokande cosmic ray research facility in Gifu Prefecture, where the groundbreaking discovery that neutrinos have mass was made in 1998.
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2001

JAL, JAS to merge to beat aviation slump

Japan Airlines Co. and Japan Air System Co., the nation's No. 1 and No. 3 air carriers, agreed Monday to integrate to create the world's sixth-largest airline in terms of passenger miles.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2001

Space station blues -- again

This month marks a milestone for the International Space Station. As of Nov. 2, there had been a continuous human presence on the orbiting lab-in-progress for exactly one year. Besides the three crews that have successively called it home, 14 spacecraft had visited. Eighteen space walks had been carried...
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2001

Asahi says markets don't understand as shares plunge

Asahi Bank President Yukio Yanase said the sharp plunge in Asahi shares Thursday was caused by the market's poor understanding of its strategy, though he failed to offer new information that would ease concerns about the major bank.
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2001

Shiokawa repeats budget vow

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa reiterated his view Wednesday that it would be ineffective to compile a second supplementary budget to finance pump-priming stimulus measures.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2001

Law aims at privatizing JR units

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry announced Thursday it will introduce new legislation to fully privatize East Japan Railway Co., Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and West Japan Railway Co. on Dec. 1.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2001

Insurer safety net in trouble

Life insurers can no longer afford to keep funding the safety net of the Life Insurance Policyholders Protection Corp., which makes payments for failed insurers, a top industry official said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2001

Yasuda cracks the whip on merger procedure

Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and two other nonlife insurers will try to hasten work on their coming merger, the insurer's president said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2001

Bond cap pledge no longer a pledge

The government will consider making antiterrorism measures and logistic support to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan exempt from the 30 trillion yen cap on new bond issues for this fiscal year, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 14, 2001

Singapore free trade pact set to be signed by yearend

Japan and Singapore effectively concluded negotiations on a comprehensive free trade arrangement Friday, opening the way for Japan to conclude its first FTA by the end of this year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2001

Country roads take them to new homes

Get away. Away from squeezing yourself into a packed train, making your way in a slow-moving human tide up stairs and through ticket gates. From walking in a crowd like a soldier ant, trotting ahead to avoid cigarette smoke from a man in front, only to breathe in foul diesel fumes at intersections on...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2001

Singapore free trade pact seen concluded by yearend

Japan and Singapore effectively concluded negotiations on a comprehensive free-trade arrangement Friday, opening the way for Japan to conclude its first FTA by the end of this year.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Oct 3, 2001

Online traders ready for market to bottom

Online traders have shown more gumption than other investors in recent weeks, shrugging off worries about the slowing global economy.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2001

Backing of U.S. revives debate on SDF

A senior Defense Agency official looked excited as the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk prepared for its Sept. 21 departure from the Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture with an escort of Maritime Self-Defense Force ships.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2001

G7 ministers to teleconference

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that finance ministers from the Group of Seven countries would hold a telephone conference that night.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2001

Debate, don't deploy SDF: ex-bureaucrats

Two former top bureaucrats want the government to tell the international community what Japan can do within the limits of its war-renouncing Constitution to help the expected U.S.-led military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2001

BOJ watching over economy in wake of terrorist attacks

The Bank of Japan is on its guard against further economic turbulence in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in the United States, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

Panel pushes early abolition of capital gains tax option

The Tax Commission on Tuesday drafted a basic position paper on securities tax reform, including a plan to abolish the withholding tax option on capital gains.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Bomb threats made against offices, hotels

Bomb threats were made Tuesday afternoon against major hotels and office buildings housing U.S. banks in and near Tokyo, but the Metropolitan Police Department said it believes they were pranks.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2001

Mizuho changes profit forecast into 260 billion yen loss on Mycal

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the largest banking group in Japan, has announced that it will plunge deeply into the red in the first half of fiscal 2001 on losses incurred by the collapse of Mycal Corp. and losses at one of its subsidiaries.
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2001

January eyed for stock tax reform

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday he hopes to implement securities tax reforms in January after discussing them during the extraordinary Diet session to be convened this month.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Islanders' concerns over cash grow

More than half of the people evacuated from Miyake Island following the eruption of Mount Oyama a year ago are experiencing economic difficulties, according to a recent survey by Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Tax panel to list proposals in September

A financial affairs subcommittee of the government's tax panel plans to compile a set of tax reform proposals on stock transactions by the end of September, the head of the subcommittee said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2001

Infrastructure spending key to town mergers

The government plans to emphasize social infrastructure investment as part of a comprehensive plan to support mergers of cities, towns and villages, according to a draft plan obtained by Kyodo News.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person