Search - 2000

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2001

Survey finds kids nod off later now than in the past

The number of children age 5 to 6 who go to bed at 10 p.m. or later has quadrupled over the past 20 years, according to a recent survey by an association on child health.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2001

Major banks' dud loans soar 1.7 trillion yen

The combined balance of the 16 major banks' bad loans, classified as requiring "special attention" for recovery, soared by 1.73 trillion yen in fiscal 2000 to 6.3 trillion yen, according to a Financial Services Agency report released Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2001

MTFG, Sumitomo Mitsui put different spin on bad loans

Two major banking groups that announced their earnings results for fiscal 2000 Thursday showed diverging strategies as they strove to balance mounting bad loans with immediate earnings.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Tobishima reports return to profit

Construction firm Tobishima Corp. said Wednesday its group net balance returned to the black in fiscal 2000, mainly due to sales of securities holdings.
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
May 24, 2001

Foreign managers bring change to corporate life

Takashi Sato of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. fears he may be transferred because of his poor command of English -- a potentiality that was unthinkable until last year.
JAPAN
May 23, 2001

Mental maladies at work on rise

The number of workers certified by the government as being eligible for compensation for mental disease increased to 36 in fiscal 2000 from the previous year's 14, according to a government survey made available Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2001

Promise chief invited to share wisdom at Harvard University

Harvard Business School last month invited Hiroki Jinnai, president of major Japanese consumer moneylender Promise Co., to field student questions in a forum on the firm's growth strategy.
JAPAN
May 15, 2001

Former examiner denies leaking dental questions

Motoo Niwa, a former examiner of the National Dentistry Examination, pleaded not guilty Monday before the Tokyo District Court to a charge of leaking examination questions to students last year.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2001

Nonresident investors slow their buying

Nonresident investors remained net buyers of Japanese stocks in fiscal 2000, but the net purchase amount was the smallest since fiscal 1990, when Japan's stock market bubble collapsed, the Finance Ministry said Monday in a report compiled on a settlement basis.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 6, 2001

Drumming up some PR for the old neighborhood

Most of the current travel-information programs you see on TV are stylistic offshoots of TBS's long-running "Soko ga Shiritai," which has been off the air for several years now. One of the few variety shows that has done something different with the format is TV Tokyo's "Shutsubotsu! Ad-Machikku Tengoku"...
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2001

Retail prices off a record 0.5%

Consumer prices dropped a record 0.5 percent in fiscal 2000 for the second successive year of decline, led by lower prices of fresh vegetables and industrial products, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Hospitals hurt by competition

Medical institutions are struggling to survive in the wake of a government policy to curb national medical expenses from the current 30 trillion yen a year.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2001

Test track to help find reasons for train derailment

The Railway Technical Research Institute will lay a test track as early as this autumn to run experiments aimed at shedding light on the causes of train derailments, such as the fatal Tokyo subway collision in March 2000, institute officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2001

'Gyudon,' PCs, phone fees tossed into new CPI mix

The government will soon add mobile phone fees, personal computers and "gyudon" beef bowls to items monitored when compiling monthly consumer price indexes as part of a reshuffle of the gauges' components, government officials said Wednesday. The new items will be used to calculate the CPIs starting...
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2001

Bankruptcies increase 12.1%

Corporate bankruptcies in Japan rose 12.1 percent in fiscal 2000 from a year earlier to 18,926 cases, while debts left behind surged 130.7 percent to 25.98 trillion yen, a record postwar high, a private research institute said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

10% of seniors need external care

About 10 percent of all seniors have been recognized as in great need of external assistance under the public nursing-care insurance system a year after its launch, according to the Health Ministry.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN:...
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2001

Daiwa 8 billion yen short as Tokyo Mutual fails

OSAKA -- Daiwa Bank said Friday that it expects to post unconsolidated net losses of 8 billion yen for fiscal 2000, which ends March 31, due to unrecoverable funds extended to the failed Tokyo Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 22, 2001

I'll see your spell and raise a goblin

Akira Kan wipes away the beads of sweat rapidly gathering on his forehead. The 15,000 yen that Pavel Matousek is asking for Juzam Djinn is beyond his budget. But the alternative -- trade in his Mox Pearl and Island of Wak-Wak -- seems like a bum deal.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2001

Labor dispute lawsuits topped 2,000 last year

The number of labor dispute lawsuits filed across the country in 2000 topped the 2,000 mark for the first time, the Supreme Court revealed in a recent report.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 21, 2001

Where there's a spark, there's green tourism

If the thought of an entire mountaintop in flames sounds like a nightmare or a Dali painting, you'll be surprised to learn that noyaki, a land conservation technique in Kumamoto Prefecture's Aso county, looks exactly like that from a distance. Local environmental group Aso Greenstock has been teaching...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 18, 2001

Corey Paul: King of the Eastern League

Hoping to make the Seibu Lions' opening day roster is Corey Paul, a third-year-in-Japan American outfielder who also happens to be the third foreign position player on the team's roster. He's competing with teammates Alex Cabrera and Scott McClain in a system where non-Japanese player quotas allow each...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Hedges, rooftop gardens grow in Tokyo

While you won't find any virgin forests in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, you will find hedges -- nearly 30 km of them. Ironically, these strips of greenery were planted to combat the problem of the ward's dearth of other vegetation. These verdant stripes, bordering roads and buildings, are part of a ward-engineered...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 6, 2001

Two perspectives on a gray tomorrow

CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN JAPAN AND THE U.S.: Practices and Policies, edited by Susan Orpett Long. Routledge: London, 2000. 358 pp., $100. By the year 2025, some 26 percent of Japan's population will be over 65 years old, meaning that society and families will need to cope with the various needs of...
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2001

Exxon unit set to absorb subsidiary

TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K., a Japanese unit of the Exxon Mobile Corp. group, said Wednesday it will absorb its wholly owned subsidiary Kygnus Sekiyu Seisei K.K. on July 1.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2001

French firms profiting from Japan

For many Japanese, France has long represented wine and fashion. That image, however, is changing with French companies in other business fields increasing their presence in Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Nukaga to answer to KSD query on Feb. 26

Former Cabinet Minister Fukushiro Nukaga agreed Monday to give unsworn testimony to a closed-door Diet ethics panel over money he received from the scandal-hit mutual-aid insurance group KSD, Liberal Democratic Party officials said.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Bankruptcies down but liabilities rise

Corporate bankruptcies declined 5.8 percent in January from a year earlier to 1,358 for the first decrease in 15 months, but the failed firms' liabilities jumped 60.6 percent to 969.65 billion yen, a private research institute said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Bankruptcies down but liabilities rise

Corporate bankruptcies declined 5.8 percent in January from a year earlier to 1,358 for the first decrease in 15 months, but the failed firms' liabilities jumped 60.6 percent to 969.65 billion yen, a private research institute said Thursday.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?