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BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

New cafes offer broadband experience

With most homes in Japan not yet ready for high-speed access to the Internet, more and more "broadband cafes" are sprouting up to offer firsthand experience with the latest Internet services.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2001

State warns NTT over competition issue

The government will reject a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. business plan if it fails to promote competition among NTT group companies, telecom ministry officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

Japan may formalize China import curbs

Upping the ante in its rankling, tit-for-tat trade war with China, the government could soon begin procedures to formalize emergency import restrictions on three Chinese farm products, government sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2001

DDI Pocket to lease PHS network to newcomer

DDI Pocket Inc., an affiliate of KDDI Corp., has basically agreed to lease out its personal handy-phone system communications network to a Tokyo-based startup telecommunications company, industry sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2001

Salaried households spent less in June

Households whose breadwinners work for companies spent less in June than a year before, the third straight month of decline and despite the first pickup in income in seven months, the government said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Matsushita posts first group loss

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. posted its first quarterly group operating loss in 30 years, because of a global slump in demand for technology, the electronics giant said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2001

A nasty taste of things to come

LONDON — Conventional wisdom has it that the future is impossible to predict, or at least to predict with any accuracy.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

'Fair' easier said than done

LONDON -- The term "fair competition" is a word like "motherhood." We all regard it as desirable and a good thing. But it is an economic proposition that is not easily attainable, and if it is achieved can only be maintained by constant vigilance. Some of those who pay lip service to the concept show...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 15, 2001

A new watering hole for the downtown set

When John Coyle, Ivy Neo and Gary Hier first teamed up to create What the Dickens!, the massively popular English pub in Ebisu, neither they -- the publicans -- nor us -- their patrons -- could have guessed what would come from such humble beginnings.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2001

The real backbone of Japan

Japan pays about 2,000 yen for each ton of iron ore it imports. Sheet iron made from the ore sells for 50,000 yen a ton and automobiles built with the sheet iron sell for 1 million yen a ton. The Japanese economy thrives by creating added value in the manufacturing of industrial products from raw materials....
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2001

NTT launches L-mode Internet service

In a bid to halt the ongoing demise of fixed phone services, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group on Friday launched L-mode, a text-based Internet browsing service that does not require a computer.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2001

Beijing agrees to participate in import curbs showdown

Tokyo plans to hold director-level talks with Beijing over a bilateral trade row centering on tit-for-tat import curbs, a top Japanese trade official said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2001

No winners in this trade dispute

China last week slapped special tariffs on Japanese cars, mobile phones and air conditioners in retaliation for Japan's "safeguard" import restrictions against Chinese farm products. It is the first time that the two nations have openly engaged in a trade row, although in the past there have often been...
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2001

Industrial output down for third straight month

Industrial output for May fell 1.2 percent from the previous month to mark the third consecutive month of decline, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2001

No revisions expected after text review concludes in July

An ongoing diplomatic row with South Korea and China over some history textbooks could enter a new phase next month.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2001

Brave new e-world needs to review basics

David Grigsby, a professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, recalls how just a few years ago newspapers blared: "Forget what you know about business. This is a new world, an e-world. You have to relearn everything."
LIFE / Travel
Jun 24, 2001

Spanish city puts its foot down on dog-do plague

MADRID -- To keep them clean, most cities have their own army of street cleaners. More meticulous cities employ leaf blowers and tree-branch cutters. Madrid goes so far as to employ its own force of dog-poop cleaners.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

LDP group urges retraction

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers dealing with agricultural trade issues adopted a resolution Friday urging the government to persuade China to retract its punitive import tariffs on Japanese products.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2001

Japan seeks to discuss escalating row

Japan will soon seek talks with China over Beijing's decision to take retaliatory steps against Tokyo's temporary import curbs on three farm products, Katsusada Hirose, vice minister for economy, trade and industry, said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2001

Matsushita plots Czech maneuver

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will open a software development laboratory in Pizen in the Czech Republic in November.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2001

Regional economies in recession

Regional economies are in the grip of recession, according to a quarterly survey released Wednesday by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001

Some like it steamed

Many Japanese who grew up in the 1950s still recall roba no panya, horse-drawn bakery wagons selling mushi-pan (steamed bread). Popularized by Kyoto-based bread manufacturer Vitamin Pan Rensa-ten Honbu in the latter part of the decade, by around 1960 the company boasted 160 roba no panya across the country,...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Diet passes laws to boost telecom sector

The Diet on Friday enacted a set of revised telecommunications laws that are intended to revitalize and promote fair competition in the telecom market.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

FSA gives eBank preliminary OK

The Financial Services Agency on Friday granted a preliminary banking license to eBank Corp., making it the nation's third Internet-based bank, the agency said.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2001

Major nonfinancial firms to earn 1.4% less in 2002: Nomura

The nation's major nonfinancial companies are expected to suffer a 1.4 percent drop in group pretax profits for the current business year ending March 31, 2002, after posting a hefty 33.5 percent rise in 2000, Nomura Securities Co. said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

LDP to take donations over the Net

In an apparent bid to attract a younger generation to help fund the party, the Liberal Democratic Party will accept individual contributions via the Internet starting late next week, LDP member Hiroshige Seko said Friday.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building