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EDITORIALS
Jan 25, 2001

Scandal threatens the Mori Cabinet

An unfolding bribery scandal surrounding an insurance group for small business led to the resignation of Mr. Fukushiro Nukaga, state minister for economic and fiscal policy, on Tuesday. Just a week earlier, Mr. Takao Koyama, a Liberal Democratic member of the Upper House, was arrested on charges of receiving...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2001

Sega may kill off Dreamcast hardware

Sega Corp. said Wednesday it is considering stopping production of hardware for its loss-making Dreamcast video game consoles, pulling out of the home-use game console business and instead supplying game software to its rivals.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2001

Four polyethylene firms plan to merge operations

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Showa Denko K.K., Tonen Chemical Corp. and Nippon Petrochemicals Co. plan to merge their polyethylene business, company sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2001

Toyobo shifts focus

Major spinning firm Toyobo Co. will shift the emphasis of its business from traditional mainstay textile products to more profitable nontextile areas such as chemicals and biotechnology-related products, according to company officials.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2001

Pub chain taps retiree workforce

After his tavern went bust, Tadakazu Kachi had nowhere to turn until he had a chance conversation with the elderly owner of a drinking establishment that was thriving.
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2001

Nomura eyes pole position for new pensions

Nomura Securities Co. is preparing for the expected introduction of a new defined-contribution pension program modeled on the U.S. 401(k) plans later this year.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2000

Taking a step toward transparent markets

Foreign investors and financial institutions have often criticized the Japanese financial market for being too ambiguous in its regulatory procedures and, in general, for still being a "closed" market.
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2000

The miraculous manifestation of a man of the cloth at Xmas

T'was 10 days before Christmas, and all through the house . . . complete and utter panic! Who to interview for Christmas Eve? Jim Carey (promoting his seasonal movie "The Grinch") has come and gone -- along with most of the foreign community (for the holiday break). As for the Japanese, they are all...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

'Open source' forums search for new models in post-IT era

KYOTO -- "Open source," a now familiar term on the Internet, originates from a method of developing computer software that has enabled the creation and continuous improvement of the successful Linux system.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 21, 2000

Celebrating France-Japan relations with a toast

The peaceful town of Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture might not be Japan's most international city, but Jean-Pascal Noirault, 30, and Mikiko Kurumada, 29, are determined to change that.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 13, 2000

IMG a major player in pro sports

What do people think of when you mention IMG? For most, it's money, for some it's exploitation, for others it's sports promotion, and, thanks to my friend Rick Roa at IMG's Tokyo office, for me it's the Playmate twins Carol and Darlene Bernaola.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2000

World's tallest building planned in South Korea

South Korea's Lotte Group is to construct the tallest building in the world -- nearly one-third as tall again as the highest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower in Yokohama -- at a cost of some 1.2 trillion won, over $1 billion.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2000

Two countries, one system?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Last week, Willy Wo-Lap Lam lost his job as the China correspondent on the South China Morning Post. That technically he resigned rather than be "promoted" to a non-China-related job is irrelevant, as it was clear that he was not going to be allowed to continue writing his weekly...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 22, 2000

Connecting the dots

It's hard to believe, but there is some organization to the Internet. The libertarianism that seems to be the dominant ethos rests not-too-lightly atop a neatly organized technical foundation. It has to be this way: The Net is a network of addresses and someone somewhere has to make sure that they hook...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2000

APEC gearing up for the New Economy

WASHINGTON -- Laying the groundwork for a secure, stable and prosperous Asia-Pacific region is not the kind of work that generates dramatic headlines. But that is the work the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum does day in and day out, with significant benefits for business, workers, investors and...
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2000

Shops continue discriminatory practices

A year has passed since the Shizuoka District Court issued a landmark ruling that awarded damages to a Brazilian journalist for being refused service at a jewelry shop in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, simply because she was foreign.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 8, 2000

Nihongo dekiru?

Nihongo dekiru? Since Amazon.com opened for business, its biggest foreign market has been Japan. The company has about 193,000 customers here and they ring up about $34 million worth of sales. Mind you, the domestic Japanese market for online book sales is only $46 million. (In the name of full disclosure,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2000

Economy inspires cautious optimism

The Bank of Japan's latest quarterly "tankan" survey of business sentiments, conducted in September, provides further evidence that the Japanese economy is slowly recovering from its worst postwar recession. Leading the recovery are large corporations riding the crest of the information-technology revolution....
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2000

Firms continue to be optimistic: 'tankan'

The outlook of the nation's corporations -- particularly large manufacturers -- continued to improve over the past three months, according to the latest quarterly "tankan" business sentiment survey, released Tuesday by the Bank of Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Quick economic steps said crucial

The need for Japan and other Asian countries to make quick decisions on economic policies is growing in step with the pace of economic globalization, according to Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2000

Copyright law for a new age

The rapid spread of computer networks is creating a flood of digitalized information in a broad range of fields, including publishing, music, broadcast, movies and plays. This is leading to the rampant piracy of writers' copyrights and musicians' performing rights. Legal action is urgently needed to...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Intended mob target unfazed by wiretap law

KOBE -- When the controversial wiretapping legislation was passed in the Diet last year, supporters claimed society as a whole would benefit because police would be able to track organized crime more efficiently.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2000

Bandai to spin off its network division

Bandai Co., a major toy maker, will spin off its network division and turn it into a subsidiary later this week to raise the efficiency of its network entertainment business, the firm announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

Hayami defends interest rate

OSAKA -- Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday that the BOJ's decision Aug. 11 to abandon its "zero-interest-rate" policy was made after fully taking into account local economic conditions across the country.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Osaka chamber to open B2B market

OSAKA -- The Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday announced that it will set up an electronic commerce market on the Internet for small businesses in October, in cooperation with other regional chambers of commerce and industry.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2000

FSA approves cross-sales at life, nonlife insurers

The Financial Services Agency has decided to allow life and nonlife insurance firms to sell each other's products for commission fees, industry sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2000

DDI, KDD, IDO may spin off, merge cell units

DDI Corp., KDD Corp. and IDO Corp., which are to merge to form KDDI in October, are considering spinning off their respective cellular phone businesses and integrating them under a cellphone subsidiary to be established in November, sources close to the firm said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2000

Trade framework for Asia requires neighborhood effort

On July 19 the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) held the fifth Asian Neighbors' Forum, with participants freely ex- changing opinions over two main themes -- "Searching for a new model of Asian regional cooperation" and "The progress of globalization and cooperation among Asian...
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2000

Yoshimoto Kogyo branches into entertainment catering

OSAKA -- Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., a major, Osaka-based entertainment firm, has found yet another business area to cash in on -- entertainment catering. The move, according to Yoshimoto officials, is part of its business diversification plan as it goes into the 21st century.

Longform

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