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BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2000

Confidence among firms improving

A quarterly business and investment survey released Wednesday by the Economic Planning Agency shows confidence among Japanese companies about the domestic economy improved considerably in the April-June period.
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2000

Getting the measure of a master suitsmith

Vijay Wadhwani is an international tailor. A very super-duper master craftsman, who runs a miniempire of cutters, machinists and hand stitchers in Hong Kong under the name "NobleHouse." His job is to travel the world to court customers, discuss clients' needs and take the full complement of 30 required...
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Stimulus policy should continue: Imai

While acknowledging that the much-anticipated economic recovery has become more evident, Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), is emphasizing that the government should continue its current stimulus-oriented fiscal and monetary policies for the foreseeable...
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2000

Enron plans power-ful inroad

As business opportunities loom with the deregulation of Japan's mammoth electricity market, Enron Corp. of the United States is preparing to launch comprehensive energy services in the world's second-largest economy.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2000

Sales agents for Snow Brand go bankrupt

Approximately 30 of the 500 sales agents for Snow Brand Milk Products Co. in six prefectures in western Japan have effectively been put out of business by the June 29 outbreak of food poisoning linked to milk made at the company's Osaka plant, government officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2000

Nissan might reconsider plant investment: Ghosn

Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Friday that the firm may reconsider a plan to put new investment in its Sunderland plant in northeastern England, which he says is suffering from the high value of the pound.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2000

Sogo closes three branch stores

Major department store chain Sogo Co. on Thursday shut down three of its 27 retail outlets in Japan and let two of the three launch bankruptcy proceedings with local courts, the company said.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2000

Sogo files for rehabilitation with Tokyo District Court

Amid mounting public criticism, ailing department chain operator Sogo Co. and its group companies have filed for court-mandated rehabilitation with the Tokyo District Court, top officials of the firm announced Wednesday evening.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2000

Cabinet's focus must be economy, Nikkeiren says

Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren), said Wednesday that he hopes Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's new Cabinet will work toward the full recovery of Japan's economy.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2000

Hankyu to support Dai-Ichi Hotel rehabilitation

The Tokyo District Court decided Tuesday to launch rehabilitation proceedings for the failed Dai-Ichi Hotel Ltd. and four affiliated companies under the auspices of Hankyu Corp., an Osaka-based railway operator.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2000

'Tankan' results dismissed

Many business leaders Tuesday dismissed the seemingly encouraging results of the Bank of Japan's quarterly survey of business confidence as insufficient for ending the central bank's "zero-interest-rate" policy.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2000

Japan Telecom may go local

Japan Telecom Co. is considering entering the local telephone business as early as next year in major cities such as Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, with rates lower than those offered by its rivals, it was learned Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2000

Marubeni and Tokyo Gas plan optical-fiber alliance

Trading firm Marubeni Corp. and Tokyo Gas Co. announced Thursday that they will form a business alliance to build next-generation broadband, fiber-optic networks using Tokyo Gas's underground pipes in urban business areas.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2000

Japan, U.S. to resume NTT discussions July 10

Japan and the United States plan to resume bilateral deregulation talks in Tokyo on July 10 in a last-ditch effort to resolve their telecommunications row before July's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2000

EBC chair urges politicians to work for deregulation

Foreign businesses in Japan expect political leaders to facilitate fair competition by promoting further deregulation and harmonizing Japanese standards with global rules, said Isabelle Hupperts, chairwoman of the European Business Community.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2000

Life insurers log dismal results

The nation's seven biggest life insurers reported dismal business results Friday with all of them logging a fall in outstanding contracts for individuals in fiscal 1999.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2000

Palmtops to be fourth pillar of Sony's electronics lineup

Sony Corp. said Monday that it will make palmtop mobile personal computer terminals a major part of its electronics product lineup.
JAPAN
May 27, 2000

Dai-ichi Hotel files for 125.5 billion yen bankruptcy

Dai-ichi Hotel Ltd. effectively failed Friday morning when the Tokyo-based hotel chain and its four group firms filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2000

NTT group's robust earnings belie deregulation rhetoric

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. on Friday released its first consolidated financial statement since its group reorganization in July, posting pretax profits of 825 billion yen on the group sales of 10.4 trillion yen for fiscal 1999.
JAPAN
May 23, 2000

Taxi firm owner to take 1,000 used cabs to North Korea

OSAKA -- In his recent meeting with North Korean Vice Premier Kwak Pom Gi, the 71-year-old owner of Kyoto-based taxi company MK Corp. was told of three areas in which the Stalinist country is seeking assistance.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Electronics firms emerging from the red

Helped by restructuring efforts and the recovering semiconductor sector, Japan's major electronic appliance and computer chip manufacturers have reported earnings improvements for the past business year.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

NTT to buy U.S. Net firm

NTT Communications Corp. announced Monday that it will acquire Verio Inc. of the United States, a major Internet service provider, in order to become a "full-service player" in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Asian Wall Street Journal goes bilingual

Competition in the newspaper industry is intensifying, and The Asian Wall Street Journal, as part of efforts to woo more readers in Japan, is addressing the challenge with a new look that started with its April 3 editions.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 19, 2000

E-nough already

Ahh, a blast of sanity from Scandinavia. The Swedish government recently announced that the Patent and Registration Office would no longer allow companies to register with the suffix .com in their names. And no se., www. or @ marks either.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2000

Tokyo's new tax raises big questions

The tax debate sparked by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has reached a milestone now that the metropolitan assembly has almost unanimously approved his plan to impose a new asset-based tax on large banks operating in the capital. The bank tax, which is good for five years and replaces the current business...
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2000

The man in the mirror

To no one's surprise, Mr. Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential election Sunday. Although the acting president did top the 50 percent level, which allowed him to escape a runoff ballot, the narrowness of his margin was an eye-opener. The much-anticipated landslide never materialized, the Communist...
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Sumitomo, Mitsui tieup advanced by six months

Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. announced Monday they will merge in October 2001, moving up an earlier schedule by six months.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2000

Toyota Tsusho to take on 10% of Tomen

Toyota Tsusho Corp., a trading house affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp., will accept a request to take a stake of more than 10 percent in the embattled trading house Tomen Corp., sources close to Toyota Tsusho said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2000

IT sector leads way for huge gains in corporate pretax profits

A triple-digit surge in the pretax profits of personal computer makers and telecommunication companies more than offset a steep decline in other sectors as the combined figure jumped 41.8 percent in the October-December quarter.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years