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JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Commercial sales fell 6.1% in May

Monthly commercial sales in May dipped 6.1 percent year-on-year to 42.41 trillion yen, marking a record 23 consecutive months of decline, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 1999

Dream school shuns educational norms

ONNA, Okinawa Pref. — A healthy techno beat pounds against the walls of the studio where dancers groove, their motions sharp as they study their moves critically in the mirror.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999

Learning through landscapes

ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

ANA announces restructuring plan, job cuts

All Nippon Airways Co. unveiled a mid-term business plan Monday that includes a 10-percent cut in ANA group's 28,000 workforce over a four-year period.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

JAL profits dive; JAS climbs

Declining air fares and slack demand for seats in the forward cabin caused Japan Airlines' sales to decrease to 1.16 trillion yen in the business year that ended March 31, down 5.1 percent from the previous year.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

New Defense Role: Next step is to free up SDF

Staff writer
LIFE / Travel
May 13, 1999

The 'red, green and white lines': rubies, jade and heroin

Like most things connected to money and profit in Myanmar, there is a sinister side to the north's resurgent economy, a subtext that generally eludes visitors' attention. Still, at least one travel book, Nicholas Greenwood's original and often very funny "Bradt Guide to Burma," has picked up on it. Not...
EDITORIALS
May 12, 1999

A sudden reversal in Kosovo

Last week, it looked as if the West had the upper hand in the ongoing military and diplomatic campaigns against Yugoslavia. Meetings with Russian officials had yielded agreement on terms for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Albanian Kosovar leader, had been...
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 1999

A long shadow over Malaysia

After a 78-day trial, former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was found guilty Wednesday of four counts of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. The verdict, which has triggered protests by Mr. Anwar's supporters, was condemned by the defendant and questioned by others around...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 1999

Japanese women say single life fine — if they're financially independent

Some say that '70s feminism began its fall from grace in 1986 when a study claimed that a woman's chances of marrying sometime in her life drops to 5 percent after she passes her 35th birthday. The notion that so many nominally liberated women found this conclusion distressing gave rise to the cynical...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 1999

Airlift Kosovo refugees to Japan?

Japan is considering taking in Kosovo refugees, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka indicated Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 1999

Chinese cronyism hinders reform efforts

The People's Republic of China will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding Oct. 1, and major national events are scheduled to take place at that time. President Jiang Zemin has been promoting the slogan of "stability first" -- a reflection of his desire to complete the ceremonies successfully...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

January account surplus jumps 72%

The nation's current account surplus in January soared 72.2 percent from a year earlier to 807.5 billion yen, the largest for January, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 1999

Keeping the U.S. honest

LONDON -- Americans...Don't you just love to hate them? They preach to you about the virtues of an open trading system and then they slap a bizarre set of sanctions on trade rivals before the World Trade Organization makes its report. They lecture the world about the virtues of the rule of law and when...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 1999

State moves to draft stronger consumer protection law

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 1, 1999

New high school courses to break with tradition

Breaking away from the nation's traditionally rigid and formatted educational system, high schools will begin focusing more on nurturing the unique abilities of each student in the coming century, according to the draft of the Education Ministry's new teaching guidelines, released Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 1999

Vietnamese premier to visit Tokyo

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Kai will make his first official visit to Tokyo in March to seek more Japanese support for the Southeast Asian country's desperate efforts to overcome fallout from the continued regional economic crisis, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 1999

Solution for Japan Inc. on the way: Yosano

By the end of this month, the government will map out a concrete scheme to help resuscitate the competitiveness of the nation's manufacturing and other industrial sectors, Kaoru Yosano, international trade and industry minister, said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

Ailing Chubu localities won't say where cash went

OKAYAMA -- Nationally and internationally, Japan's banking mess has received a lot of press coverage and is generally considered by politicians, media pundits and business leaders to be the nation's most urgent problem.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

MOX assured safe for use in Fukui nuclear reactors

A planned project by Kansai Electric Power Co. to use recycled plutonium to fuel nuclear reactors in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, assures nuclear safety, a government panel on nuclear safety concluded Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 1998

KDD posts 5.8% dip in sales

Sales at Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co. fell to 144 billion yen on an unconsolidated basis in the first half of fiscal 1998, down 5.8 from the same period last year, the nation's biggest international telecommunications carrier announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1998

Breakthrough unlikely at Obuchi-Yeltsin summit

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1998

Land acquisitions take steep first-half drop

Reflecting worsening business conditions and thinning incentives for real-estate investment, an unprecedentedly small number of firms purchased land for industrial use in the first half of this year, according to a preliminary report released by the trade ministry Thursday.Acquisitions of land greater...
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1998

Manufacturing plants, workers down sixth year in row

The number of manufacturing facilities and employees nationwide has decreased for six years in a row after peaking in 1991, according to an annual report issued Tuesday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 1998

Regional credit pinch hits Japanese affiliates abroad

Some 35 percent of Japanese-affiliated companies in Southeast Asia, China and South Korea are suffering from tight lending practices at financial institutions, a Ministry of International Trade and Industry survey showed Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1998

MITI plans hormone-disrupter rules

Companies may soon be required to tell the government which chemicals they use in an effort to help curb the discharge of artificial substances suspected of disrupting hormones, government officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 1998

Keizai Doyukai demands leader who can think

BY SAYURI DAIMONStaff writer
JAPAN
Jun 26, 1998

Firms hold shareholder meetings; police stave off 'sokaiya'

More than 2,300 major companies across the country hosted general shareholders' meetings Friday as police mobilized about 10,000 officers to prevent possible disruptions by "sokaiya" corporate extortionists.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1998

Papers urged to compete with new strategies as Internet expands

and AKEMI NAKAMURA
JAPAN
May 11, 1998

New treatments for AIDS, HIV near final stages

Two breakthrough treatments for HIV and AIDS are nearing the final stages of development, a group of international researchers said Monday in Tokyo.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji