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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 12, 1999

What's in store

Everyone in my family is in retail, except me -- unless you consider this journalism gig equivalent to selling snake oil. My mother and sisters have run wearable-art galleries and design-centered shops for a couple of decades, and they seem to be pretty good at it. They travel around the United States...
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

New publishers tackle demand for individual book orders

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

Automakers miss 10 million mark, ready axes

Domestic production of cars, trucks and buses fell to 9,968,440 units in fiscal 1998 slipping below the 10 million level for the first time in 20 years, an industry group said Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Hewlett Packard chief talks of split

The chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Co. on Wednesday talked about the most difficult question his firm faced in deciding its future -- whether to keep the hard-copy unit with the computing unit.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Nissan to slash domestic production by 25%

In a desperate effort to accelerate its restructuring, Nissan Motor Co. will cut its annual domestic production capacity by about 25 percent to 1.5 million units over the next few years, President Yoshikazu Hanawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Bad-debt body collects 526 billion yen

A bad-debt collection body funded by private financial institutions announced Friday that it collected some 526 billion yen during the latter half of fiscal 1998, up from 309 billion yen from the same six-month period the previous year.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 13, 1999

A Japanese musician's songs in 'The Homes of Donegal'

Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heat Wave looks like any other worker at his manager's office. He sits at a desk, busily working away on a computer. After a few words, however, it's clear he could never be just any other worker. "I hate it here," he half confesses, half jokes. "I've never had to come...
JAPAN
Mar 30, 1999

Hino Motors plans workforce cut

Hino Motors Co., a truck maker belonging to the Toyota group, said Tuesday it has lowered its earnings projections for fiscal 1998 and will cut about 10 percent of its 10,000-strong workforce during the next fiscal year.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 1999

Italian theme, cheaper goods key to joint outlet mall

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 16, 1999

Revenues up in smoke, Minato mulls tobacco tax

Struggling under a heavy burden of debts, Tokyo's Minato Ward is considering the nation's first proposal to levy a local tax on tobacco vending machines, sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Chiyoda, UNUM strengthen ties

Midsize insurer Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Maine-based disability insurance firm UNUM Corp. will strengthen business ties hoping to jointly develop and market products, the firms' officials announced Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 1999

Haunting the high street

As the Internet insinuates itself deeper into daily life, one key facet of its future role -- electronic commerce -- continues its explosive growth. Estimates of the amount of business conducted in cyberspace vary from $30 billion annually to nearly twice that. But one thing is certain: It is increasing...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1999

Cadillac lures younger buyers in new campaign

1998 was a disastrous year for most automobile importers, with overall sales plunging 25 percent.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

No JR share sale planned through fiscal '98

The government will not sell shares of East Japan Railway Co. out of its holdings in fiscal 1998, which ends March 31, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 1998

Mitsubishi to layoff 1,000 U.S. autoworkers

Posting huge losses in midterm earnings, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced plans Friday to lay off about 1,000 of the 4,600 workers at two major U.S. subsidiaries as part of restructuring efforts.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 1998

Nissan Diesel posts midterm loss

Nissan Diesel Motor Co., a major truck and bus maker, posted midterm losses Friday for the April-September period, citing plummeting truck sales attributed to the serious economic slump in the domestic market.The Nissan-affiliated company reported a midterm pretax loss of 6.2 billion yen and a net loss...
JAPAN
Oct 28, 1998

Industrial production rose 2.5% in September

Industrial production in September increased by 2.5 percent from August, the first gain in three months, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.The seasonally adjusted production index for the nation's mining and manufacturing sectors...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Gateway begins PC trade-up service

The visiting chairman and CEO of major South Dakota-based PC maker Gateway2000 Inc. announced the launch Tuesday in Tokyo of a new sales program that the company claims is Japan's first PC trade-up service.Theodore Waitt, who established the leading computer maker in 1985, said the "Your Ware" program...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

Faltering Ford charts new recovery path

Struggling to gain a foothold in Japan, senior officials of Ford Motor's Japanese subsidiary next week will begin visiting affiliated auto dealers across the country.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

NEC posts first midterm loss in five years

Struggling with the domestic economic slump and falling prices in the semiconductor market, NEC Corp. suffered a consolidated net mid-term earnings loss for the first time in five years, company officials said Friday.The net loss for the April-September period was 19.7 billion yen, with the operating...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1998

ANA changes course for Star Alliance

In an effort to pull in business class customers for its international routes, All Nippon Airways Co. will join the Star Alliance, a multilateral strategic linkup of international carriers, next October, ANA officials said Thursday.The alliance is made up of Air Canada, Lufthansa German Airlines, Scandinavian...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

JNR Settlements' era ends without a bang

JNR Settlements Corp.'s 11-year history ended at midnight Wednesday as new laws to more effectively dispose of 28.3 trillion yen in debt left behind by the defunct Japanese National Railways took effect.The semigovernmental body was created in 1987 to tame debt of 22.6 trillion yen accumulated by JNR,...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1998

Nippon Life, Putnam seal investment trust tieup deal

Nippon Life Insurance Co. and Putnam Investments of the United States sealed an agreement Tuesday to strengthen their ties in investment trust sales.Under their alliance, the two firms will jointly develop and retail investment trust products and provide asset management services, officials of the two...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Manufacturers in losing battle with lifetime employment

Staff writerFinancial institutions are not the only Japanese companies suffering from the moribund economy.Major electronics firms and automakers, which once basked in the strong growth of the famed Japanese economic miracle, have revised their projected earnings downward for the first half of the current...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

Mitsubishi unveils next generation of minicars

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Monday the launch of three fully redesigned minicars it hopes will energize the stagnant economy.The announcement is the first of a flurry of minicar announcements expected due to new regulations imposed Oct. 1 on the Japanese minicar industry.This week, major minicar...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1998

City banks Tokai, Asahi agree on retail tieup

In a strategic move to strengthen their presence in the retail banking field, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank, both among the nation's nine major city, or commercial, banks, reached a comprehensive tieup agreement Monday to consolidate their branch offices and jointly develop financial products.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1998

Oki Electric forecasts loss, announces restructuring

Oki Electric Industry Co. said Tuesday the company is likely to suffer an after-tax loss of 31 billion yen in the current business year to March 1999, due to sagging semiconductor prices and lower demand for telecommunications devices.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 1998

Toyota to raise stake in Chiyoda to 47.1%

Toyota Motor Corp. will increase its stake in Chiyoda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. from the 37.1 percent at present to 47.1 percent by the end of September to strengthen Chiyoda's financial backbone and ties between the two firms, the automaker announced Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 1998

Nissan plans transmission firm in 1999

Nissan Motor Co. will establish a new automatic transmission manufacturing company in the summer of 1999, the company said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 1998

Hitachi to post 100 billion yen loss, slash work force

Hitachi Ltd. will post pretax losses of 100 billion yen in the 1998 business year to next March 31, marking its first plunge into red ink for the postwar period, company officials announced in revised earnings forecasts Thursday.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb