Search - 2000

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2001

Young adults avoid JICA in wake of Sept. 11 attacks

Applications for Japan's version of the Peace Corps are running at extremely low levels due to security concerns raised by the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2001

Eight insurers to pay out over quake-related fire

OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court on Wednesday ordered seven nonlife insurance companies and an insurance group to pay a total of 12.15 million yen to 19 people whose homes were damaged in a fire caused by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2001

Constituents mattered most to Soichiro Ito

BERKELEY, California -- For the people of Miyagi Prefecture's 4th district, the generational shift in Japanese politics has just arrived. On Oct. 28, Shintaro Ito was elected to represent Miyagi's 4th district in a special by-election to replace his father, Soichiro, who passed away on Sept. 4.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2001

No conclusions drawn on farm import data

The government has found that domestic farmers suffered a financial loss around the same time that imports of three agricultural products currently subject to emergency import curbs surged, but it has refrained from assessing whether the two factors are linked, government officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2001

Major electronics makers suffer first-half losses

Five electronics makers swung into losses in the first half of the 2001 business year, plagued by the global slump in the information technology industry, according to interim earnings reports released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2001

Teijin, Enron begin study on electricity sales

Major textile maker Teijin Ltd. said Monday it has begun a feasibility study with the Enron group of the United States to improve the output of Teijin's private power generator and sell the excess to other corporate users.
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2001

Kuwaiti Cabinet endorses new contracts for Arabian Oil

The Kuwaiti Cabinet has given the green light to its plan to map out new contracts that will allow Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co. to continue operations in the country's Khafji oil field, Arabian Oil said Monday.
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2001

Mitsubishi upgrades profit forecast

Mitsubishi Corp. said Monday it will log net profits of 42 billion yen in its consolidated earnings report for the April-September first half, up from the 30 billion yen it cited in its initial forecast in May.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2001

Adult smoking rate drops for sixth consecutive year

The smoking rate among Japanese adults dropped to a record low of 32.7 percent in May, down 0.2 percentage point from a year earlier for a sixth consecutive year of decline, according to a recent report by Japan Tobacco Inc.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2001

School loans soar to kids orphaned by fathers

The number of youths receiving student loans for their high school studies because their fathers committed suicide has increased rapidly in recent years amid the economic downturn, a Tokyo-based private scholarship group said.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2001

Mori leaves for India to rally antiterror support

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori departed Sunday morning for a three-day trip to India to discuss antiterrorism efforts as a special envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2001

Postal unit fined for not declaring income

An affiliate of the Postal Services Agency failed to declare about 120 million yen in income over a three-year period up to March this year, informed sources said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 28, 2001

Engagement or isolation?

KOREAN SECURITY DYNAMICS IN TRANSITION, edited by Park Kyung-Ae and Kim Dalchoon. New York, Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001, 209 pp., $45.00 (cloth) The euphoria that followed the historic inter-Korean summit in June 2000 has worn off. North Korea's peek-a-boo diplomacy -- now you see us, now you don't --...
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2001

Effect of mad cow scare shows in latest consumer price index

The key gauge of Tokyo consumer prices shed 0.1 percent in October from the month before, including a drop in beef prices stemming from the nation's first case of mad cow disease, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2001

Beef eateries feel mad cow cold shoulder

Amid mounting public fears over mad cow disease, otherwise popular "yakiniku" barbecued-beef restaurants are being dealt a serious blow.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2001

Move to change electoral system decried

A move by the ruling bloc to partially change the House of Representatives electoral system has been widely criticized as a political compromise by the Liberal Democratic Party to please coalition partner New Komeito.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2001

Former Tokyo Shogin boss gets new warrant over loans

A former head of the failed credit union Tokyo Shogin was served a fresh arrest warrant for alleged breach of trust in connection with illegal loans of 1.6 billion yen to a business owner, prosecutors said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2001

Yamaichi chief escapes 30-month prison term

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday overturned a lower court ruling sentencing Atsuo Miki, a former president of the now-defunct Yamaichi Securities Co., to 30 months in prison with no suspension for business misconduct, and instead gave him a suspended three-year term.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2001

Supermarkets down, department stores up

Supermarket sales fell in September from a year earlier for the 34th straight month, but department stores saw increased business for the first time in three months, industry groups said Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 25, 2001

Swallows a win away from fifth Series title

The big guns drew blanks for the Yakult Swallows on Wednesday, but a role player picked up the slack.
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Oct 25, 2001

Foreign equity funds' ways changing face of Japan Inc.

When hunting for a company to buy out, Kenji Ueda doesn't wait to be introduced. The Ripplewood Holdings LLC executive director makes his phone calls cold.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2001

Tokyo Shogin illegal loan case deepens

The former head of failed credit union Tokyo Shogin, already under arrest on suspicion of embezzlement and extending 1.62 billion yen in illegal loans, provided another 3 billion yen in illegal loans to a Tokyo business group, investigative sources said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2001

Cedar cull may still leave pollen victims fuming

This week's column is about air pollution, principally emissions from diesel engines. But first, the forest and cedar trees.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2001

Curbs urged on South Korean DRAM

Four major electronics makers may ask the government to impose punitive duties on what they call unfairly cheap semiconductor imports from South Korea, industry sources said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2001

His turn to talk

I interviewed Hideyuki Hirayama in the summer of 2000 at Nikkatsu Studio, after spending a morning inside a dim, dank soundstage, watching him film Riho Makise. Makise was working on an etching and was padding silently about her house -- an early scene in "Turn," but one of the last in the shoot.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2001

Air dioxin levels exceed limits near Atsugi base

Air samples taken near the U.S. Naval Air Station at Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, exceeded the national tolerable standard of dioxin concentrations, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2001

Two sentenced for smuggling boats

The Tokyo District Court sentenced two men Tuesday to two-year prison terms suspended for three years and fines of 500,000 yen for smuggling secondhand fishing boats to North Korea in August last year.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?