Search - 2000

 
 
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2001

Uniqlo to open first U.K. stores

Uniqlo casual clothing will open four of its first overseas stores in and around London on Sept. 28, the operator of the chain said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2001

Nippon Steel expands ties with POSCO to include IT

Nippon Steel Corp. has said its strategic business alliance with South Korea's Pohang Iron & Steel Co., or POSCO, will be extended into such areas as information technology and resource development to strengthen their presence in the global market.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 5, 2001

Meaning of life found around us and within

Shinjuku Nikon Salon is currently hosting two photo exhibitions offering viewers an opportunity first to delve deep into the living world through the lens of Kusamushi Afuba and then to take a wider view courtesy of Hidetoshi Hamada.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2001

Trains to become moving billboards

Advertisers in Tokyo gained a new medium on Tuesday -- rail cars.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2001

Ministry looks into growing suicide problem

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has begun compiling measures to stem the growing number of suicides in Japan, according to ministry officials.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2001

Poor economy taking toll on health care

The number of people losing their national health insurance certificate because they failed to pay premiums due to salary reductions and other hardships is on the rise.
COMMUNITY
Sep 2, 2001

Who needs meat?

In 1984, Carl Lewis won four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics. At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, he set a world record of 9.86 seconds for the 100 meters. By the time he retired in 1996, he had bagged nine Olympic gold medals and had written himself indelibly into the list of all-time...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Britain probes Blackman case 'con artist'

British police are investigating the man who claimed to be offering a 77 million yen reward in last year's search for hostess Lucie Blackman on suspicion of fraud.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Tokyo price index falls 1.2%

The key gauge of Tokyo's consumer prices fell 1.2 percent in August from a year earlier for a record 23rd consecutive month of decline, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Dirty waters surround Kenya dam plan

A group of lawmakers will arrive in Kenya on Sunday for a two-day inspection tour that is likely to end up endorsing a controversial hydroelectric dam project.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Kinki post office linked with Koso support meeting

OSAKA -- The Kinki Postal Administration Office in March paid for a meeting in Osaka of a group of special post office heads connected with an election violation case surrounding Kenji Koso, a newly elected House of Councilors lawmaker in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, investigative sources said....
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Spending by wage-earning households continues to fall

Japan's wage-earning households spent 0.4 percent less in real terms in July than they did a year earlier, the fourth straight month of decline, the government said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2001

Unemployment demands quick action

Japan's unemployment rate hit 5 percent in July, the highest level since 1953, when the government started taking regular jobless surveys. Official data announced Tuesday show the jobless figure for men climbed to 5.2 percent and that for women to 4.7 percent. The number of people out of work has followed...
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2001

Ministry expects lower tax revenues

Vice Finance Minister Toshiro Muto said Thursday tax revenues for the current fiscal year may be lower than the government's 50.73 trillion yen estimate due to the deteriorating economy.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

Use of counterfeit passports to enter Japan on the rise

The number of arrests for entering Japan on fake passports rose sharply in the first half of the year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Robot project seeks to give industry boost

The government has announced plans to launch a project to foster the robot industry, viewed as a possible dynamo for economic growth, with subsidies and related legislative measures in fiscal 2002.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Employees' mental health on decline

The mental health of company employees has deteriorated significantly since fiscal 1996, with anxiety and obsessive behavior on the rise, according to a survey conducted by a private research institute.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Entertainment firm in tax evasion tangle

Entertainment production firm Rising Production Co., which counts pop stars Namie Amuro and Da Pump in its stable, was found by tax officials to have evaded taxes on income of 2 billion yen in the three years to August 1999, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2001

Pressure on reforms likely as bleeding starts

The nation's unemployment rate, which hit an all-time high of 5 percent in July, may present the greatest threat to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reforms, begging the question, "Is reform worth the pain?"
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2001

'Third sector' bankruptcies surge

The number of "third sector" bankruptcies has reached 17 this year, surpassing the annual record of eight set the previous year, a private credit research agency said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2001

Quake insurance tax break in works

The Cabinet Office said Saturday it will pursue an independent tax exemption system for earthquake insurance premiums in line with requests for revisions to the tax system in fiscal 2002, government officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 26, 2001

Hell on earth in '23

"The pillars of the house made groaning sounds and began to crack. An earthquake! The wall clock stopped, and the electric fan went flying." That was how Hisamatsu Yamato, then an 18-year-old living in Tokyo's Honjo district, recalled the moment.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2001

Engine of a nation's modernization

A HISTORY OF JAPANESE RAILWAYS: 1872-1999, by Eiichi Aoki, Mitsuhide Imashiro, Shinichi Kato and Yasuo Wakuda. Tokyo: East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, 2000, 256 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Few industries have a more illustrious history than that of the railroad. From its birth in the 19th century...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2001

Why Dear Leader isn't going to Seoul

SEOUL -- "All contacts have stopped. We had expected North Korea to take up the process again, but they haven't," says South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo. Since Pyongyang left negotiations last March, not much has happened diplomatically between the two estranged Koreas.
JAPAN / PRIVATIZING PAINS
Aug 25, 2001

Local authorities turn up noses at broke pension fund resorts

Kyodo News The sale of 12 health resorts to repay debts incurred by the now-defunct Pension Welfare Service Public Corp. is not proceeding smoothly because the local governments that were asked to purchase them are all refusing to do so.

Longform

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