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BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2002

Toyota aims for 15% global share by early 2010s

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it is aiming for a global market share of about 15 percent by the early part of the decade beginning in 2010.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2002

Mizuho Holdings sees new dawn

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the world's largest banking group by assets, made a fresh start Monday as its three core banks merged into two -- Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Corporate Bank.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2002

Nissan Construction Co., stiffed by Mycal, files for protection

Nissan Construction Co., affiliated with collapsed retailer Mycal Corp., has filed for protection from creditors.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2002

Risks in waiting on Koizumi

When he debuted as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi pledged economic and political reforms, saying there will be "no economic recovery without structural reforms." To implement the reforms, Koizumi said he was ready to overhaul the governing Liberal Democratic Party. I have supported Koizumi's determination,...
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2002

MMC president-to-be leaves no stone unturned

When he arrived in Tokyo more than a year ago from the Railsystem Unit of the DaimlerChrysler Group, Rolf Eckrodt, vice president and chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., gave each MMC executive a piece of the Berlin Wall encased in clear plastic.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

Daiwa announces tieup with Agricole

Daiwa Bank Holdings Inc., the nation's fifth-largest banking group, on Friday announced a business alliance with French bank Credit Agricole SA.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2002

Hitachi proposes one-year wage reduction of 5%

Hitachi Ltd. has proposed to its labor union that workers take a 5 percent wage cut for one year beginning April 1, company sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2002

Kanto Bank, Tsukuba Bank eye 2003 merger

Kanto Bank, a regional bank in Ibaraki Prefecture, and Tsukuba Bank, a second-tier regional bank there, said Tuesday they have agreed to merge as part of efforts to ease clients' concerns over their financial health.
BUSINESS
Mar 12, 2002

JR Freight expects revenues to fall

JR Freight Co., the cargo operator of the JR group, unveiled Monday its business plan for 2002, predicting the economic slump will continue and push down the firm's overall revenues by 7.1 billion yen from the previous year to 159.3 billion yen.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Mar 12, 2002

Honesty as a policy

Although it seems that everybody now has an opinion on the Enron debacle, I still think that the business lessons to be learned have been slighted. In a sense, what has happened with this three-card monte version of a corporation is a reflection of the worst single tendency of the last quarter-century...
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

One nation under a hip-hop groove

Downtown West Shinjuku. The company workers have all gone home, leaving the streets quiet except for the sound of traffic.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2002

Aoki identifies rehab sponsors

Bankrupt second-tier general contractor Aoki Corp. said Wednesday it has persuaded midsize general contractors Takamatsu Corp. and Komatsu Construction Co. to sponsor its court-led rehabilitation plan.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2002

Daiei bailout now put at 520 billion yen

The three main creditor banks of Daiei Inc. plan to increase their financial support for the troubled supermarket chain to 520 billion yen from the initially planned 420 billion yen, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Feb 26, 2002

Avoiding strikeouts when you decide who to promote

When it comes to success rate, business shares at least one thing with baseball -- you tend to strike out a lot more than you get on base.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2002

Flawed theory, leadership thwart recovery

For many, the inability of Japan's economy to recover remains a mystery. This inability to assess the situation arises from misjudgments concerning the nature of the malaise and can be traced to the application of faulty economic theory.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Japan Metals throws in towel, seeks protection from creditors

Japan Metals & Chemicals Co., the nation's top ferroalloy manufacturer, on Friday afternoon stopped trying to rehabilitate itself and filed for court protection from creditors.
COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 2002

Beauty and brains behind company clear as glass

Company President Narumi Tanaka is alone Monday morning, holding the fort in her office in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. Her staff -- three full-timers, one part-timer and her husband -- are out and about on what she calls "the client site." A good thing, we agree, because it means TRANSe Project is at full...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2002

Libyan trade insurance about to be reinstated

In a move that will please domestic businesses struggling amid a deep recession but could rub the United States the wrong way, Japan is working behind the scenes to take a significant policy step toward closer economic ties with Libya.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Asahi Breweries rides 'happoshu' wave into the black

Leading Japanese brewer Asahi Breweries Ltd. said Wednesday it posted a net profit of 13.62 billion yen in its business year to Dec. 31, helped partly by its entry into the "happoshu" market last February.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2002

Koito buys U.S. plane-seat servicer

Koito Industries Ltd. said Tuesday it has acquired KPS N.A. Inc., a U.S. maintenance firm for airplane seats, to strengthen its airplane business in North America.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 17, 2002

Let the masses consume

CHINA'S CENTURY: The Awakening of the Next Economic Powerhouse, edited by Lawrence J. Brahm. John Wiley & Sons, 2001, 421 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Pick up an international paper published before Sept. 11, and China is either on the front page or generously featured inside. Not anymore. The rising giant of...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2002

McDonald's logs '01 sales decline on mad cow scare

Ltd. said Friday it suffered a sharp decline in unconsolidated profits in 2001 due to falling hamburger sales after the mad cow disease outbreak in September. The fast food operator also announced that as part of a drive to reverse this trend it has agreed with Pret A Manger, a London-based sandwich...
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

Mitsubishi saw profit dive 45% in third quarter

Mitsubishi Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in the October-December period plunged 45.3 percent from a year earlier to 10.43 billion yen on operating revenue of 3.37 trillion yen, down 4.5 percent.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2002

Snow Brand looks to tieups to survive series of scandals

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. announced Tuesday that it is studying tieups with third party firms to overcome a series of scandals involving its subsidiary Snow Brand Foods Co.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2002

Ministry panel to weigh creation of economic zones

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry asked an advisory panel Thursday to look into the creation of more special economic zones in Japan in an attempt to reinvigorate the sluggish economy.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Union Jichiro mulls way to remove scandal taint

Jichiro, the All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers' Union, opened a two-day special convention Thursday in Tokyo to discuss how to rebuild the organization in the wake of a tax evasion scandal involving former executives and the revelation of massive off-the-book debts.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Temple U. dean seeking larger enrollment

About 30 American universities established branch schools in Japan during the 1980s and early 1990s, and although many of them have since departed, the new dean of Temple University Japan is seeking to expand enrollment.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Slump shows no indication of letting up

Decelerating business activity and deteriorating employment conditions show no signs of abating, the Finance Ministry said in a report Wednesday.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo