Search - 2003

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Monju touts safety campaign in restart bid

TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. -- Five years after a sodium leak and fire shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor here, the battle over whether it should be put back into operation still rages.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2000

Europe's growing pains

European Union leaders are finding that success comes with a price. They meet today in Nice, France, for a critical summit that will modernize the EU and prepare it for new members and new responsibilities. Despite complete agreement that decision-making procedures must be changed, there is no consensus...
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

Retail chains under siege

Conventional Japanese supermarket chains, which are suffering dwindling sales and being cold-shouldered by consumers, will be dealt another blow with the advance of foreign retail giants wielding aggressive business plans into the Japanese market.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

FTC defends proposal on postal competition

The head of the Fair Trade Commission, the nation's anti-cartel watchdog, on Wednesday defended a proposal by an FTC panel to allow private concerns to compete with the postal service in the letter-delivery business.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2000

Japan, Myanmar to work on economic aid report

Japan and Myanmar agreed Tuesday to work on creating a report over the coming two years on Japanese support for economic structural reform in Myanmar, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 6, 2000

Ready for takeoff

The pipes are clogging. There are 377.65 million people online worldwide, and some analysts warn that figure could increase by as much as 25 percent annually for a few years to come. Traffic could reach 10 times the current level in a few short years, and demand for bandwidth might reach as high as 200...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Yohei Kono considers trip to Middle East to tighten links with oil-rich nations

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono may visit several Middle East nations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in early January if he keeps his Cabinet post after today's planned reshuffle, Foreign Ministry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2000

Women's groups decry foundation's demise

A recent Tokyo Metropolitan Government announcement that it plans to abolish the Tokyo Women's Foundation to save tax money has sparked protests among citizens' groups promoting gender equality.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Digital broadcasts via satellite get under way

Full-fledged digital broadcasting via satellite began Friday morning across Japan, with some anxiety about rapid penetration due to technical problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2000

Shaky finances threaten to sink KEDO

Sinp'o is a quiet coastal town on the edge of the Japan Sea in North Korea, almost two hours by helicopter from the capital Pyongyang. There is a beautiful swath of unspoiled beach, edged with bushes and shrubs typical of marine margins, and clusters of shabby houses and farms littered across the landscape....
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2000

Japan IT strategy eyes more telecom deregulation

Japan's national strategy on information technology, scheduled to be adopted Monday, calls for greater deregulation of the telecommunications industry to promote competition, according to a final draft made available to Kyodo News on Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2000

The EU gets an army, sort of

There have always been two benchmarks of genuine "European" identity: a single currency that would make the claim to economic union a reality, and a military force that could backstop the group's foreign-policy pretensions. The currency debuted on Jan. 1, 1999, and has had a difficult time ever since....
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2000

Owada to vie for U.N. judgeship

Japan will field former Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations Hisashi Owada as a candidate judge in the 2002 election for the U.N. International Court of Justice, the Foreign Ministry announced Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2000

Tieup to create largest chemical firm in nation

Sumitomo Chemical Co. and Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Japan's second- and third-largest chemical firms, said Friday they will integrate their management by October 2003 in a bid to survive intensified global competition.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 8, 2000

Nihongo dekiru?

Nihongo dekiru? Since Amazon.com opened for business, its biggest foreign market has been Japan. The company has about 193,000 customers here and they ring up about $34 million worth of sales. Mind you, the domestic Japanese market for online book sales is only $46 million. (In the name of full disclosure,...
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2000

Fiber-optic network viewed as road to economic revival

Japan should create one of the world's most advanced information technology infrastructures in the next five years so that far more than 60 percent of the public will have Internet access by then, a government advisory panel said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2000

Japan's new disarmament offensive

At the current meeting of the disarmament committee of the United Nations millennium assembly, Japan has presented a draft resolution calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The proposal, which lays out a timetable for total nuclear disarmament, marks a step forward from previous appeals...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Kono hopes for passage of nuclear ban proposal

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono expressed hope Tuesday that a nuclear elimination draft resolution Japan submitted to the U.N. Millennium General Assembly's committee on disarmament will be adopted in the upcoming vote.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Standards for GMO foods mulled

A working group for an international task force on standards for foods made from genetically modified organisms kicked off its second meeting Monday in Tokyo to discuss general principles and guidelines for assessing the risks of such foods.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

State may scrap bar exam

A government panel on judicial reform plans to urge the government to abolish national bar examinations and introduce new tests for graduates of law schools modeled on those in the U.S. and scheduled to be established in Japan, according to panel members.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Kyodo begins work on new offices

Kyodo News, Japan's leading news agency, held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday to commemorate the start of construction of its new 34-story headquarters in the Shiodome district of Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

NHK film to be available at archive

on Friday divulged a plan to store all the films and video footage of its 50 years in television broadcasting in an archive that can be accessed by personal computers via fiber-optic wires. The public broadcaster said it will index 1.56 million films and videotapes that it has aired since its foundation...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Japan still No. 1 ODA donor

Japan's official development assistance of $15.32 billion in 1999 made it the world's top donor to developing countries for the ninth consecutive year, according to an annual report on ODA endorsed Friday by Cabinet.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Ministries at odds on greenhouse gas

The Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry are at odds on how to handle junked automobile air conditioners and the ozone-depleting greenhouse gases they contain, sources said.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2000

Commercial Code to undergo sweeping decontrols

The government on Thursday unveiled a package of structural reforms, including frontloading some proposed revisions to the Commercial Code.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2000

No rush to grant foreigners voting rights

A major domestic political debate is brewing over whether non-Japanese permanent residents should be granted the right to vote in local elections of prefectural governors, prefectural legislators, and chiefs and council members of lower local administrative entities. Those foreigners will still be ineligible...
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2000

Don't shortchange young readers

Despite all the talk about the need for educational reforms, little serious attention is being paid to a fundamental way in which Japan's schoolchildren are being shortchanged. Except among the educators directly involved, few have expressed concern over the Education Ministry's announcement that libraries...

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