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JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Chemical firms plan integration

Sumitomo Chemical Co. and Mitsui Chemicals Inc. -- Japan's No. 2 and No. 3 chemical manufacturers -- will integrate their management and possibly merge outright as early as the fall of next year, company sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Ruling bloc to keep majority: projection

The three-party ruling coalition will keep its majority in the House of Councilors -- albeit by a narrow margin -- in next summer's election, which is to be held under a new electoral system, according to a Kyodo News projection.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

System to track sea radiation from nuclear mishaps

Japanese maritime authorities will launch a computer system by March 2004 to trace radiation in seas after accidents involving vessels carrying cargo such as spent nuclear fuel, according to Transport Ministry officials.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 26, 2000

Everyman Redgrave anything but in boat

LONDON -- From across a crowded room, Steve Redgrave hardly looks like a legendary athlete. He's lanky, excessively polite and his hair is thinning at an alarmingly quick rate. He walks around wearing a sheepish grin and his laugh is loud and long. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear he's the...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Rich seniors must pay more: social security panel

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori wants rich elderly people to contribute to social security again to contain the rise in costs being paid by working people, the panel's final report says.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

11 trillion yen plan gets official nod

The government adopted a comprehensive stimulus package Thursday worth nearly 11 trillion yen in its latest bid to place the long-stagnant economy on a full-fledged recovery track.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2000

Compromise bid fails to quiet Diet

The ruling and opposition camps remained at odds on Tuesday after both sides effectively rejected mediation efforts by the Upper House president to resolve the drawn-out row over revision of the electoral system.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2000

Olympic success puts Sydney at the top

SYDNEY -- So you liked watching the world's best-ever Olympic Games? Wait, there's more. Hold that remote control for the next sports extravaganza from Australia, the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2000

Taiwan shift away from reactors may deal blow to Japanese firms

Taiwan's Economics Ministry has taken a step toward loosening the island's reliance on nuclear power in a move that could be a major blow to Japanese firms in the atomic power industry.
OLYMPICS
Oct 2, 2000

Olympics end -- the party begins

SYDNEY -- The world's premier sporting carnival drew to a close in an extravaganza of sight and sound Sunday as the Olympic host city prepared to party the night away to bid farewell to the last Summer Games of the 20th Century.
OLYMPICS
Oct 2, 2000

Olympics draw to a close

SYDNEY -- They came, they saw and some even conquered, but Sydney was the undisputed winner as the Games drew to a close Sunday and the last medals were being decided. These Olympics will be exalted as the best Games ever.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Matsushita to join Toray in plasma display panels

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toray Industries Inc. announced Thursday that the two companies have agreed to set up a joint venture next month by integrating their plasma display panel businesses.
OLYMPICS
Sep 27, 2000

Diver Terauchi finishes eighth

(Kyodo) Japanese hope Ken Terauchi finished a creditable eighth out of 12 in the men's 3-meter springboard final Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Capital relocation scheme under attack

The Liberal Democratic Party and one of its two allies, the New Conservative Party, plan to start adjusting opinions within the ruling bloc on freezing the government's plan to relocate the functions of the central government outside Tokyo, party sources said.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2000

FRC approves banks' plan to set up Mizuho Holdings

The Financial Reconstruction Commission approved a plan Thursday by Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan to set up a holding company as well as a plan by a Sakura Bank-led consortium to form an Internet bank.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 7, 2000

Dream Team foes face mission impossible

I left Team USA's practice on Tuesday with one lingering thought: poor Angola. At the time, I didn't even know exactly where Angola was (it turns out it's just north of Namibia along the Rio Cunene, if that helps any). But here's what I already knew about the country: It has a basketball team that's...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Agency to unveil stricter requirements for diesels

As part of efforts to improve the dismal air quality in Japan's major cities, the Environment Agency will announce today that diesel automobiles will have to meet stricter standards beginning in 2002, Agency officials said Monday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 30, 2000

Architects reach for the sky

www.geocities.com/PicketFence/5192/ The address above is actually a really nice metaphor. The "picket fence" it refers to is the chain formed by the world's tallest buildings. Add "center_of_india.html" to the end of the address and take a look at an artist's rendering of what some day might be the...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2000

General Motors humming along -- never mind the environment

A vacation is such a wonderful chance to seek out the unusual and inexplicable. This month my family and I are immersed in a foreign culture, intrigued and perplexed by the ways of an alien people. Most confounding, this culture is my own.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2000

Chopper failure sees test flights canceled

The Defense Agency has canceled test flights for its newly developed antisubmarine patrol helicopter SH60JKai after multiple cracks were found in its rotary wings, agency sources said Saturday.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2000

NEC reorganizes group companies

NEC Corp. will transfer its business of office telephones and point-of-sale devices to affiliated Nitsuko Corp. next April as part of efforts to reorganize NEC group companies, top officials of the two firms announced on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2000

Wahid battered but still kicking

SINGAPORE -- The threat of impeachment from angry legislators stared Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid grimly in the face on Aug 7., when the 695-member People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) convened in Jakarta to review Indonesia's progress.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2000

Wahid gets a reprieve

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has outfoxed his opponents again. Facing an insurrection within the Parliament, the president recently apologized for past behavior and then delegated many of his duties to Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri. It is a shrewd move by the wily Mr. Wahid. Whether...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2000

MMC to update Nagoya factory to produce Z car

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will renovate its Oe factory in Nagoya to launch a new production line in 2002 for a small next-generation vehicle jointly developed with DaimlerChrysler AG, company officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2000

Forecast optimistic for Japan despite rapidly aging society

Japan's population has been increasing steadily since 1945, but the most pessimistic government estimates indicate that it will decline after peaking at 127 million in 2004. By 2025, the nation's population is expected to shrink by roughly 10 million.

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