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BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2001

Toyota stays top earner for second year running on strong sales, cost cuts

Toyota Motor Corp. remained the top Japanese earner for the second straight year in fiscal 2000 due to strong domestic and overseas sales of new models and cost cuts, according to a list released Monday by Teikoku Databank.
COMMUNITY
Aug 3, 2001

Togetherness with calisthenics

School is out for the summer but still, remarkably, kids in this fitness-savvy society turn out -- at 6:30 a.m., no less -- at parks, shrines and quiet streets across Japan for NHK's daily "Radio Taiso" workout, a 15-minute live broadcast of morning calisthenics.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2001

Bush's Korea policy: old wine, new bottle

SEOUL -- "Things have begun moving slowly," South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung recently said in reaction to the Bush administration's announcement it will open negotiations with Pyongyang. No doubt, the government in Seoul is trying hard to sound upbeat. Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo added, "Bush's...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Carriers at a loss as railway violence accelerates

Tokyo commuter trains have suffered a recent spate of violent incidents — two of them fatal — involving total strangers and minor confrontations that got out of hand.
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2001

Politics slides as style prevails

LONDON -- The British general-election campaign has started. The "spin doctors" are working overtime to show the party leaders and party policies in the best possible light and to provide good photo opportunities to illustrate their leaders' popular appeal. At the same time, the party leaders themselves...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 9, 2001

Daiei's pitching shuttle service

What in the world are they thinking? That's the question many Japanese baseball observers were asking when the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks announced the signing of left-handed American pitcher Chris Haney in mid-April.
BUSINESS
Apr 13, 2001

NKK shares rise on merger rumors

The share price of NKK Corp. has been steadily approaching that of Kawasaki Steel Corp. over the past few weeks amid rumors of an imminent merger.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2001

NTT unit jumps on rate-cut wagon

NTT Communications Corp., a key unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., said Tuesday that it will reduce daytime local-call charges on weekdays to 8.5 yen per three minutes, instead of the originally planned cut to 8.8 yen, starting May 1.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2001

Dollar to test upside this week

The U.S. dollar is expected to test its upside against the yen this week as U.S. investors continue to cash in foreign assets for dollars to make up for their losses on plummeting U.S. stocks.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 2, 2001

Ex-OL, self-described everyman take Naoki prize

The winners of the Naoki literary prize for the second half of 2000 have been announced. This time, both winners -- "Planaria" by Yamamoto Fumio and "Vitamin F" by Shigematsu Kiyoshi -- are short-story collections, as were three of the other four short-listed works.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Feb 18, 2001

Avant-garde poet tosses Japan a luscious bouquet

The end of last year and the beginning of this one has produced a fine crop of poetry publications. Though each of these volumes deserves its own separate review, happily I'm able to give these works exposure here.
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2001

No mileage in banana peels

A case came to court in Sunderland, England, earlier this week, that caused, or reflected, quite a stir -- such a stir, in fact, that its ripples have been felt far beyond England. Why is this?
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2001

Japan in miniature: Edo Period stroll gardens were the original amusement parks

The Japanese tourist, unlike the overseas visitor, may be only mildly astonished to find himself transported to the upper part of a castle donjon by means of a newly installed elevator. Convenience, the Western visitor notes with some bemusement, does not seem to detract from the enjoyment, let alone...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2000

Web site gets volcano evacuees online and in touch

Hiroyuki Noda never imagined that he would become a messenger for fellow Miyake Island residents when he bought a personal computer six years ago to keep books for his inn and diving shop.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2000

Behind the rush to Pyongyang

SEOUL -- Some journalists profess to know more than they ought to. While President Bill Clinton insists a decision regarding a possible visit to North Korea has not been taken, some media have already published details of the president's itinerary. According to one report, Clinton's two-day visit to...
LIFE / Digital
Oct 25, 2000

Xpect the unxpected

SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2000

Railways toughen stance on cellphones

A Tokyo subway operator and six major private railways launched a joint campaign Monday to stress the ban on mobile-phone use on trains during peak hours due to the danger of radio-wave interference with pacemakers.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Rail firms to beef up mobile-phone ban

A Tokyo subway operator and six major private railway firms plan to launch a joint campaign today to stress their ban on mobile-phone use in trains during rush hour, due to the danger of interference with pacemakers, the companies announced Sunday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 4, 2000

Who's your buddy?

Last week, AOL and DoCoMo announced a major strategic alliance, but few techno-journos were blindsided by the news. Rumors had been floating since early summer, and the potential benefits were fairly easy to digest. Savvy scribes had probably already put together rough drafts. It was just a matter of...
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2000

Part-timers reshaping Japan's work ethic

Yoshinori Ogawa, 27, is a bassist in the rock band Dusty Rose. He considers himself a professional musician, but like many other would-be musicians or thespians, he has not yet reached the point where he can support himself on his music alone.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 10, 2000

Chris McDonald

To commemorate his having lived for 50 years in Japan, Chris McDonald produced an engaging book of memories. In it he wrote: "If I were asked to single out one aspect of Japan that I have found more rewarding and enjoyable than any other, I would not hesitate to answer quite simply: 'Its people.' From...
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2000

Not-so-lonely planet

Sometimes we forget how recently we Earthlings thought our planet was the center of the universe, which up until the 17th century ended at Saturn and used the "fixed" stars as a mere decorative backdrop. It was only in 1610 -- barely 400 years ago -- that Galileo looked at the heavens through a telescope,...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 6, 2000

Yankees Day at Tokyo Dome on Sept. 3

The Nippon Ham Fighters have announced their annual Yankees Day promotion will be held on Sunday, Sept. 3, when the team will play host to the Chiba Lotte Marines in a Pacific League game to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Tokyo Dome. AIWA Co., Ltd., will sponsor the event and, as usual, the Nippon Ham club...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2000

A tale of two protests in Bangkok and Beijing

BANGKOK -- Last week, rural adherents of the Falun Gong movement in China surreptitiously made their way from provincial towns to stage short-lived protests in the heart of Beijing's Tiananmen Square. At the same time in rural Thailand, thousands of Thai peasants boarded trains for Bangkok to take an...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2000

Consumer confidence rose slightly in June, EPA reports

The Economic Planning Agency said Tuesday its quarterly survey of consumer confidence showed an improvement in June for the fourth consecutive quarter.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Swastikas under the onion domes

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia It is a muggy Wednesday afternoon in the nation's largest Pacific seaport, and as people meander home, a handful of men and boys position themselves around the central square, an asphalt plaza decorated with a monument to the communist revolutionaries who conquered the Far East.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2000

Japan, by the numbers

Japan's economic statistics are, by and large, rated highly for their diversity and accuracy. So it comes as no surprise that Japanese experts are helping developing countries improve their own statistical systems. Recently, however, that reputation seems to have been somewhat tarnished because of media...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years