Search - about-us

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2001

Europe's Korean venture reaps good will

SEOUL -- One of the Europeans' first concerns after their successful diplomatic mission to Pyongyang and Seoul was to dispatch emissaries to Tokyo and Washington to inform the main allies about the results of the visit. On more than one occasion, the EU delegation emphasized that what it was doing was...
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

Koizumi admits bank stock-buying body delayed

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi admitted Thursday that his government may not be able to submit legislation designed to create a government body to buy banks' shareholdings before the end of the current Diet session on June 29.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2001

Omron unveils earnings targets

KYOTO -- Omron Corp., a major automated control equipment manufacturer, said Thursday it intends to raise return on equity to 10 percent from the current 6.7 percent through sales of 750 billion yen and pretax profits of 80 billion yen by the end of fiscal 2004.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2001

UFJ to buy Nippon Shinpan unit

UFJ Holdings Inc., Japan's fourth-biggest banking group, said Thursday it will buy a leasing subsidiary of Nippon Shinpan Co. through the purchase of new shares.
JAPAN / History
May 11, 2001

Woman drafter of Constitution calls for action

A woman who was among the group of Americans who drafted Japan's Constitution after World War II has said that she wanted to do everything possible to guarantee the rights of women in the supreme law.
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

NGO calls for Korean nuclear-free zone

A group of people trying to increase the number of "nuclear-free municipalities" in Japan is planning to visit North Korea in August to promote exchanges at a grassroots level and discuss the possibility of establishing a nuclear-free zone on the Korean Peninsula.
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

Man arrested over Taito slaying

Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a 29-year-old man Thursday on suspicion of fatally stabbing a 19-year-old girl last week in Tokyo's Taito Ward.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 11, 2001

Water scorpion

*Japanese name: Kooimushi *Scientific name:Diplonychus japonica *Description: Water scorpions are aquatic insects that look a bit like beetles. They have wings, but they don't have the protective shell that beetles have. Their mouthparts are also unlike beetles: They have a sharp beak that is used...
BUSINESS
May 11, 2001

Sony Bank to go online June 11

Sony Bank, an Internet bank owned 80 percent by Sony Corp., said Thursday it will open for business on June 11 in hopes of luring deposits of 1 trillion yen in five years.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
May 11, 2001

A Hans-on look at Japan's soccer squad

ALMERIA, Spain -- When Japan played Spain in Cordoba on April 25, one spectator, who had driven up from his home on Spain's Costa del Sol, had a particular interest in the Japanese team.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

S&P leaves Ito-Yokado unchanged

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that Ito-Yokado Co.'s entry into the banking sector through its newly created subsidiary IY Bank will have no immediate impact on the ratings or outlook of the leading retailer.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Tax evasion nets seafood giant

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Wednesday arrested a former senior official of Maruha Corp., Japan's seafood industry leader, on suspicion of tax evasion, prosecutors said.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
May 10, 2001

Another side of the New Economy

Many East Asian nations look to the New Economy as a possible cure for their recent economic ills, but they are short of good prescriptions. The term was coined to describe the decade-long economic expansion in the United States that was hard to explain on the basis of old economic theories. Lack of...
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Female on throne fine: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he would support a woman's ascension to Japan's Imperial Throne, throwing his weight behind a proposal within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to revise the current Imperial House Law.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2001

'Sold to the highest bidder'

U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for antimissile-defense highlight the threat posed by rogue nations. Many security experts warn that the real national defense issue is not ballistic missiles, but the warheads they carry. Nuclear proliferation is the danger. According to a new study, that threat...
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Exhibition spotlights Diet members' Silk Road diplomacy

An exhibition of photos of Central Asia taken by 11 Diet members, including former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, opened Wednesday at the Parliamentary Museum in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

Ex-Tokuyo execs agree to repay 90 million yen

The state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. said Wednesday it has reached an out-of-court settlement with three former managers of the defunct Tokuyo City Bank over dubious loans it extended in 1991.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 10, 2001

High marks for Bush at home

It's 100 days and counting for U.S. President George W. Bush. So far, so good. His approval ratings are better than those of most of his predecessors at this stage. He survived his first international crisis nicely, achieving the return of the American aircrew who ditched their EP-3 surveillance plane...
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Iwate sculptors seek to shape cultural ties

IWATE, Iwate Pref. -- Iwate Prefecture is probably not the first place people would expect to stumble on artists of international renown.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
May 10, 2001

Fuji (wisteria)

"Now that I have reached the age of 60, and my life seems about to evaporate like the dew, I have fashioned a lodging for the last leaves of my years. It is a hut where, perhaps, a traveler might spend a single night. Creeping vines block the trails and the valleys are overgrown, but to the west...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2001

Dollar down as investors switch to equities

Triggering the dollar's fall in recent weeks was a switch in the global investment flow back into equities.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Koizumi rules out tax increases

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the Lower House plenary session Wednesday that the government will not hike taxes to mend Japan's debt-ridden finances, but will instead try to curb spending and the issuance of state bonds.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2001

Europeans wonder if Koizumi can deliver

BRUSSELS -- Despite the initial popularity and purported radicalism of Japan's new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, there is no evidence yet to show he has the vision or the ability to pull the country out of its economic slump and carry through the reforms necessary to meet the regional and global...
MORE SPORTS
May 10, 2001

Beach Volleyball's Ishizaka aiming to become golf pro

Former beach volleyball player Yukiko Ishizaka, who competed for Japan in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics, announced plans Tuesday to try and join the women's professional golf ranks. Revealing her long-held ambition, the 33-year-old Ishizaka said "I would like to win a tournament on the Japan Tour...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 10, 2001

Nomo still getting job done his own way

As interest in Major League Baseball in Japan grows exponentially with each passing day, it could be easy to forget the man who is most responsible for the current tidal wave of attention the game in North America is enjoying here.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan