Search - about-us

 
 
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1998

Hitachi revises net profit forecast for '97

Hitachi Ltd. on Tuesday sharply revised its forecast for consolidated net profits for the 1997 business year from 89 billion yen to 20 billion yen.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1998

Firms battle for visibility during Nagano hoopla

NAGANO -- Beyond the venues where some of the world's top athletes are competing for Olympic medals, another battle is under way in this city.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Takashimaya section chief sold customer data for 500,000 yen

OSAKA -- A section chief of Takashimaya Co., Ltd., a leading department store chain operator, sold data on about 500,000 customers in July 1995 to a mail list dealer in Tokyo for 500,000 yen, company sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Teens fall for 'fashionable' butterfly knives

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Peace Boat cruise to set course for better Japan-Korea ties

Peace Boat, a Tokyo-based organization that charters liners semi-annually, will host a unique cruise to encourage better understanding between Japanese and South Koreans this month.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Mitsubishi firms placed ads to pay off 'sokaiya'

Three Mitsubishi group companies placed advertisements in a publication produced by a flight attendant school at the request of "sokaiya" extortionist Taichiro Otake, police sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Osaka Games bid may be a costly pipe dream in development

Staff writerOSAKA -- Kazuhito Konishi is not likely to be on the list of people Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura hopes to meet during his trip to Nagano this weekend to promote Osaka's 2008 Olympics bid.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Hosting the Olympics -- boon or bust?

Fifth in a series
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

British torch bearer to show world land mines' cruelty

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1998

Election, not economy, seen as catalyst for rate hike talk

Would raising the Bank of Japan's official discount rate really be the right medicine for the ailing economy?
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1998

JTB discount plan may ignite fare war

Japan Travel Bureau, the country's leading travel agency, will start full-scale sales of discount overseas flight tickets beginning Feb. 16 to cope with the growing market for nonpackage-tour travelers, a spokesman for JTB said Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1998

New forum to reduce corruption proposed by Hashimoto

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Thursday unveiled plans to establish a new forum of exchanges between the Finance Ministry and the nation's financial firms as a way to cut down on corruption.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1998

Nagano Games' key challenge may be traffic

Fourth in a series
JAPAN
Feb 5, 1998

Shikoku's Buddhist pilgrimage remains popular

NARUTO, Tokushima Pref. -- More than 1,100 years after the death of legendary Buddhist priest Kobo Daishi, pilgrims continue to flock to the temples he founded in Shikoku.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 1998

Illegal aliens who built Nagano Games sites facing sweep

NAGANO -- Just as some venues for the Olympics were taking shape last June, six of Ramilo DeLeon's friends suddenly ended up in police custody after a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 1998

Dad faces prison in case of son's killing

Prosecutors demanded on Tuesday a five-year prison term for a 53-year-old man charged with killing his violent 14-year-old son as he slept by hitting him with a metal baseball bat and choking him with a rope.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 1998

Sanwa Bank chief Saeki gives Diet apology, denials

Sanwa Bank President Naotaka Saeki, who recently resigned as chairman of a banking industry federation, apologized Tuesday in the Diet over the scandal involving four major banks suspected of bribing Finance Ministry officials to obtain information about inspections.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Surveillance finds Aum back on line in big way

In the year since Aum Shinrikyo was spared disbandment under the Antisubversive Activities Law, the cult has expanded its activities by running successful computer shops and promoting its ideals on the Internet, the Public Security Investigation Agency said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Fewer foreigners studying in Japan

The number of foreign students studying in Japan declined for the second year in a row in 1997 to about 51,000, down 3.5 percent from the previous year, according to an Education Ministry survey released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Hamanaka betrayed Sumitomo, prosecution says

Prosecutors demanded a 10-year prison term Monday for Yasuo Hamanaka, a former Sumitomo Corp. trader, for inflicting losses of about $770 million on his firm through illicit copper trading.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Survey: Tokyo men mixed over roles of married life

About 75 percent of single men who live alone in Tokyo say that, if married, they would prefer their wives work only if it does not hinder raising children or housework, according to a poll released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Zenkoji Temple to be backdrop for CBS Games coverage

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

Arai defies LDP calls to quit party

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shokei Arai, who allegedly made huge profits through questionable stock transactions, on Monday defied a party leader's demand that he leave the LDP.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

USA Today going forward with paper and without

Is the deluge of Internet information having a negative impact on the newspaper business?
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

6 trillion yen extra budget plan mulled

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto indicated Monday that his government will consider a proposal by a senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker for an extra budget of about 6 trillion yen to be compiled for fiscal 1998 to give an additional boost to the nation's fragile economy.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

Osaka jet noise activists OK increase in flights

OSAKA -- Eleven municipalities concerned about jet noise from Osaka airport decided Friday at an extraordinary general meeting in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, to condone a daily increase of 50 jet arrivals and departures.The municipalities also formally decided to accept a central government proposal for...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

The Asahara Trial: Aum lawyer grilled over inconsistencies

The defense team for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara cross-examined a former Aum lawyer Friday on inconsistencies between his testimony and the depositions given by other cult members over events before the disappearance of a Yokohama lawyer and his family in November 1989.Yoshinobu Aoyama, 37,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

LDP's Arai admits profiting from hidden Nikko account

Shokei Arai, a Lower House member of the Liberal Democratic Party, admitted in the Diet on Friday that he made about 41 million yen through an account he asked Nikko Securities Co. to open in the name of one of his acquaintances.Arai insisted, however, that the trades were not illegal. Speaking as an...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

NTT's caller ID service makes screening easier

Staff writerEver been harassed by incessant prank calls? Felt nervous about picking up the phone, not knowing who's on the other end of the line?Based on such apprehensions and other misuses of the telephone, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has shrewdly developed a new business. Starting Sunday,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

Vice Minister Tanami wants trust in Finance restored

Newly appointed Vice Finance Minister Koji Tanami vowed Friday to put priority on regaining the public's trust in the powerful, scandal-tainted ministry.Tanami, 58, was serving as the head of the Cabinet Councilors' Office on Internal Affairs but was recalled after his predecessor, Takeshi Komura, resigned...

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