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BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2000

Softbank unit to open shop in Seoul

Softbank Finance Corp., a Softbank Corp. subsidiary, said Friday it has agreed with its business allies in the United States and South Korea to set up an investment consulting company, Morningstar Korea Ltd., in South Korea in July.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

Microsoft, Hitachi tie on systems solutions

Major Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. said Thursday they have agreed to cooperate in the systems solutions business.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2000

Oracle, KDD debut info Web site

Oracle, KDD Oracle Corp. Japan and KDD Corp. jointly announced Tuesday that they will start operating a Web site from today where users can receive advice from registered computer experts for fees ranging from 10 yen to 1,000 yen per question.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 14, 2000

Gateways to synergy

Every time I visit a particular convenience store, I wince at the repeated announcement of its Web site: "Eichi chi chi pi koron surashu surashu daburyu daburyu daburyu dotto . . . " It is supposed to be such a cutting-edge play, but it only reminds me of how clumsy the analog world can be, and of how...
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2000

Orix, Credit Saison offer higher rates of interest

Orix Trust & Banking Corp. and major credit card issuer Credit Saison Co. announced Tuesday that beginning in July they will offer Credit Saison card holders up to 1 percent interest per annum on ordinary deposits with the bank.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2000

ABCs of the Microsoft decision

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson delivered his long-anticipated ruling in the Microsoft antitrust suit earlier this week. To no one's surprise, he ordered that the software giant be split in two. Microsoft will now appeal. The case is likely to take a special "fast track" to the U.S....
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2000

Companies must re-engineer anew

Information technology has revolutionized the economic system of the United States, and it is believed the U.S. economy is now in a long-term, high-growth phase in which growth is being led by rising productivity.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

FRC outlines new banks' rules

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Tuesday released its preliminary guidelines for granting licenses to new banks, emphasizing the need to shield them from potential business risks of their parent companies.
JAPAN
May 29, 2000

G7 finance ministers to back creation of Internet sales tax

Finance ministers of the Group of Seven economic powers will agree on the need to tax the sale of data such as software, music and other digital information via the Internet, at their meeting scheduled for July in Fukuoka, sources close to negotiations told Kyodo News on Sunday.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2000

No end in sight for treadmill of bad loans

It has been the same story for years. When banks release their earnings reports in May, bank officials say they have written off their bad loans "pre-emptively." Since they have written off huge portions of their problem loans, their future costs for bad-loan disposal will be marginal, they say.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

FamilyMart opens joint e-commerce firm

Japanese convenience store operator FamilyMart Co. was to set up a joint venture with six other firms Friday to bring e-commerce to convenience stores.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Licensing guidelines drafted

The financial standing of companies must be examined before and after their subsidiary banks receive banking licenses, according to a set of draft guidelines released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2000

Digital exterminators

The year rang in with the threat of a computer meltdown — the Y2K bug — but it proved to be more hype than horror. Yet having weathered that digital storm, the world has faced a succession of bugs and viruses that have done real damage to both computer systems and confidence in the network economy....
BUSINESS
May 18, 2000

NTT, builders plan Net-based procurement

Three major building contractors and NTT Data Corp. have agreed in principle to set up, possibly by the end of the year, an Internet market for the procurement of construction materials and machinery, officials close to the talks said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital
May 17, 2000

In.five.words.or.less

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Webbys may bill themselves as the antidote to the Academy Awards, but the truth is that this Internet awards gala has a severe case of Oscar envy.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2000

The rites of spring

Anyone poking about in newspapers or on the Internet lately might have come across a couple of essays expressing a view that seems to pop up seductively in public discourse whenever the weather turns warm. Like a view of cool woods from the window of a stuffy classroom in spring, this idea offers the...
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2000

Triumph or disaster in Trafalgar Square

LONDON -- The jury for Trafalgar Square was still out when Prue Leith got stuck in her traffic jam. The debate had shifted elsewhere, to other public art projects that had similarly raised hackles or won praise, like Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North." This 20-meter-high statue erected in 1997 above...
BUSINESS
May 4, 2000

Retailers forced to change their ways

Browsing through the array of goods -- from kitchenware to clothing -- at a new outlet in the Shinjuku branch of the Isetan department store in Tokyo, the price tags may surprise you: 900 yen for a nylon tote bag, 1,900 yen for a T-shirt, 550 yen for a ceramic mug.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Toshiba eyes AOL-Time Warner tieup

Toshiba Corp. has started talks with America Online Inc., the world's largest Internet service provider, on tieup possibilities with the new firm to be created through its merger with Time Warner Inc., industry sources said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 19, 2000

E-nough already

Ahh, a blast of sanity from Scandinavia. The Swedish government recently announced that the Patent and Registration Office would no longer allow companies to register with the suffix .com in their names. And no se., www. or @ marks either.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 12, 2000

Just browsing?

It used to be so simple. You had Eudora for your e-mail and your tiny Mosaic browser for trolling through text-only university archives and contemplating the bright future of the World! Wide! Web!
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Activist monthly comes to Japan

When Caitlin Stronell first came to Japan in 1984 to spend a year in Tochigi Prefecture, her father gave her a subscription to the U.K. cooperatively produced monthly magazine New Internationalist. "He thought it'd keep me in touch with social and political activism in the rest of the world, while giving...
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

Hitachi, CSC to join in digital plan

Hitachi Ltd. and Computer Sciences Corp., a major U.S. system consulting firm, are discussing cooperating in the development of key component systems for Japan's "digital government" plan, industry sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

Sony headquarters gets new moniker; call it eHQ

In a move to demonstrate its renewed focus on network business, Sony Corp. will rename its group headquarters "eHQ" -- short for e-headquarters -- effective Saturday, President Nobuyuki Idei announced Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 29, 2000

Get Shorty

For many of us living in Japan, the Academy Awards ceremony serves as a reminder of where we are in the bigger scheme of things: behind the curve. We often haven't seen many of the nominated or winning films, some won't be here for another year, and others might not come at all. This is a distribution...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 22, 2000

Chinois chic in Tokyo's 'experimental' cyber cafe

Can't be bothered with waitresses? Not in the mood for a menu? Just want to grab a hot beverage and snack, plug in and kick back?
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2000

Palm pilots into Japanese market

The head of a new Japanese subsidiary of California-based Palm Inc. sees Japan as a potentially lucrative market for its hand-held computers.

Longform

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How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan