Search - inc

 
 
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2000

I-mode Internet service down once more

Users of i-mode cellular telephones were unable to use the phone's Internet service for three hours Tuesday, less than a day after a similar disruption, the company said.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Car manufacturer alliances aim to exploit partners' strengths

As Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Monday announced a capital tieup with DaimlerChrysler AG, the dust may begin to settle from a series of realignments that have changed the landscape of Japan's automotive industry.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

DoCoMo to stake 1 billion yen in Sakura online bank plan

NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. will invest some 1 billion yen in an online bank to be set up by Sakura Bank this summer, NTT DoCoMo officials said Monday.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2000

Tried and true not always the way to go

As mentioned last time in this column, a new restaurant/venue, Tribute to the Love Generation, will open in Odaiba on Tokyo Bay next month. It is not, as you may expect, a hangout for "Dead-heads," or ex-flower power hippies hiding out in Tokyo, but in fact will host mainly "world music" concerts. With...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Redress for 'karoshi' suicides eased

The Supreme Court's decision Friday upholding a lower court conclusion that an employer bore responsibility for its employee's suicide is a stamp of approval on a ruling that has led to revisions of labor administration policies.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Supreme Court rules Dentsu responsible for man's suicide

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld lower court rulings in which advertising giant Dentsu Inc. was held responsible for neglecting to act to prevent the 1991 suicide of a 24-year-old employee who showed signs of depression from overwork.
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.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Power industry to get a jolt of competition

Competition emerging from ongoing market reforms ranging from the financial "Big Bang" to telecommunications deregulation is taking many of Japan's industrial dinosaurs to the verge of extinction.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Competition spurs flurry of mergers

The world's second largest telecommunications market is undergoing a rapid and radical transformation as deregulation, the Internet and mobile phones alter the way that Japanese people work and communicate.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

Palm ready to double-fist Japan's market for hand-helds

Hand-held computer giant Palm Inc. has landed in Japan, setting up a subsidiary and releasing two new models with a fully localized operating system, company officials announced Thursday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

NTT, gas firms eye power retail business

Tokyo Gas Co., Osaka Gas Co. and a power facility under Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. may jointly enter the electric power retailing business, industry sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Moody's mulls upgrading Tokai, Asahi, Sanwa banks

Moody's Investors Service Inc. announced Wednesday that it has placed its long-term and short-term credit ratings of Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank as well as the short-term rating of Sanwa Bank under review for possible upgrading.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Hong Kong still 'gateway to China'

With its accelerating economic recovery and shift toward a balanced budget, Hong Kong will continue to be "the gateway to China" for businesses from Japan and around the world in the coming century, according to the principal representative at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Prosecutors search textile firms

Prosecutors on Wednesday searched Toray Industries Inc., Toho Rayon Co. and Mitsubishi Rayon Co. over allegations that the three textile companies illegally agreed to fix prices of carbon fiber in the United States in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Russian writes about postwar Japanese prisoners

At the end of World War II, Soviet troops imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians in Asia, sending them to labor camps in Siberia. Tens of thousands subsequently died in brutal conditions.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2000

eBay may herald an online revolution

The recent arrival of major U.S. online auction operator eBay Inc. may bring another online revolution to Japan, the world's second-largest Internet market.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2000

Three firms join hands on broadband venture

Sony Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and railway operator Tokyu Corp. announced Thursday that they will set up a joint company in April to offer broadband Internet application services through cable TV networks.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2000

Department store chains study distribution merger

The nation's two leading department store chains, Takashimaya Co. and Mitsukoshi Ltd., announced Thursday they will study the integration of their distribution and information networks.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

Adventures in global dining with Tokyo's restaurant king

From stand-and-slurp ramen shops to authentic French cuisine, Tokyo is a diner's paradise. Certainly, finding places that appeal to your palate isn't a problem; hoping they'll be there the next time around is. Tokyo restaurants go out of business faster than Shibuya girls change their nail colors.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

JR East joins Lawson in e-commerce

East Japan Railway Co. announced Tuesday that it will launch a full-scale Web site to sell and deliver more than 10,000 items in cooperation with major convenience store chain operator Lawson Inc.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Shop plaza taps 'platinum' generation for jobs, revival

NAGAHAMA, Shiga Pref. -- Although Tamae Shibata has many hobbies to pick from to bide her time, they offer the 71-year-old little satisfaction.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Game fans snap up PlayStation2

More than 7,000 stores nationwide started selling at 7 a.m. Saturday an advanced version of the popular PlayStation game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

Online exchange mulled for after-hours trading

Major trading house Mitsui & Co. announced Thursday that it will launch a joint venture with 11 brokerages to establish the nation's first after-hours online trading exchange for individual investors.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

Fundamentals to be key yen-dollar factor

The euro's tumble against the dollar has helped shore up the yen. After hitting a six-month high of 111.73 yen at one time Feb. 22 in Tokyo, the dollar has given up much of its recent gains.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2000

Police-watchers earn 26 million yen

Four of the six members of the National Public Safety Commission, the body that oversees the National Police Agency, each earns a salary of 26.67 million yen a year, although the commission meets only once a week, NPA sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2000

Seven-Eleven joins nursing market

Seven-Eleven Japan Co., the nation's biggest convenience store chain, and three other companies on Tuesday announced plans for a joint venture in the nursing-support business, a lucrative sector amid the country's rapidly aging population.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2000

Nippon Asset's rehab plan approved by Tokyo court

The Tokyo District Court has approved a rehabilitation plan submitted by Nippon Asset Management Inc. pledging to repay roughly 30 percent of its debts in five years.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 1, 2000

Always more

In recent columns I explored purchasing English-friendly computers in Japan. Here is a little more information submitted by a reader who thinks it will be useful for those needing extended language capabilities for their computers, but first he has something to say about agreements, both local and international,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Staying on the beaten track in darkest Saitama

THE CITY OF YES, by Peter Oliva. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1999; 336 pp., $21.99. Like many another young, sensitive, well-intentioned foreigner, Canadian-born Peter Oliva -- or his protagonist -- came to Japan for a year and was so bowled over by the place that he felt the world...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past