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BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2003

Boards here in need of outsiders: U.S. headhunter

A leading U.S. executive search firm has found that Japan's corporate boards have a smaller number of external directors than any other nation.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2003

Top drug wholesaler to buy two of its rivals

Kuraya Sanseido Inc., the country's largest drug wholesaler, said Friday it will acquire two rivals, marking the latest profit-driven realignment within the sector.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2003

Mobile phone shipments rise 30%

Domestic shipments of mobile phones, including personal handy-phone system equipment, grew 30.2 percent in October from a year earlier to 4.11 million units, up for the 12th consecutive month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2003

Mitsukoshi to sell ad space in 'fukubukuro'

Tokyo-based department store chain Mitsukoshi Ltd. plans to offer customers the right to display their photos on its advertising spaces in Tokyo subway trains next year -- at a cost of 10 million yen.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2003

Key economic gauge at 100% for October

A key gauge of the current state of Japan's economy stood at 100 percent for October, way above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent, the government said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2003

Chirac still feeling the heat

PARIS -- France has not finished paying for the August heat wave and its 10,000 deaths. Vegetable and beef prices have risen, tourism has declined, forest fires have devastated wide areas and the financial impact on the budget has postponed an economic upswing.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Ex-MMC executives to pay for defect-complaints coverup

Eleven former managers of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. agreed to an out-of-court settlement Tuesday in a shareholder suit filed by an investor who demanded they pay damages to the company for a drop in sales caused by the automaker's coverup of defect complaints.
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2003

Companies pursue image boost via programs for disabled

Japanese corporations are steadily expanding their social action programs to support physically disabled people in an apparent bid to look better to foreign investors.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2003

High court for intellectual property considered

The government is studying the creation of a high court devoted exclusively to creations of the mind.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2003

Jittery JT to launch six new products next month

Japan Tobacco Inc. said Monday it will launch six new cigarette products simultaneously early next month in a bid to sustain revenue amid a rapidly shrinking market.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2003

Sony seeks capital via bond issue

Sony Corp. said Monday it will raise funds for capital investment by issuing up to 250 billion yen worth of five-year Euroyen zero-coupon convertible bonds on Dec. 18.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 29, 2003

Carol Smith-Wright

This year the International Ladies Benevolent Society marks its half century of uninterrupted philanthropic activities on behalf of organizations and people in need, mostly in Japan. Principally through its annual ball and its Christmas Fair, ILBS raises money that it donates to approved institutions...
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2003

Industrial output rises for second month in a row

Industrial output grew in October for the second straight month, with the index registering its highest level in 2 1/2 years, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2003

Wholesaler Digicube goes belly up

Video game vender Digicube Co. said Wednesday it has filed for bankruptcy with liabilities of 9.5 billion yen, battered by a shrinking game software market.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2003

Hitachi to buy fridges from China

Hitachi Home & Life Solutions Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to purchase compact refrigerators and freezers from China's Henan Xinfei Electric Co. for sale in Japan under the Hitachi brand.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 26, 2003

Matsui, the Yankees and the PL's new free-agent trend

Hot stove league time, fans. Or should that be the hot hibachi league here in Japan? Lots going on during the off-season, so let's take a look at a few interesting happenings from last week.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2003

Milestone for an iconic mouse

An old mouse turned 75 last week, briefly distracting the world from wars, suicide bombings, elections and other momentous matters. It wasn't just any old mouse, you see; it was the white-gloved, bulbous-eared rodent Mickey Mouse, better known here as Miki Kuchi. This peculiar creature actually goes...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2003

'Remorseful' Nakao's bribery sentence cut by two months

The Tokyo High Court on Friday reduced the prison sentence handed to former Construction Minister Eiichi Nakao for taking 60 million yen in bribes from Wakachiku Construction Co. in 1996.
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2003

On a slow but steady track

Japan's economy, though beset by uncertainties, is recovering steadily. That is the message of the latest government report on the gross domestic product (GDP), which was published last week by the Cabinet Office. In the third quarter, July through September, the real GDP -- excluding effects of falling...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2003

Nippon Keidanren eyes new donation plan

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) will encourage its member corporations to make political donations in accordance with the size of their membership fees to the group, Keidanren sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2003

Tepco hurt by fallout from nuclear reactor closures

Tokyo Electric Power Co. posted an 86.85 billion yen net profit in the fiscal first half of 2003, down 44 percent from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2003

Yamanouchi, Fujisawa may forge tieup

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. may integrate their business operations by 2005, company sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2003

Casio, Hitachi to develop cell phones in joint venture

Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi Ltd. announced Tuesday they will set up a joint venture in April to develop cell phone handsets.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 18, 2003

Frustration with ISPs and keitai spam

ISP trouble On the subject of ISPs, I also was billed about 100,000 yen by my Internet Service Provider. The salesperson explained the contract to me in broken English as I cannot read Japanese. I was told I had to sign now, I couldn't take the contract away, have someone explain it to me and bring it...
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2003

Toray's Maeda to resign in June

Katsunosuke Maeda, the chairman and CEO who boosted Toray Industries Inc.'s earnings in the midst of an industry decline, said Monday he will step down from both posts in June.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2003

Mizuho Financial to sell off head offices

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to sell the three former headquarters of the banks it was merged from, Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan, according to sources close to the company.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Japan to ban certain beef items

A health ministry panel on Friday recommended a ban on the use of cattle backbones in food products, as a safeguard against the human variant of mad cow disease.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2003

Graduates enjoy starting salary hike

The average starting salary for male and female university graduates rose 1.5 percent in 2003 from a year before to 198,100 yen, the biggest increase on record, the labor ministry said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 15, 2003

Mackenzie Thorpe

The Japan Dyslexia Society, known as NPO EDGE, exists to promote understanding of dyslexia and to raise funds to help support patients. Recently EDGE organized in Tokyo a charity exhibition of the drawings, sculptures and silk-screen works of Mackenzie Thorpe, an English artist. The recognition of his...
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2003

Beerlike drink shipments may fall

Shipments of "happoshu," the low-malt cousin of beer, are expected to post their first year-on-year fall in 2003, according to industry data released Thursday.

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