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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 6, 2002

New transfer rule won't help rumor mill

LONDON -- The FIFA-imposed transfer window, which means Premiership clubs will not be able to sign any new players until Jan. 1, has brought different reactions from various parties.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2002

Computer server shipments decline record 17.7%

Shipments of computer servers in the April-June quarter in Japan registered record-low growth in both volume and value terms amid prolonged repercussions attributable to the collapse of the information technology bubble, a market research agency said Wednesday night.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2002

Tax hike seen as key to kicking the habit

If a pack of cigarettes were to cost 300 yen, 16 percent of smokers would try to kick the habit, and if the craving was to cost them 1,000 yen a pack, 63 percent would quit, according to a government-sponsored study released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2002

Toyota and Nissan forge hybrid tieup

Toyota Motor Corp. will provide Nissan Motor Co. with technology aimed at developing eco-friendly hybrid cars over a period of more than 10 years, the automakers said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2002

Finance Ministry plans to issue inflation-linked bonds

The Finance Ministry is studying measures to issue inflation-linked bonds, the ministry's top bureaucrat said Monday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 1, 2002

The pros and cons of character typing

If you need help with a problem and want to make a bunch of celebrities feel good, check out Nippon TV's "Power Bank" (Sunday, 12:30 p.m.). For each episode of the show, individuals register as "helpers," meaning people with some kind of skill or experience, and when a viewer requests assistance, this...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 1, 2002

Hitting English language-learning overdrive

The Japanese media is in the middle of another of its sporadic English-language learning frenzies, which, this time, seems to have been sparked by an Education Ministry decision to promote English conversation lessons in public elementary schools.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2002

Real estate appraisal to reflect costs of polluted-soil cleanup

The government will introduce new criteria for real estate appraisals under which costs for cleaning up soil contamination will be reflected in land prices, according to officials of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2002

FSA plans to offer cash incentives to banks that merge

The government may provide as much as 1 trillion yen to banks that agree to consolidate, according to a proposal outlined Thursday by the Financial Service Agency.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2002

J-Phone to recall faulty new handset

Cell phone service operator J-Phone Co. said Wednesday that one of its newly introduced handsets is experiencing problems with software related to Internet access.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

GDP report expected to show 0.2% growth

Government reports this week are expected to show Japan's economy expanded slightly in second quarter and pulled out of recession, thanks to growing exports, according to a survey released Monday by Bloomberg News.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2002

Efforts afoot to protect whistle-blowers

OSAKA -- Recent years have seen more and more whistle-blowers come forward to expose corporate wrongdoing, often to their own personal career detriment.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Shrinking realm of privacy

LONDON -- Privacy is now increasingly recognized as an important human right, but its limits are not easy to define. How far, for instance, should the press be prevented from intrusive photography of VIPs? The media generally argue that it is their job to report on the movements and actions of public...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2002

Ministry to admit some fault in hepatitis infection scandal

The health ministry has decided to admit some fault in the scandal involving hepatitis C infections from blood products, according to sources.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Aug 24, 2002

Steep costs seen stifling market for Internet ice boxes

Imagine the convenience of a microwave oven that can download 1,000 recipes and automatically set the optimal cooking temperature for each dish, or a refrigerator whose contents you check via your cell phone.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2002

Nippon Electric Glass in CRT move

Nippon Electric Glass Co. said Friday it has established a new subsidiary in China to expand its output of glass bulbs for cathode-ray tubes.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2002

Kyoei Mutual pulls out of Millea group merger

Kyoei Mutual Fire & Marine Insurance Co. on Thursday formally announced that it will not join the Millea Insurance Group, bidding to instead strengthen its finances as a subsidiary of the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren).
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Aeon, Life to restock disgraced firm's products

Aeon Co., operator of the Jusco supermarket chain, said Wednesday it will resume selling the products of Nippon Meat Packers Inc., possibly as early as this week.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2002

Mizuho reveals interest-setting rules to corporate borrowers

Mizuho Bank has begun divulging its in-house interest-rate guidelines to corporate borrowers in the hope of persuading them to pay higher interest rates, Mizuho officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Takebe slams Nippon Ham punishments

OSAKA -- Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe on Wednesday blasted disciplinary measures taken by Nippon Meat Packers Inc. over a beef mislabeling scandal as "incomplete and incomprehensible to the public," as ministry officials searched the company's offices in Osaka and Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2002

Nanaboshi execs held over shady bookkeeping

OSAKA -- Prosecutors on Tuesday arrested the president and two former executives of Nanaboshi Co., a plant maintenance firm that went under last year, for allegedly doctoring the company's books to make the business results look better.
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2002

Nasdaq withdrawal blamed on prolonged economic slump

The head of Nasdaq's international operations reiterated Monday that the prolonged domestic slump was behind Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s decision to pull out of Japan.
COMMUNITY
Aug 18, 2002

Something in the air: the charged debate over negative ions

Yes, there's definitely something in the air this year -- and it's not just the regular brew of pollutants and particulates.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

TSE probes Nippon Meat affair

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has begun hearings over possible violations of the bourse's information disclosure rules by Nippon Meat Packers Inc. in relation to a subsidiary's abuse of a government beef-buyback program, TSE officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2002

Insurers boost marketing of policies for entertainment events

Insurance firms are stepping up efforts to sell policies covering damage caused by accidents at fireworks displays and other entertainment events organized by municipalities or communities.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

Tokyo OKs sulfur-light diesel sales

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Friday it will allow gas stations in the metropolis to sell diesel fuel with a lower sulfur density, which would make it easier for car owners to install equipment that would reduce particulate emissions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Aug 17, 2002

Photo processors bet livelihoods on digital age

For photo shops, the increasing use of digital cameras among consumers means fewer people dropping off rolls of film to be developed and printed.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2002

Nippon Ham chairman to resign from industry post

Yoshinori Okoso, chairman of Nippon Meat Packers Inc., is expected to resign as head of the Japan Ham & Sausage Processors Cooperative Association in the wake of a farm ministry request that the body take action over a beef-labeling scandal involving a Nippon Meat Packers subsidiary, industry sources...
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2002

Wife of 'Japanese Schindler' sues

The wife of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who helped thousands of Jews flee Nazi persecution, on Wednesday sued a Tokyo publisher over a book she claims libels her dead husband.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 15, 2002

A load of computer clubs and a wad of financial advice

This column may be produced in Tokyo, but the newspaper circulates nationwide and indeed is read online worldwide. So we feel we are not doing our jobs properly to focus on Tokyo alone. While we have heard of a Macintosh computer group in Osaka, there must be others -- and in Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo,...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami