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COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2000

KDDI aims to stay solid No. 2

A new stage of competition will begin Sunday in the telecom industry when three major firms merge into KDDI, a long-awaited rival to the behemoth telecom group led by NTT Corp.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2000

Korean firms unite on software for translation

A Tokyo-based computer software joint venture set up by a pro-Pyongyang firm and a South Korean company will team up with a North Korean government agency to develop software capable of the simultaneous interpretation of mobile phone conversations between Japanese and Korean speakers, company officials...
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2000

DDI, KDD, IDO cleared for merger

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry on Monday approved a plan by DDI Corp., KDD Corp. and IDO Corp. to merge under DDI's banner.
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Kennedy gives answers with Tokyo Q online

Rick Kennedy loves Tokyo. He has been here for years, yet still can't get over the kindness of its citizens, the flawless attention to detail, the sensory feast to be partaken of at every twist and turn -- much of which can be eaten and drunk! So great is his enthusiasm that we missed our stop, Hamamatsucho,...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Police think they've caught i-mode's e-mail prankster

Police believe they have tracked down the prankster responsible for sending e-mail to subscribers of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phone service that causes the phones to automatically dial the police, investigative sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2000

DDI to unite cell-phone providers into 'au'

Telecom carrier DDI Corp. said Friday it will merge seven of its eight regional cell-phone service providers on Nov. 1 to increase efficiency, naming the merged entity "au."
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Stimulus policy should continue: Imai

While acknowledging that the much-anticipated economic recovery has become more evident, Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), is emphasizing that the government should continue its current stimulus-oriented fiscal and monetary policies for the foreseeable...
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2000

Sony to enter market for handheld computers

Sony Corp. in September will launch two types of handheld computers that it says are strategic items in the Japanese market's coming broadband network era, the company announced Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 12, 2000

I-mode uber Alles

A small cheer could be heard recently when it was announced that NTT DoCoMo would add English-language content to the menus of its i-mode cell phones. It went official July 3, and, well, the selection wasn't that big of a surprise. In fact, some of it had already been available in previous months (and...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2000

Japan offers compromise in NTT dispute

Posts minister now suggests that 22.5% cut in less than three years possible Japan on Friday offered a compromise in the long-standing dispute with the United States over telephone connection rates, bringing the two nations closer to resolving the bilateral trade row before the upcoming Group of Eight...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 28, 2000

All thumbs

In past columns, I've expressed my support for those people you've probably seen silently staring at their cell-phone screens, furiously typing away or intently scrolling. I recently joined their growing number. I think of it as a test drive; others might call it an occupational hazard. At any rate,...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

DoCoMo i-mode crashes for more than two hours

Subscribers to NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s i-mode Internet service were denied access for more than two hours from late Tuesday to early Wednesday, the company said, despite an earlier announcement that the problems had been repaired.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2000

DoCoMo tieup eyes i-mode-friendly ads

Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. and major ad agency Dentsu Inc. announced Thursday they have jointly set up an agency specializing in ads to be posted on DoCoMo's i-mode wireless Internet service.
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2000

Say it with buses

Some Tokyo residents have been grumbling or sneering (or both) in the past few weeks about the latest head-turning novelty on the capital's streets: those giant moving billboards that used to be just plain old green-and-cream buses.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

Fingleton deflates the New Economy

IN PRAISE OF HARD INDUSTRIES: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Technology, Is the Key to Future Prosperity, by Eamonn Fingleton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999, 273 pp., $26 (cloth). A 24-year-old Englishman with a ponytail waltzed into the offices of a London venture-capital company...
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2000

Kyocera to quit Iridium phone project

Kyocera Corp. announced Friday that it will pull the plug on its seven-year involvement in the Iridium global wireless telephone service project.
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
Feb 29, 2000

Road ahead clears for Tokyo stock market

After struggling to find its direction for weeks, the Tokyo stock market appears poised to test higher ground.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Sony to sell appliances directly over Internet

Sony Corp. will begin online sales of home appliances for the domestic market by the end of March, the major electronics manufacturer announced Tuesday. It will be the first time a major Japanese electronics maker has sold home appliances directly to consumers over the Internet. Japanese electric appliance...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Stocks, cell phones raise industrial index

The nation's overall service industry activity increased 0.6 percent in November from the previous month due to increased mobile phone sales and active stock trading, marking the first rise in three months, according to a preliminary report issued Friday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry....
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 1999

Le Nozze de video

Toss away your Love Getty and forget the formal o-miai (arranged meeting) -- matchmaking has gone hi-tech.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Retailers rev up for holiday shoppers

Staff writers
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 6, 1999

The future is in the air

I have written and read e-mail during my commute, beamed my virtual meishi to new acquaintances, played cards in taxis, and once in a shameless display of computing on my feet I consulted a database of Tokyo restaurants, which I had downloaded from www.bento.com, and located a great Indonesian joint...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 1999

Internet station pulls in global FM tunes

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 1999

Mr. Robertson's agenda

LONDON -- The appointment of George Robertson, formerly the British secretary of state for defense, as secretary general of NATO has rekindled discussion on a number of important defense issues facing Europe. Robertson should be able to influence the outcome, but decisions will largely rest with the...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Rival carriers prepare to combat Goliath

Second in a five-part series on reorganizing the domestic telecommunications industry
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Industrial output drops after '98 book-closings

Japan's industrial production dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent in April from the previous month, marking the first decline in three months, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report released Friday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 26, 1999

Privacy? Get over it

In one of those snide comments that only people worth hundreds of millions of dollars are capable of making with any credibility, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, dismissed the whole privacy controversy with: "Get over it.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.