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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2001

Is the world prepared to deal with the global economic downturn?

Economic policymakers must stand ready to take timely and decisive actions when incoming information suggests that the economy is most likely to significantly deviate from the targeted course for a sustained period. And in the uncertain world in which we live, they have to deal with both upside and downside...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 12, 2001

Tokai nuke incident still shows afterglow

Hisashi Ouchi died Dec. 21, 1999, less than three months after he and two colleagues set off a criticality accident at JCO Co. in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. Masato Shinohara died seven months later, also a victim of lethal radiation exposure. The third employee, Yutaka Yokokawa, was hospitalized...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 3, 2001

Swallows consider major move for Ishii

The Yakult Swallows are likely to allow left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii to play in the major leagues next season, one year before he becomes a free agent, club president Yoshikazu Tagiku said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2001

More elderly than there are young

The number of people aged 65 or older in Japan has topped those in the youngest age bracket for the first time since the national census was launched in 1920, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2001

Koseki admits to bribing Koyama, Murakami

Tadao Koseki, the former president of scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD, pleaded guilty Friday of bribing two former Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers to use their political influence to push the organization's plan to build a university.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

Insurance-yield cuts put forward in plan

A government panel presented a plan Tuesday that would enable life insurers to reduce yields promised to policyholders as a way to help weak insurers restructure.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2001

More improvements to come: Ghosn

Carlos Ghosn, president of Nissan Motor Co., said Tuesday that while the automaker deserves an "A or A-plus" for its rehabilitation efforts so far, its performance has yet to match all that it is capable of.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

Professors get suspended terms for dental test leak

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday sentenced two former professors to suspended 10-month prison terms for leaking questions in a state dentistry exam held last year.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jun 26, 2001

Japan's soccer prima donnas need a slice of wa

My girlfriend snores very loudly and dribbles on her pillow when she sleeps. By day, she transmogrifies from monster to model and is professional enough to keep both the dribbling and the chainsaw impersonation away from the catwalk.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2001

Female inmates suffered childhood sexual abuse, survey finds

About 73 percent of the 82 female prisoners in their 20s and 30s serving sentences in central Japan said they were sexually abused in childhood or adolescence, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2001

Demobilize the children

About 800,000 children are being forced to serve as soldiers worldwide, reports the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. This is shameful. The use of child soldiers must stop. All governments should end the recruitment of children into their armed forces. Then their demands for opposition forces...
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Jun 21, 2001

Localities approach foreign firms to raise tax base

With the economy in the doldrums, cash-strapped local governments have begun warring with each other to attract foreign businesses and the jobs and tax revenue they bring. Touting tax incentives, lower land prices and proximity to factories in related industries, they are encouraging foreign firms to...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2001

Women turn to crisis hotline

Some 60 percent of calls received in the past year by a mental crisis hotline set up by 11 hospitals affiliated with the labor ministry were from women, according to survey results released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2001

State schools, colleges incur huge debt

The government's special account for national universities and other state-run education facilities piled up 6.498 trillion yen in debt as of the end of fiscal 2000, according to a financial report compiled by the education ministry.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Ministry has wine bonanza on public funds

The Foreign Ministry spent around 30 million yen on 4,427 bottles of wine in the three years beginning fiscal 1997, according to documents revealed by the ministry Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Economy downgraded for fifth month

The economy is deteriorating and may be slipping into recession due to sluggish personal consumption and business investment, the government said Thursday, downgrading its assessment for the fifth straight month.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Aum's request to end surveillance is rejected

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday rejected a request by Aum Shinrikyo to void a decision by the Public Security Examination Commission to place the sect under surveillance by security authorities.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Problem loans rising at regional banks

Problem loans at the nation's 64 regional banks rose 17.7 percent to 9.8 trillion yen during fiscal 2000 as borrowers fell delinquent and banks made more stringent assessments of loans, the Association of Regional Banks said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2001

Major nonfinancial firms to earn 1.4% less in 2002: Nomura

The nation's major nonfinancial companies are expected to suffer a 1.4 percent drop in group pretax profits for the current business year ending March 31, 2002, after posting a hefty 33.5 percent rise in 2000, Nomura Securities Co. said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Recession looms as GDP shrinks 0.2%

Japan's economy shrank during the last three months of fiscal 2000, according to government data released Monday, confirming fears that the world's second-largest economy is on the brink of another recession.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 10, 2001

Publishing still in a slump; DaVinci stays popular with young

Last month, the National Tax agency made its annual announcement of those paying more than 10 million yen in income tax and, as always, the list reflected major trends of the times.
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2001

Restarting Korean peace talks

Stop blowing up the balloons. Put away the ribbons and confetti. There is unlikely to be any major celebrations as we mark the first anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000 summit meeting in Pyongyang between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean chairman Kim Jong Il.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Economy to be rated down for fifth month

The government will downgrade its assessment of the economy for the fifth straight month in its report for June, Heizo Takenaka, minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, indicated Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2001

Japan-Chile free-trade deal urged

Chile and the government-affiliated Japan External Trade Organization called for forming a comprehensive free-trade agreement between the two countries as soon as possible in their joint studies released Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2001

Banks need strong medicine to recover ratings, S&P says

Standard & Poor's Corp. said Wednesday that the slide in Japanese bank ratings is not irreversible, but that strong measures will be needed to regain credit strength because of the tough operating environment.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Jun 7, 2001

Japan's efforts to responsibly manage southern bluefin tuna resources bear fruit

HONOLULU-- Australia, New Zealand, and Japan recently agreed to jointly launch an experimental fishing program for southern bluefin tuna. Quotas for southern bluefin tuna, along with Japan's unilateral experimental fishing programs, have been sources of diplomatic contention among the three countries....
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

New Zealand offering Japan 'soft trade' alternative: envoy

New Zealand is better-placed than other English-speaking nations to help Japan's goal of internationalizing its citizens, according to Ambassador Phillip Gibson.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 3, 2001

Past obscures Korea's nuclear future

SOLVING THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR PUZZLE, edited by David Albright and Kevin O'Neill. Washington, D.C.: ISIS Press, 2000, 333 pp., $29.95 (paper). We may never know how close the world came to war in 1994, but most accounts suggest the margin was slim. Suspicions about North Korea's nuclear program...
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2001

General contractors reduce workforces

Eight major general contractors, all financially ailing, cut their workforces by a combined 2,898 during fiscal 2000 as part of their rehabilitation programs, according to their employment data released Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 2, 2001

Glen S. Fukushima

"To me, the U.S. and Japan are fascinating, as they stand at polar extremes in the way their societies are organized. Philosophy, culture, history set Japan apart from other industrialized countries, especially the U.S. Having spent many years in both the U.S. and Japan, I enjoy assisting the two peoples...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?