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BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2001

Panel threatens NTT with splitup

An advisory panel to the telecommunications minister said that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. should be reorganized or split up if steps to promote competition in the telecom market fail.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2001

Experts offer solutions for Japan's malaise

Is there going to be a simple solution to Japan's prolonged economic problems? Experts from U.S.-based think tanks taking part in a recent symposium in Tokyo discussed a variety of prescriptions for both the long- and short-term illnesses that the country faces.
Japan Times
JAPAN / LAST CALL FOR SAKE
Dec 12, 2001

Sake purists are feeling the pinch as recession reins in the big spenders

NIIGATA -- Motoaki Isono, the 73-year-old owner of a tavern called Suzuden in Tokyo's Minato Ward, said the name Niigata no longer works magic in alluring serious sake drinkers.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2001

Look of Japan belies reality

LONDON -- A recent, short visit to Japan made me doubt whether there was much sense of an economic crisis threatening Japan's future and how far the recession has affected ordinary people.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2001

Jobless rate hits 5.4%

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent in October, hitting a record high as more people lost jobs due to corporate restructuring, the government said Friday.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2001

Yo, what's with this Dostoevski?

Crime + Punishment in Suburbia Rating: * * * Director: Rob Schmidt Running time: 128 minutes Language: English Now showing
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2001

Securitize home loans: panel

A framework for the securitization of housing loans should be created before Government Housing Loan Corp. is privatized, the head of an advisory panel to the land minister proposed Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Nov 8, 2001

Take your golf game with you

"ESPN Final Round Golf 2002" from Konami for the Game Boy Advance may surprise you.
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2001

Major electronics makers suffer first-half losses

Five electronics makers swung into losses in the first half of the 2001 business year, plagued by the global slump in the information technology industry, according to interim earnings reports released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2001

Hitachi plans to spin off two divisions by April

Hitachi Ltd. said Thursday it will spin off its home appliance group and industrial components and equipment group in an effort to speed up management decisions.
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2001

Draft solid reform plan, Koizumi tells Cabinet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed his Cabinet on Friday to devise concrete reform measures on priority areas such as education, urban renewal, job creation within the public sector and deregulation of health care.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Nikkei hits postbubble closing low

An overnight tumble on Wall Street and investors' disappointment in what they see as lukewarm government action on structural reform kept Tokyo stocks weak Friday and again sent the key price index to a new postbubble closing low.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2001

Nikkei plummets below 11,000 mark

The key Nikkei stock average closed on Wednesday below the psychologically important 11,000 line for the first time in nearly 17 years as Japanese investors became worried by signs of a further delay in a U.S. economic recovery.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 28, 2001

Whither the mighty Mekong?

"The boat moves off, the river banks remain." -- Old Khmer proverb
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2001

Playing chicken with telecommunication big boys

To some he is a hero. To others an anathema. For this writer, who lives in trepidation of meeting with Japanese CEOs because (sorry guys) they tend to be so predictable, Sachio Semmoto is a breath of fresh air.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001

. . . And then there's angst

Ghost World Rating: * * * * 1/4 Director: Terry Zwigoff Running time: 111 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing If you're lucky, you made it all the way through high school as one of the in-group, one of the "normal" kids. The next least-bad fate was to not fit in, but remain convinced that somehow...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

From Here To Inanity

After you've sat through three hours of "Pearl Harbor" -- 90 minutes' worth of passionless romance, 45 minutes of incessant explosions and then a seemingly endless 45-minute coda -- while your butt is screaming to get off that seat and out the door, the final bomb drops. As the credits roll -- including...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2001

OECD policy equals fiscal imperialism

There has been a lot of noise over the issue of tax laundering and tax havens. While much of the focus of publicity will be on stopping money-laundering associated with criminal activities, the subtext of it all will be to restrain tax competition. Despite the initial aim to limit "harmful tax competition,"...
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2001

Transferred NTT employees face wage reductions

NTT Corp. plans to introduce a new wage system for the roughly 100,000 staff being transferred from its group companies to regional subsidiaries under which salaries will be cut by 15 percent to 30 percent, company officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2001

Economy continues to weaken

The overall state of the economy has weakened in recent months due to shrinking business confidence and stagnant consumer spending, the Finance Ministry said Monday in a report.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

Montagnards still paying for Vietnam War

LOS ANGELES -- It's understandable. Now 85, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in his new book "Wilson's Ghost," is urging that America get involved in foreign crises only under the umbrella of multinational efforts. And you would take that view, too, if you had been the boss of the U.S....
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

FRC wanted major changes at banks

The Financial Reconstruction Commission, the predecessor of the Financial Services Agency, set out to push through a major reorganization of 17 major banks immediately after its inauguration in December 1998, according to minutes of the FRC's meetings disclosed Friday by the FSA.
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2001

Russia's long shadow falls on Ukraine

KIEV -- Russia is working assiduously to tighten its grip on Ukraine. With U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set to visit Kiev in early June, the Bush administration should begin drawing that nation back toward the West.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 27, 2001

Going at it the hard way, while playing with the mix

Selfridges, one of London's poshest department stores, looks more Shibuya than Oxford Street these days. As part of London's Japan 2001 Festival, the store has made itself into a Japanese-style depaato, complete with elevator girls and counters piled high with azuki bean sweets and twee stationery goods....
BUSINESS
May 26, 2001

Two major banking groups suffer losses

Bad loans continued to make a dent in major banks' profits in fiscal 2000, even as the heat intensified to get to the bottom of the problem, according to fiscal earnings reports announced by Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2001

Signs of creative destruction

Japan today needs what the economist Joseph A. Schumpeter once called "creative destruction." The immediate need is to shake up the political and economic systems from the ground up. Without such drastic changes Japan will not be able to regain vitality.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Crowd-pleasing in Udine

Given the media frenzy over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Western interest in Asian cinema may be news, but it's hardly new. Back in 1998, the organizers of Udine Incontri Cinema, a small film festival in a quiet Italian town near the Austrian and Slovenian border, shifted their focus to commercial...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 19, 2001

Bush's mettle gets put to test

Chinese pilot Wang Wei gave U.S. President George W. Bush his first critical foreign-policy test. Wei's collision over the South China Sea with a Navy reconnaissance plane, which dropped 24 U.S. military personnel into the hands of the Chinese military on Hainan Island, provided an excellent course in...

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.