search

 
 
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Maruha fined for octopus-tax evasion

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered Tokyo-based Maruha Corp., a major producer of seafood, to pay 100 million yen in fines for violating the Customs Law by evading taxes on imported octopus.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002

Beijing's political reflexes still at war with modernity

HONG KONG -- In the 23 years since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the outside world, it has become one of the world's great trading nations. Now the further onrush of foreign trade is to be used as a forcible stimulant to hasten China's economic reform and to enhance modernization. So Dec. 11, the day...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 17, 2002

Go west AND east, young men

In the good old days, Japanese baseball players used to dream about going to the major leagues. Now they just dream about playing on the West Coast.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Gloomy economic assessment left unchanged by government

The government left its bleak assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report issued Wednesday but said the decline in exports may be bottoming out.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Mayor allegedly leaked works bid info at dinner

Mayor Yoshishiro Kimura of Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, is believed to have passed information on a tender for a public works project to a consultant over dinner a few days before bidding was opened in 1999, investigative sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Panel seeks to free corporate boards

A Justice Ministry panel hammered out a draft bill Wednesday that would amend the Commercial Code and could radically alter the makeup of corporate boards and hasten the decision-making process of large companies.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

MHI may close machine tool plant

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. is considering closing its large-scale machine tool manufacturing plant in Hiroshima as early as 2003 due to slack demand, company officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Shokusan to sell Homest to Painthouse

Shokusan Jutaku Sogo Co., a failed builder of custom-made houses, has agreed to sell its new-home construction business to Painthouse Co. for 1 billion yen, the companies said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2002

Next step for Pakistan: credible politics

ISLAMABAD -- In signaling a turnaround in Pakistan's policy toward Islamic militant groups, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, is keen on setting a new course -- almost two decades after former military ruler Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq actively began promoting the concept of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002

Dream on, Gordon Brown

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Just before Christmas, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown came out with the surprise announcement that he was proposing that member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development address the question of poverty in the world by setting up a new...
JAPAN / PROTOCOL PURSUIT
Jan 17, 2002

Carbon tax stuck in detour to Kyoto

This is the first in a three-part series on Japan's struggles to curb global warming gas emissions. Staff writer The dust is finally settling.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Panel aimed at easing trade friction

Japan and China have reached a basic agreement to set up an intergovernmental panel to prevent future trade friction, a Japanese trade official said.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Man held for threatening to bomb official residence

A 25-year-old unemployed man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to blow up the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

BOJ OKs new ways to help economy

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday approved new ways of feeding vast amounts of money into the economy while keeping its monetary policy unchanged.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Jichiro executives to exit over tax scandal

Seven senior officials of the nation's largest labor union announced Wednesday that they would step down to take responsibility for a tax-evasion scandal involving a former union chairman.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Teacher who held student captive walks

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced a former cram school teacher Wednesday to a suspended three-year prison term for holding a former student as a captive for seven months under threat in 1995 when the victim was a junior high school girl.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Food firms resolve curry confusion

S&B Foods Inc. and House Foods Corp. have reached an out-of-court settlement in a suit over similar package designs used for their curry products, S&B said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Tax Commission to examine ID code plan for taxpayers

The government's Tax Commission is to begin today studying ways of introducing a controversial system that would assign identification codes to taxpayers, commission sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Visitor limits considered for nature parks

The Environment Ministry unveiled a new bill Wednesday to tighten rules on the use of national parks, quasi-national parks and other natural preserves to help protect wildlife and habitat.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 17, 2002

Adapting to living when the mercury falls

While you were tucking into roast feathered dinosaur (turkey) with all the trimmings this Christmas past, I hope you spared a thought for how other avians make it through the winter. While we humans celebrate in various ways to dispel the gloom of midwinter from the encapsulated warmth of our homes,...
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Neighbors warm up for WTO talks

Japan, China and South Korea agreed Wednesday in Tokyo to step up cooperation via a multilateral economic framework, including negotiations in future rounds of World Trade Organization talks.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jan 17, 2002

Electronics firms' strategies spark new hope

Investors have taken heart from the recent raft of reports on industrial realignments and new business undertakings by high-technology companies.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 17, 2002

What webs we weave

Spiderman might still be the stuff of comic books, but spidermammals exist, and they are this week the stuff of science journals.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2002

Lack of credit worrying: Takenaka

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka expressed concern Wednesday over the deterioration of credit in the banking sector amid the ongoing disposal of bad loans.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji