search

 
 
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

State hastily airs 2002 start date for nonexistent tax

An across-the-board local corporate tax may be introduced in all prefectures as early as fiscal 2002, the head of an advisory panel to the prime minister indicated Tuesday. Corporate earnings as of March 31, 2002, should provide a clue as to whether the economic recovery is solid enough to allow new...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 29, 2000

Kobe tops Toyota for rugby double

Japan company champion Kobe Steel completed the "double" on Sunday by winning the Japan Rugby Union Championship with a convincing 49-20 triumph over Toyota Motor at Tokyo's National Stadium.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Japanese politics are gray, not green

GREEN POLITICS IN JAPAN, by Lam Peng Er. Routledge, March 1999, 232 pp., $90. The next 100 years have been dubbed the century of the environment. While this pronouncement may be a bit premature, even inflated, it reflects the swelling interest in environmental issues. From global warming and dioxins,...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 29, 2000

I just want to go to Chelsea; the best live show in Japan

You're cruising on a silent sea in a big warm boat when suddenly a tsunami hits and you're dumped in the ocean and you're chased by sharks to the nearest island where you encounter mustachioed cannibals with Spock haircuts waving Hinomaru flags who chase you through a snake-infested jungle and up a mountain,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Pilgrimage for the 21st century

EXPLORING KANTO: Weekend Pilgrimages from Tokyo, by Michael Plastow. New York: Weatherall, 1996, 262 pp., with color photos and maps, $19.95. A long journey of exalted purpose is one of the dictionary definitions of pilgrimage. One makes such a demanding endeavor for personal or, if you will, spiritual...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

Ishihara says 3% tax to affect banks only

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Tuesday that he has no intention of slapping a tax on the gross profits of any businesses other than banks. He also reiterated his position that major financial institutions are obliged to pay for the administrative services they enjoy. Speaking before the Tokyo Metropolitan...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Asia's real entrepreneurs shine

THE NEW ASIAN CORPORATION: Managing for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia, by Michael Hamlin. Jossey-Bass, 1999, $21.95. There are few more compelling subjects than the future of the Asian corporation.
COMMENTARY
Feb 29, 2000

No backtracking allowed

The peace-treaty talks between Japan and Russia are off to a fresh start because Boris Yeltsin suddenly resigned as Russian president at the end of last year. Yeltsin had agreed at a Russo-Japanese summit meeting in 1997 that the two nations should "strive" to sign a long-pending peace pact by the end...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

Fiscal 2000 budget clears Lower House

The Lower House on Tuesday approved the government's 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 budget, which the ruling bloc calls "a final push" to put the economy back on a recovery track. Now that the budget has cleared the Lower House, it is certain that it will clear the Diet before the new fiscal year starts...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

Osaka proposes deficit-cutting budget

OSAKA -- The Osaka Prefectural Government announced a 3.6 trillion yen budget plan for fiscal 2000 Tuesday that reduces personnel costs and raises high school tuition fees. Prefectural personnel costs will be reduced for the second consecutive year, while tuition fees for new students at local public...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2000

Japan, U.S. join efforts to tackle infectious disease

Japan and the United States agreed Tuesday to increase cooperation on a joint project in Cambodia to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. During the 10th plenary meeting of the Japan-U.S. Common Agenda, held in Tokyo, the two countries focused on six areas to enhance...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 29, 2000

Anti-glamor Idevian Crew hit the stage

Shigehiro Ide is back on stage with his dance company Idevian Crew after all too long an absence from performing. His comeback in "Which," the piece he choreographed to open the Next Dance Festival at Shinjuku Park Tower Hall Feb. 18, establishes him as the most promising dancer/choreographer on the...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Staying on the beaten track in darkest Saitama

THE CITY OF YES, by Peter Oliva. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1999; 336 pp., $21.99. Like many another young, sensitive, well-intentioned foreigner, Canadian-born Peter Oliva -- or his protagonist -- came to Japan for a year and was so bowled over by the place that he felt the world...
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.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2000

HIV case judgment is a warning

The Osaka District Court on Thursday marked a historic and welcome first for this country. Three former presidents of the defunct Osaka-based pharmaceutical company Green Cross Corp. were found guilty of professional negligence and sentenced to prison in the case of a hospital patient who died of AIDS-related...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Teens die as car plows into parked truck

OSAKA -- Two people were killed early Monday when their car crashed into a parked truck on a municipal highway in Mihara, Osaka Prefecture. A car driven by Satoshi Imura, 19, a college student, burst into flames in the 12:10 a.m. crash, police said. Imura and Yaasuko Moriyama, also 19, a vocational school...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

New FRC chief vows fairness, details transparency hurdles

Staff writer Sadakazu Tanigaki, new chief of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, said Monday that he will be committed to "fairness and transparency" in handling reforms to the banking system, following the sudden resignation of his predecessor for seemingly antireform remarks. "The nation's administration...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Stray cat glut spurs odd neighborhood response

Staff writer YOKOHAMA -- A first glance at Masumi Nomura feeding cats in a Yokohama park may lead you to believe she loves the furry felines, but the opposite, however, is true. For years this 61-year-old Isogo Ward resident's daily trips to the park have included feeding a group of homeless cats. Even...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Domestic auto sales on the rise

Auto sales in Japan have posted year-on-year increases for January and February, the first two consecutive increases since the April 1997 consumption tax hike, an industry leader said Monday. Hiroshi Takikawa, chairman of the Japan Automobile Dealers Association, told a news conference that Feb. 1-25...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 28, 2000

Passion for traditional medicines, exotic pets, promotes illicit trade

Some among us seem to have an insatiable desire for novelty, be it living or dead. From rare primates and endangered tortoises for pets, to tiger bones consumed in pursuit of sexual vitality, Japan is the world's leading consumer of exotic species.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Arabian Oil loses drilling rights; Saudi aid canceled

The 40-year-old oil drilling rights of Arabian Oil Co., Japan's largest oil producer, in a major oil field in Saudi Arabia expired Monday morning as last-minute negotiations with Riyadh over the weekend ended in failure. Trade chief Takashi Fukaya expressed deep regret after the oil concessions officially...
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2000

E-consumers' habits reveal low-tech solution to recession

Major supermarket operator Nagasakiya Co. has just gone bankrupt, and reports say many department stores are taking heavy losses.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Additional slots at Haneda sought for Skymark, Air Do

An advisory panel to the Transport Ministry compiled a report Monday recommending that additional slots for three daily flights each be allocated to Skymark Airlines and Hokkaido International Airlines (Air Do) at Haneda airport in July. The airport in Tokyo's Ota Ward will be able to handle 57 additional...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Task force ready for LY2K bug

The government set up a task force on Monday to deal with computer glitches that may arise today due to Tuesday's observance of the special leap year, which comes only once in 400 years. The task force was set up at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, where about 10 government officials were to...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2000

High savings symptomatic of Asian crisis

SYDNEY -- A high rate of saving among Asians was once credited for its important contribution to the remarkable performance of their "miracle" economies. It has become clear that neither aggressive investment spending nor high saving rates can guarantee sustainable growth. Now, high savings should be...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2000

Defusing tension in the Spratly Islands

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The tiny Spratly Islands are dwarfed by the magnitude of the sovereignty and demarcation problems that surround them.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

National oil development strategy questioned

Staff writer The expiration Monday of the 40-year-old drilling rights of Japan's Arabian Oil Co. to a Saudi Arabian oil field dealt another blow to Tokyo's long-term policy of expanding Japanese-explored oil sources as a precaution against emergencies like the 1970s oil crises. The expiration was a long...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2000

Managing global development

The United Nations University is an important marketplace of ideas. The U.N. is the normative center of international public policy. On Jan. 19-21, UNU brought together some of the best international scholarship with specialists from within the U.N. to focus on problems in the new century and possible...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Repeat offender dealt death sentence in appeal

The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court-imposed life prison term Monday and sentenced a convicted killer and rapist to death for murdering a 44-year-old woman he had raped seven years earlier. Takashi Mochida, 57, a former construction worker, was found guilty of murdering the woman in 1997, two...
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2000

Venture, not adventure

New stock markets for venture businesses are emerging in Japan. Last November, the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened "Mothers" (an acronym for "market for high-growth and emerging stocks"). This June, the U.S. National Association of Securities Dealers, Japan's Softbank Corp. and the Osaka Securities Exchange...

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free