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BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2003

Lower House OKs insurer yield cuts

The House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday allowing life insurance companies to cut their promised yields to policyholders.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2003

Home video-game industry now in a tight corner

Since Nintendo Co. began selling its "family computer" in 1983, the company and other manufacturers have sold millions of home video-game machines, including portable versions, not to mention several hundred million units of software.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2003

Closed schools finding new leases on life

With schools closing left and right amid the nation's declining birthrate, necessity is forcing cash-strapped local governments to come up with creative ways to reuse such facilities, many of which are aging.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2003

Britons fear euro's underside

LONDON -- Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl often used to say the euro would only work properly if and when Europe had a full political union -- in other words if there was a single government for Europe with a large central budget. He was, of course, completely right, and this explains why the British...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2003

S. Korea emerges from Japan's shadow

NEW DELHI -- Despite resentment against Japan for its colonial domination of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945), South Korea followed Japan in its model of postwar economic development. In both countries, the central government established close links between commercial banks and companies while ensuring...
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

Mizuho raps retiring execs

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. will withhold the retirement allowances of a host of executives after the banking group incurred a group net loss of more than 2 trillion yen and skipped dividend payments in fiscal 2002, a spokesman said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

McDonald's plots burger price hike

Ltd. has said it will raise the price of hamburgers back to 80 yen, effective July 1. Hamburgers have cost 59 yen since last August, a maneuver that has symbolized McDonald's discount strategy.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

April machinery orders fell 1.8%

Core private-sector machinery orders fell a seasonally adjusted 1.8 percent in April from the previous month to 874.9 billion yen, the government said Tuesday, indicating capital spending may slow later in the year.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

Finance panel approves bill allowing yield cuts

A House of Representatives panel approved a controversial bill Tuesday that would allow life insurers to lower yields guaranteed to their policyholders on the grounds this will avoid bankruptcies.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

Tesco buys into Japan market

Major British retailer Tesco PLC announced Tuesday it will acquire Tokyo-based supermarket chain C Two-Network Co. for 32.8 billion yen, joining the growing list of foreign retail giants gaining a foothold in the world's second-largest economy.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2003

Accounting board hits at firms hiding losses

The organization that sets the nation's accounting standards said Tuesday it will officially declare later this week that it is against a proposal to allow companies to hide latent losses on their shareholdings.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2003

Law to regulate GMO usage passed by Diet

The Diet passed a bill into law Tuesday for regulating the use of genetically modified organisms.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2003

Disaster-wary firms get backup communications

A growing number of Japanese companies are adopting a satellite-based emergency backup communications system so they can continue some of their key operations in the event of a major earthquake or other terrestrial disruption.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2003

Banning ferry visits seen as futile

OSAKA -- Experts on North Korean issues say that simply banning port calls by the North Korean ferry Man Gyong Bong-92 would not stop shipments to the reclusive state of sensitive materials like devices that can be used for missile development.
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2003

Reform debate gets personal as boycott called

A rift between the national and local governments over decentralization appears to have developed into an unprecedented attempt to boycott products made by one of the nation's major consumer electronics makers.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 10, 2003

Finding acting work, reducing phone bills and ditching old stuff

Freighter travel Judi Sullivan's daughter, who lives in Japan, sent her a Lifelines column with an enquiry from reader Lisa Beretta, who wanted info on cargo ships willing to take a passenger to Europe.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2003

Crayfish to settle U.S. investor suit

E-mail service provider Crayfish Co. said Saturday that it and other defendants will pay $9 million to a group of U.S. investors to settle out of court a damages suit filed in 2000 over alleged shortcomings in Crayfish's disclosure.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2003

The case of the indignant diva

One of the odder human traits is our apparently inborn ambivalence toward celebrities. There would be no such thing as a celebrity if the rest of us did not, in some sense, celebrate certain people -- for their artistic gifts, their looks, their wealth, their charm, their brains or whatever else it is...
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2003

Criteria for approving insurer yield cuts mulled

The government may consider setting numerical criteria for life insurance companies seeking approval to cut the yields they guaranteed to policyholders, Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2003

State lenders told to rethink role

The home affairs ministry on Friday urged 11 governmental financial institutions to come up with schedules for withdrawing from the lending business, pointing to the need to reduce their outstanding loans over the medium and long term.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2003

What can revive insurance firms?

Deflation in Japan is taking its toll on life insurance companies. Since they make profits by investing policyholders' premiums and bank-supplied funds in stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets, they are more susceptible to falling asset prices and near-zero interest rates than companies in other...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

Meat packer probed for mislabeling

Police on Thursday searched the Tokyo headquarters of Prima Meat Packers Ltd. on suspicion the firm mislabeled one of its products, failing to specify that it contained potential allergy-inducing ingredients.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

Meat packer probed for mislabeling

Police on Thursday searched the Tokyo headquarters of Prima Meat Packers Ltd. on suspicion the firm mislabeled one of its products, failing to specify that it contained potential allergy-inducing ingredients.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2003

Meat packer probed for mislabeling

Police on Thursday searched the Tokyo headquarters of Prima Meat Packers Ltd. on suspicion the firm mislabeled one of its products, failing to specify that it contained potential allergy-inducing ingredients.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2003

Economic gauge falls below boom-or-bust line

A key gauge of the current state of the economy fell below the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in April for the first time in four months, due in part to slowing production.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2003

Politics prevail at the G8

Once upon a time, the heads of the world's seven leading industrial powers got together to discuss economics and ways to ensure growth. That focus made sense because there were other forums to talk about politics, and economic coordination was much lacking. Sadly, that time is long gone. Instead, the...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2003

Japanese hemophiliacs invited to join U.S. suit over tainted-blood sales

LOS ANGELES -- A class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Monday on behalf of 15 European hemophiliacs suing seven firms, including a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Pharma Corp., for selling contaminated blood products that exposed them to HIV and hepatitis C, their lawyer said Tuesday....
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2003

Japanese hemophiliacs invited to join U.S. suit over tainted-blood sales

LOS ANGELES -- A class action lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Monday on behalf of 15 European hemophiliacs suing seven firms, including a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Pharma Corp., for selling contaminated blood products that exposed them to HIV and hepatitis C, their lawyer said Tuesday....
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2003

Ohga to get 1.6 billion yen in Sony retirement deal

Sony Corp. plans to pay 1.6 billion yen in retirement allowances to Honorary Chairman Norio Ohga, who resigned as a board member in January, according to a company letter sent to shareholders by Wednesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat