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BUSINESS
May 30, 2003

Hino, Penske form capital alliance

Truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. said Thursday it has formed a capital alliance with U.S.-based major leasing firm Penske Corp. to start full-fledged operations in North America.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2003

Resona Holdings suffers 549.4 billion yen latent loss

Resona Holdings Inc. has incurred a 549.4 billion yen latent loss on the preferred shares it issued through the previous round of public fund injections, a senior government official said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2003

Aozora sheds bad loans, ups profit

Aozora Bank said Wednesday it posted a group net profit of 23.4 billion yen in fiscal 2002, up 25 percent from the previous year, by shedding many bad loans from its portfolio and increasing its loans to good borrowers.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

JETRO, ministries opening 14 foreign investment offices

The Japan External Trade Organization and 13 other entities, including the trade and foreign ministries, were to each set up an office Monday aiming to boost direct foreign investment in Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Profit dips 13.4% for Shinsei Bank

Shinsei Bank said Monday that its group net profit fell 13.4 percent in fiscal 2002 to 53.03 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Norway to push whale meat exports

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who arrived Monday in Tokyo, will promote controversial plans to export whale meat to Japan during three days of trade and business talks.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 26, 2003

Floating ABCPs on open market could repair interest rate gap

On May 17, the finance ministers of the world's major powers gathered in Deauville, France as part of efforts to set the stage for the annual Group of Eight summit in Evian. A statement adopted at the meeting urged Japan to pursue structural reforms in its financial and corporate sectors and overcome...
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

High cost of the farm lobby

The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Art that's sweet enough to eat

In early summer, they might evoke dewy irises and swirling water. In autumn, plume grass trembling in the wind. Quite obviously, Japanese sweets are more than a mouthful of sweetness: They evoke the poetry and beauty of life itself.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2003

Auguries in a coffee cup

Eight years ago, there was no such thing as a Starbucks coffee shop in Japan. Now they are part of the landscape; in the big cities, you can often find two or three of the ubiquitous stores with the round green logo within a couple of blocks of each other. That might sound like the ultimate definition...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 25, 2003

The boy bachelor

Last week, the National Tax Bureau released its annual list of the country's top tax-payers, and at the summit of the pile of show business personalities was Masahiro Nakai, the self-effacing leader of the boy group SMAP. Nakai's high salary is easy to understand: He appears in at least a half-dozen...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2003

Scandal-hit Snow posted major loss in fiscal 2002

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. continued to struggle in fiscal 2002, suffering a group net loss of 27.1 billion yen for the year that ended in March, the scandal-tainted dairy said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2003

Jury out on new bank's prospects

A new bank proposed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government appears to be good news for struggling smaller companies.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2003

Tighten Japan's tobacco controls

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adopted at the latest annual assembly of the World Health Organization is the first multilateral pact in the field of public health. The harmful effects of tobacco on health are well-known, but its use remains widespread. The fact is that while the health dangers...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2003

Nippon TV net profit falls 41.4%

Nippon Television Network Corp. said Thursday its group net profit dropped 41.4 percent to 20.30 billion yen for the business year ended March 31 due to a plunge in advertising revenues amid the weak economy.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2003

Nintendo's record profit run ends

Nintendo Co. said Thursday its consolidated net profit fell 36.8 percent to 67.27 billion yen in fiscal 2002, largely due to lower-than-expected sales of game consoles.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2003

JAL and ANA to get emergency loans

The transport ministry said Wednesday that the Development Bank of Japan will extend emergency loans to Japan Airlines System Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co. to help them overcome the adverse effects of the war in Iraq and severe acute respiratory syndrome.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2003

Arcades boost Namco's profits

Game maker Namco Ltd. said Wednesday that its group net profit more than doubled in fiscal 2002, thanks to the strong performance of its domestic amusement arcades.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2003

Bill imminent to let insurers shirk on yields

The tripartite ruling coalition approved Tuesday an amended bill that would allow life insurers to cut yields guaranteed to policyholders, resulting in a possible cut in payouts, coalition officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2003

The first Western master of woodblock

A Western man clad in a kimono sits in his tatami-floored studio with his paintings strewn about him. In the background a shamisen stands in a wooden box, its neck jutting upward.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Banking selloff prompts further slide on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Tokyo stocks fell for a third straight session Monday, with the key Nikkei average briefly dipping below the 8,000 line amid a banking sector selloff.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
May 20, 2003

Iraqi revival will cost Russia

MOSCOW -- It is a commonplace to say the war in Iraq was not only about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but also about oil. No matter how dangerous Hussein's regime was and how badly the White House needed an impressive victory for the 2004 elections, oil -- as today's key commodity -- was very much...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Medical firm pins hopes on skin-graft technology

Masaharu Inami received a call in 1996 from a Nara doctor desperate to save the life of a 17-month-old girl who had fallen into a bathtub of boiling water and had been scalded over 65 percent of her body.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Nissan units plan establishment of light-truck venture

Nissan Motor Co. and Nissan Diesel Motor Co. will set up a joint venture this fall to develop light trucks as part of their efforts to attain a bigger share of the global truck market, the automakers said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 20, 2003

Foreign actors play it niche and simple

Robert Scott may be one of the hardest-working Westerners in Japanese show business. The native Southern Californian appears in a host of Japanese TV dramas and variety shows as well as radio programs. He's even acted in a Godzilla flick.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2003

On the brink of another recession

Japan's economy appears on the brink of yet another recession -- the fourth in a decade. The nation's gross domestic product -- the total value of goods and services produced at home -- remained flat in real terms, not including price effects, in the first three months of the year, according to data...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 19, 2003

It's time to meet expectations by installing stock-market package

Japan managed to avoid the so-called March crisis as share prices picked up temporarily toward the end of the month. However, the stock market remained in a slump in April, with the Nikkei average dipping at one point to the 7,600 range.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Heavens above: a job from hell

Most reporters would have jumped at the assignment, with gusto.

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