Search - business

 
 
BUSINESS
May 10, 2003

Ikuta against using postal savings to prop up stocks

Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said Friday he is against calls for the new public postal corporation to dump more funds from postal savings and insurance into the flagging stock market.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 10, 2003

Japan's most honorable form of death

"Well, you don't have a fever," the doctor told me. Next, he looked down my throat.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2003

The silent birth of a killer virus

BEIJING -- Is it the "big one" -- the indestructible one? Perhaps not. Either way, China's inability to tell the truth has made it a threat to all of us.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

Disney operator's profit up 48.8%

Oriental Land Co., operator of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, said Thursday its group net profit for fiscal 2002 rose 48.8 percent to 18.93 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

Toyota Motor logs third straight year of record earnings

Toyota Motor Corp. continued to perform strongly in fiscal 2002, setting new sales and profit highs for the third consecutive year, the nation's leading automaker said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

Key gauge above 50% in March

A key gauge of the current state of the economy stayed above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in March for the third straight month, but will probably fall below the line next month due to slowing production, the government said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

LDP split over allowing insurers to cut high yields

The Liberal Democratic Party was divided Thursday over a government plan to allow troubled life insurers to cut the high yields guaranteed to policyholders during the asset-inflated bubble economy, party lawmakers said.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Shiseido shoots back to black, record earnings

Shiseido Co. not only returned to profitability for the first time in three years in fiscal 2002 but also logged record earnings thanks to strong overseas sales and cost-cutting efforts, the company said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

Ripplewood to take over Asahi Tec

U.S. investment fund Ripplewood Holdings LLC will obtain a 51 percent stake in auto parts maker Asahi Tec Corp.
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2003

Rudderless world economy

From 1993 to 2001, the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton based its policies on the Democratic Party's platform of compassion toward the underprivileged and tolerance toward dissent. In the past, this ideology had prompted Democratic administrations to try to legislate an end to racial discrimination....
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2003

Rare chance for U.S. to fix tort lottery

WASHINGTON -- Trial attorney and U.S. Sen. John Edwards is well-liked by the plaintiff's bar. Too well-liked perhaps, since the Justice Department is investigating apparently illegal contributions to his presidential campaign -- which have since been returned -- from an Arkansas law firm. Although Edwards...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 4, 2003

A glimmer of what lies beneath

It used to be called the Street of Ink. Before that it was known as the River Fleet, mainly because that's what it was: the River Fleet. It even spent a period as London's Grand Canal -- something to rival the Venetian version, a grand urban waterway full of jostling pleasure boats and barges.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2003

SMBC eyes 40% stake in Mitsui Mutual Life

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Mitsui Mutual Life Insurance Co. are in final talks to make the insurer a joint-stock company by next April, with the bank taking a roughly 40 percent stake in it, officials at both companies said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2003

Ruthless foreigners given bad-news role

Japan's regional banks are turning to a tried and true method of conveying bad news: asking a foreign third-party to do it for them.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 3, 2003

Time to reconnect? Home is where the hearts are

Living abroad has its ups and downs. There are times of euphoria -- total absorption and delight with one's adopted culture -- and there are the deep troughs, when negativity sets in and everything turns hateful and to be despised. There is also that infinitely more bewildering phase, when nothing feels...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 3, 2003

Tit for tat in the game of Japanese gift-giving

"Beware of Japanese bearing gifts!"
BUSINESS
May 2, 2003

Ricoh profit jumps 17.7% to hit record

Copier maker Ricoh Co. said Thursday its group net profit for the business year through March 31 jumped 17.7 percent to a record 72.51 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2003

Millea forced to downgrade fiscal 2002 profit forecast

Millea Holdings Inc., which groups Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Nichido Fire & Marine Insurance Co., said Thursday it has revised downward its group profit forecast for fiscal 2002.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2003

Nomura Holdings posts 120 billion yen net profit

Nomura Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it posted a consolidated net profit of 119.91 billion yen in fiscal 2002, down 28.6 percent from the year before.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2003

Industrial output rose 2.6% in '02; first time in two years

Japan's industrial production rose 2.6 percent in fiscal 2002, the first increase in two years, on robust output of automobiles and electronic devices, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
May 1, 2003

New Wi-Fi accessibility unleashes the Internet

After enjoying the speed and always-on convenience of broadband Internet for about a year, I was surprised one afternoon to feel an odd pang of disconnectedness when staying at a friend's cottage in Izu. With nary a phone line or fiber-optic cable for miles around, I briefly found myself wishing my friend...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
May 1, 2003

"The Eternity Code," "The Countess's Calamity"

"The Eternity Code," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2003; 329 pp. The 13-year-old, pint-size mastermind of every heist known to man -- or to fairy -- is back. And in the latest installment of the "Artemis Fowl" series, time is running out not for Artemis' poor adversaries, but for him. His father, rescued...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2003

Now (and forever) a girl's best friend

Once the home of a prince, the Teien Art Museum is now playing host to a king's ransom in jewelry comprising a truly sparkling survey of the bijoutier's art in the four centuries spanning 1540-1940.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2003

Collegian job offers highest since '99

The hiring outlook has brightened for students who will graduate from college or finish graduate school next spring, with the number of job offers for such students rising 4.2 percent from last year to 583,600, the highest since 1999, according to Recruit Co.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2003

Hitachi swings back into the black

Hitachi Ltd. said Monday it returned to profitability in fiscal 2002, thanks to cost-cutting measures.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2003

Unease over Sony, banks drags Nikkei to fresh low

The benchmark Nikkei index ended Monday trading at another 20-year low as investors dumped technology shares amid earnings concerns triggered by Sony Corp.'s dismal estimate last week and falls in bank shares.
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2003

Asian politicians slowly embrace the Net

MANILA -- Irrespective of ideological leanings, all politicians are keen on receiving media coverage. As one U.S. political campaign publication noted, "If you don't exist in the media, you don't exist."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2003

A silver lining to the SARS epidemic

SINGAPORE -- The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is sending shivers down the spines of Asian governments and citizens alike. China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam have been the most affected by this scourge, while other Asian countries are desperately trying to prevent the disease...

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