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BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2002

Finance minister concerned about stock market slump

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Thursday that he is worried about slumping stock prices as Japan struggles to escape its third recession in a decade.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2002

Mr. Bush's nuclear sleight of hand

Last year, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed deep cuts in the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, a decision that was promptly echoed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the move was roundly applauded, there were concerns over the U.S. president's reluctance to codify the decision in a treaty....
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.
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...
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 / 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.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2002

More BOJ credit-easing steps soon: experts

Seventy-five percent of economists and financial analysts surveyed by Kyodo News believe the Bank of Japan will take additional credit-easing measures within three months, amid an increasingly gloomy economic outlook.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2002

Cambodian aid raises concern

Through its involvement in Cambodia since the U.N. peacekeeping process began in 1991, Japan has played a positive role in attempting to bring peace and development to Cambodia. Japan's generous aid program has brought some significant benefits to Cambodians over the past 10 years. These include a glistening...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2002

Mayor arrested over works bid

Yoshishiro Kimura, the mayor of Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of obstructing a public works tender by receiving money in connection with a bid won by Hitachi Ltd.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2002

Bill targets fast urban development

A bill on urban development being crafted by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry would call for designating special areas for swift redevelopment.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2002

Sanyo seeks Samsung link in tech sector

OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea are discussing the possibility of forming an alliance aimed at codeveloping advanced technologies, according to Sanyo officials.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2002

Kawasaki to get east-west line -- but at what cost?

A 36-year-old plan to build a subway running east and west in Kawasaki finally appears to be moving forward, drawing praise from residents along the proposed route but criticism from opponents for imposing a huge drain on the city's finances.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2002

Shokusan Jutaku seeks protection from creditors

Shokusan Jutaku Sogo Co., a leading builder of custom-made houses, on Sunday filed for court protection from creditors with liabilities of 13.5 billion yen, the company said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2002

Strike that word

Are you guilty of having used the phrase "9-11" to refer to the attacks of Sept. 11? Or have you inflicted the word "synergy" on friends or colleagues? Or read about a "surgical strike" or a "faith-based" initiative without wincing?
COMMENTARY
Jan 13, 2002

Overzealous security eroding U.S. liberties

WASHINGTON -- Liberty is threatened not so much by massive destruction as by minor erosion. Like when boarding an airplane in the United States. There should be few safer passengers than a Secret Service agent who guards the president. But not in the case of Walied Shater, who was tossed off of an American...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2002

No recovery in sight for Japanese book publishing industry

One often sees references in the Japanese media to the "lost decade" that followed the burst of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s, but the publishing world has only suffered a half decade of negative growth. After five consecutive years of falling sales, however, it can no longer ignore systemic...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 13, 2002

Skeptics searching for super powers

The laziest attributes of Japanese TV come to the fore during the New Year break, namely, the over-reliance on repetitive talk-show formats, the use of quizzes to liven things up, and lots of amateur videos and old news footage.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2002

Badminton coach held over holdups at sex parlors

A former Chinese badminton coach involved in training Japanese Olympic athletes has been arrested in connection with a series of sex-parlor robberies, according to police sources.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2002

Japan-China panel to discuss farm import levels

Tokyo and Beijing have agreed to hold the first meeting of a bilateral trade panel charged with discussing import levels for three Chinese farm products in early February, the farm minister said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2002

'Kandahar' director laments Afghan bombing

Afghanistan needs books rather than bombs to educate a largely illiterate population that has endured nearly two decades of war, starvation and drought, celebrated Iranian movie director Mohsen Makhmalbaf told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2002

Shiokawa eyes easing burden of direct taxes

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday he hopes to raise indirect taxes, including asset taxes, and reduce the burden of direct taxes in a comprehensive tax reform plan to be introduced later this month.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2002

Hiranuma seeks Pacific economic bloc in 10 years

Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry, called Friday for the creation within 10 years of a Pacific economic bloc that would not only include Japan and Southeast Asian states but also other East Asian and Oceanian nations.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2002

NPOs make mark by preserving the past

Kyodo News Members of nonprofit organizations are making strenuous efforts to preserve traditional Japanese structures and townscapes and develop regional communities.
BUSINESS
Jan 11, 2002

Stock surge euphoria may yield to hangover

Although the Tokyo Stock Exchange ushered in 2002 on a positive note, a long lasting surge appears unlikely. The outlook remains bleak for the year ahead and beyond.
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2002

Sanwa, three other banks look at bailing out struggling Daiei

Sanwa Bank and three of Daiei Inc.'s other creditor banks are considering a bailout package for the struggling supermarket chain, including debt forgiveness and a debt-for-equity swap, as one of "many options," a Sanwa Bank spokesman said Wednesday.

Longform

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A boom for business tourism in Japan?