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JAPAN
Dec 31, 2000

Warbler recalls area's innocent days

Just when the doors of the Yamanote line train are about to close at Uguisudani Station during morning rush hour, alert passengers will hear the distinctive chirp of the "uguisu," or bush warbler.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Nikkei flirts with two-year low as 2000 trading draws to gloomy close

The Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday bid farewell to 2000 with the main gauge falling enough to flirt with a two-year low.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Driver of credit union car killed in 46 million yen heist

A credit union employee was fatally shot when two men carjacked a credit union vehicle containing 46.6 million yen in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on Friday, police said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2000

Falling victim to U.S.-Chinese diplomacy

A 46-year-old man named Zhang Hongbao from Harbin, China is facing an uncertain fate in a cramped U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services detention cell in the U.S. territory of Guam. On one hand he is just another illegal immigrant, joining thousands of other Chinese who have attempted to settle...
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2000

UFJ Holdings to consolidate asset management into two firms

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Toyo Trust & Banking Co., due to combine forces in a joint holding company called UFJ Holdings Inc. in April, will consolidate their asset management business into two firms, the three banks said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2000

FSA orders suspension for errant Nomura unit

Japan's financial watchdog said Thursday it has ordered a unit of Nomura Securities Co., the country's largest brokerage, to suspend part of its operations for two months from Jan. 9 as punishment for trading securities on behalf of foreign clients without contracts.
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2000

Spring recovery may see the yen rebound

The dollar has climbed past the 114 yen level for the first time in a year and four months amid growing skepticism about Japan's economic recovery.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2000

Century reaches last work day

Employees of public organizations and many private companies experienced the last business day of the century in various ways across Japan on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2000

Popular challenger lets down many Thais

BANGKOK -- Thai voters dissatisfied with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's ruling Democrat Party will have a hard time turning to the alternative Thai Rak Thai Party of telecom tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra since public trust in the businessman has eroded.
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2000

State oil firm to help drill Azadegan

Japan National Oil Corp. said Thursday it has decided it will participate in a project to develop Iran's largest oil field, the Azadegan field, situated near the Iraqi border.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2000

Kumagai debt waiver OK'd

After months of negotiations, the 15 creditor banks of ailing general contractor Kumagai Gumi Co. have basically agreed to a debt-waiver package that would relieve the firm of a loan burden totaling 450 billion yen, sources close to the talks said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2000

Tax office hits Seiko Epson for concealing 4.2 billion yen

Electronics maker Seiko Epson Corp. failed to declare 4.2 billion yen in income over five business years through March 1999, including 400 million yen in concealed revenues, sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 28, 2000

Looking back at the future

In honor of that particularly Japanese custom of creating instant tradition ("Since 1999"), this last column of the year peers forward by looking back. Here are just three of the many new places we have visited and enjoyed during the past 12 months but never got around to writing up.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Tech firms plan Bluetooth venture

Toshiba Corp., Taiyo Yuden Co. and IBM Japan Ltd. said Tuesday they will form a joint venture that will authorize the use of a trademark for the new Bluetooth wireless technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2000

Common interest warms KMT-CCP ties

TAIPEI -- The reopening of the so-called three links -- trade, transportation and communication -- between Taiwan and China may still be some way off, but in the meantime it appears Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) has sidestepped the ban and forged its own direct link with China.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 27, 2000

PlayStation2 shortage buoys up Sega

Sega started off on the wrong foot when it launched its 128-bit Dreamcast game console in Japan Nov. 27, 1999, and has been unable to regain its balance ever since.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Number of temporary workers up 19% in 1999

The number of temporary workers in Japan surged 19.3 percent in fiscal 1999 from a year earlier to 1,067,949, according to the Labor Ministry.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2000

U.S. policy-shift sparks stock market rally

Favorable U.S. monetary policy news has sparked a massive stock market rally in New York and elsewhere.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2000

Take it easy, Mr. Clinton

U.S. President Bill Clinton does not seem to know the meaning of the phrase "lame duck." Although his successor will be sworn into office in less than a month, Mr. Clinton is pursuing a flurry of initiatives more worthy of a man taking office, rather than one packing his bags to go. His intentions may...
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2000

Korean baseball owners under fire as support for players union grows

SEOUL -- The continuing saga of the Korean pro baseball players union has taken another series of twists and turns as players, many of whom were livid at the firing of six key members of the union, have started signing up as an act of solidarity with their fellow professionals.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 25, 2000

Emotion trumps logic in whaling debate

Over a sushi lunch with Scott Latham, I mention "whaling," and Scott, my trade-consultant friend, doesn't miss a beat: "The Whaling Wall."
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2000

Judicial reform falls short

A government panel on judiciary reform produced an interim report in November that called for specific measures, such as creating law schools and tripling the annual crop of legal experts-to-be (those who pass the state law exam) to 3,000.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Woman battles unfair rental practices

SHINGU, Hyogo Pref. -- When Suzuko Miura learned in March she would be returned only 34,181 yen of the 98,000 yen deposit she had paid on her son's Kyoto apartment, she refused to go down without a fight.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Universal leads Kinki tourism boom

OSAKA -- With construction work on Universal Studio Japan nearing completion, expectations are running high that the Hollywood theme park will attract hordes of visitors and revitalize a hitherto drab industrial site.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Town's win against dam had a cost

KITO, Tokushima Pref. -- This remote village lies along the upper stream of the 125-km Naka River.
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2000

Punishing 'a haven of lawlessness'

That is how the United Nations Security Council justified its vote earlier this week to impose new sanctions against the government of Afghanistan. Voting 13-0, with two abstentions, the Security Council has demanded that the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul, close "terrorist" training...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Regulations set for new banking entrants

A government advisory panel on nonfinancial firms' entry into the banking and insurance sectors issued a final report Thursday that was slightly watered down from an interim report.

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