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BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

Toyota's stake in Hino to be raised to 50.1%

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will raise its stake in truck manufacturer Hino Motors Ltd. to 50.1 percent from the current 36.6 percent in late August with the purchase of new Hino shares.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2001

A new era for the Americas

That is the best way to describe the decision reached last weekend by 34 Pan-American leaders. Gathering in Quebec City, they defied thousands of violent protesters and agreed to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The removal of trade barriers from the Arctic to the southern tip of Argentina,...
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2001

Residential, factory sites yield 117 soil pollution cases

Government inspections uncovered 117 cases of soil contamination at former factory sites and residential areas across Japan in fiscal 1999, according to the Environment Ministry.
Events
Apr 17, 2001

Kansai leaders brainstorm on ways to kick-start the region

OSAKA -- Since the end of the bubble era, the Kansai region's economy has fared worse than many other parts of Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

Public concern rising over pollution, poll shows

An overwhelming majority of Japanese are uneasy about chemical pollution of the environment from factories, automobile exhaust and pesticides, according to a recent Environment Ministry survey released Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2001

A bibliophile's whodunit: Who is killing the book?

Who is killing the book in Japan? That is the provocative question posed by veteran nonfiction writer Shin'ichi Sano in his recent book of the same title ("Dare ga 'hon' o korosu no ka," President Sha, 1,800 yen).
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Direct talks open with U.S. over dropping of Kyoto Protocol

Japan on Wednesday began direct communication with the United States over Washington's decision to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at curbing global warming.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Postwar corporate model shed in quest for success

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., known for its Panasonic brand, embarked this month on a drastic reform of its groupwide business by gradually dismantling its "business unit" system, established by founder Konosuke Matsushita.
Events
Apr 3, 2001

Nursery provides multilingual learning

KOBE -- For 20-month-old Andrei Hirata, the nursery school was hell.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2001

Graffiti blasts Beijing demolition

Under the cover of darkness and armed with a can of spray paint, Zhang Dali pedals his bicycle around the quiet Beijing streets with the intention of giving the city a new face -- sometimes two or three.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Economy, ecology out of sync: environmentalist

SEIKA, Kyoto Pref. -- Collapsing fisheries, shrinking farmland and rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are symptoms of severe stress put on the environment by a world whose population is spinning out of control, according to Lester Brown, chairman and founder of the prestigious Worldwatch...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Agriculture Minister vows to open Isahaya floodgates

Agriculture Minister Yoshio Yatsu on Tuesday announced that he will open the water gates of a dike closing off a large part of Isahaya Bay to see if it improves water quality in the Ariake Sea.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Study pinpoints loss of nutrients in Ariake Sea

An abnormal presence of phytoplankton in Kyushu's Ariake Sea has reduced the amount of nutrients available for seaweed, lending credence to the theory that this was a major factor in this year's disastrous nori harvest, an Environment Ministry study showed Tuesday. However, officials stopped short of...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 26, 2001

Bush ignores experts on climate change

The rubber has met the road and we now know that U.S. President George W. Bush is driving under the influence, his judgment impaired by fossil fuel lobbyists.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 21, 2001

Where there's a spark, there's green tourism

If the thought of an entire mountaintop in flames sounds like a nightmare or a Dali painting, you'll be surprised to learn that noyaki, a land conservation technique in Kumamoto Prefecture's Aso county, looks exactly like that from a distance. Local environmental group Aso Greenstock has been teaching...
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2001

Media star teacher grabs success by the roots

Radical is a word Masahiko Sato positively adores. He says its etymology lies in the word radish or root, both of which signify the concept of origin. According to the 46-year-old professor at Keio University's faculty of environmental information, living the concept results in the original and the previously...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2001

Diesel woes spur truck firms to seek out alternative fuels

Delivery companies are starting to use trucks that run on compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas in the face of stricter regulations on diesel-powered vehicles.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 11, 2001

Calcium pulses clue to nerve cell growth

Like an insect's antennae, filapodia are the fingerlike projections sent out by a developing nerve cell to detect environmental cues. Scientists at the University of California at San Diego have discovered how the filapodia communicate with the main body of the cell: through a kind of biological Morse...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

SOFA changes mulled to calm Okinawa

Despite persistent demands from Okinawa Prefecture for sweeping revisions to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the central government is hoping the most recent surge in anti-American sentiment can be appeased by improvements in the implementation of the pact.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Mar 9, 2001

Lifetime employment myth fades amid jobless realities

At the age of 40, Yoshiro Kamimura worked in sales at a chemical company, with a wife and two preschool children to support.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Missing U.S. kids' safety bemoaned

It was a routine visit for Tokyo metropolitan child-care officials when they checked on five American children early this month. Only this time, the Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, apartment where they had been living since November was empty.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Global warming to hurt millions of Asia's poor

Global warming has already started to affect the environment and a rise in sea levels will threaten up to 200 million people by 2080, according to a new report released Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2001

A playground for the imagination

From the outside, Minamisawa Steiner Hoshi-no-ko Kodomo-en kindergarten looks much like any other home-run preschool. The two-story house is approached from a quiet side street, and you enter through a garden gate.
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2001

The 'freeter' phenomenon

LONDON -- An article in the Jan. 31 issue of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun began with these words (my translation): "It was afternoon when he woke up. There was nothing he had to do. To avoid meeting his parents he got up without making any noise and went out of the house. It was the same thing for him every...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

Cabinet hears first vice minister

Senior Vice Minister Tetsuo Kutsukake of the Environment Ministry on Friday became the first vice minister to attend and speak in a Cabinet meeting.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

Cabinet hears first vice minister

Senior Vice Minister Tetsuo Kutsukake of the Environment Ministry on Friday became the first vice minister to attend and speak in a Cabinet meeting.
COMMUNITY
Jan 31, 2001

Kinder makes learning kanji fun

Slippery snow is turning to slush. It is midwinter in Kanto, time for bundling up in fleecy sweaters and heavy coats. But at the two Hikari Yochien schools in Kawasaki, boys and girls are playing outdoors wearing nothing more than gym shorts.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

People facing retirement seen increasingly looking overseas

More middle-aged and elderly Japanese are going abroad for long stays or permanent residence to seek a new life after mandatory or early retirement.

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