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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000

A role for Japan in South Asian peace

South Asia has witnessed an upsurge of violence since the military takeover in Pakistan and the hijacking of an Indian airliner last year. There may or may not be any causal link between the two incidents, but the peace process in the region has been the biggest casualty of both.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000

Telephone club firebombing sparks fear intergang warfare is flaring up

KOBE -- The fatal firebombing of one of Kobe's largest telephone dating clubs has led to fears of a renewed intergang war among rival affiliates of the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 19, 2000

Tsutomu Yoshioka

Tsutomu Yoshioka's life has come full circle. In the early 1940s, he was a teenage student at Jiyugakuen, the Freedom School founded in 1921 by Yoshikazu and Motoko Hani. Now he is director of Myonichikan, Jiyugakuen's original buildings, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The American architect said at...
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2000

Companies plan e-commerce site

Nissho Iwai Corp. and NTT-ME Information Xing Inc. (NTT-X), a Web site management company affiliated with NTT Corp., said Friday they will form a joint company by the end of this month to offer comprehensive electronic commerce.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 18, 2000

Japanese legend's sweetest hero

Kintaro was the childhood name of Heian Period samurai Sakata no Kintoki, who was said to have defeated a bear in sumo wrestling as a child. Toy representations of Kintaro riding a bear have come to symbolize strong and healthy boys, and are often displayed on Children's Day, May 5 (formerly Boys' Day)....
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2000

MITI plans entrepreneurs forum

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Friday that it has set up a national forum to nurture Japanese entrepreneurs as part of efforts to revitalize the economy.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2000

Finance Ministry strips Minami Securities' registration over bogus bonds

The Finance Ministry on Friday canceled the business registration of Minami Securities Co. for its allegedly fraudulent sales of corporate bonds and dubious asset management, saying the local brokerage violated the Securities and Exchange Law.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2000

Embattled triumvirate seeks to rally the public before polls

Although Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi encountered little difficulty in securing Diet passage of the fiscal 2000 budget Friday, the likelihood of him dissolving the Lower House for general elections in the near future seems more distant than ever.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2000

Even recovery will be painful

The Japanese economy faces a bumpy road. Japan's gross domestic product in the last quarter of 1999, October through December, shrank 1.4 percent from the previous three-month period, posting negative growth for two straight quarters. In annual terms, that works out to minus 5.5 percent, according to...
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

Ghosn to take over as Nissan Motor president

The reins of Nissan Motor Co. will be handed over to Carlos Ghosn, known as "the cost-cutter" and presently the chief operating officer of the struggling automaker, it was announced Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2000

Clinton comes to India, though somewhat too late

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives in India on Sunday, the region that he recently termed the most dangerous place on Earth. There may be an element of truth in that.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2000

Reformer calls for overhaul of scandal-hit police system

The scandal-tainted police system must be overhauled, believes Kohei Nakabo, a lawyer who has just been appointed to a new government panel established to advise on police reform.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2000

Fueling Angola's war machine

Angola's savage civil war has lasted for a quarter of a century, has claimed 1 million lives (almost 10 percent of the population) and forced many more from their homes. International arbitration has yielded truces and peace agreements, but each has collapsed and the fighting resumed. The United Nations...
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

SESC calls for brokerage to be punished for fraud

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended Wednesday that financial regulators punish Minami Securities Co. for fraudulently selling corporate bonds, commission officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

Olympic gold medalist to aid education reform

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will appoint Olympic gold medalist Yasuhiro Yamashita and 25 others to his advisory panel on education reform to be launched this month, Obuchi's adviser on education issues said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2000

Inflation scare won't loosen purse strings

Most of Japan's modern economic history consists of a long series of achievements pronounced impossible by the outside world. Japan was building the foundations of world-beating steel and electronics industries while Occupation officials urged that scarce resources be devoted to "suitable" exports such...
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Japan Telecom picks Nokia

Japan Telecom has chosen Nokia as a business partner for developing its third-generation mobile network. The agreement allows Nokia to move into the Japanese mobile Internet market, the most advanced in the world for next-generation mobile communications.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 15, 2000

Seeds of knowledge

Welcome to the digital revolution, where we crunch numbers, process information and mine data. Maybe we don't get grease under our fingernails, but one wonders how far we've progressed beyond the industrial revolution. Though the metallic cling-clang of factories is rare, isn't there something familiar...
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2000

Number of companies going bankrupt climbs 51%

The number of Japanese corporate bankruptcies with liabilities of more than 10 million yen rose 51.1 percent in February from a year earlier to 1,443, a private credit research institute said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

H.I.S., Sony to form Internet travel venture

H.I.S. Co., Japan's largest retailer of discount air tickets, will set up a joint company with Sony Corp.'s Internet arm to offer travel services via the Internet from this summer, company sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Time for demand-, not export-driven focus

After climbing past the psychologically important 20,000 barrier for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years early last month, the 225-issue Nikkei average now is languishing at around 19,500.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

Predictions cautious on economic recovery

The gross domestic product data for October-December released Monday sent mixed signals, with higher plant and equipment investment coupled with dismal consumer spending.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2000

In praise of market heretics

During the 1980s and 1990s, waves of neoconservatism swept the world. The movement was sparked by two politicians: Margaret Thatcher, who became the prime minister of Britain in 1979, and Ronald Reagan, who became president of the United States in 1981. In Japan, a neoconservative administration headed...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Sanwa, Asahi, Tokai to merge

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank are expected to create Japan's second largest financial group through a merger, and an announcement could come as early as today.
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2000

BOJ says low prices aren't 'bad'

The Bank of Japan's Policy Board agreed that consumer price declines resulting from structural changes in Japan's distribution system are "not a bad thing" and should be distinguished from deflationary drops, according to the minutes of their Feb. 10 meeting released Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2000

Sumitomo Bank, Hosei University on Aum-related PC firms' client list

Sumitomo Bank and Hosei University were among the clients of computer software companies believed to be under the control of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, it was learned Saturday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 12, 2000

Day of reckoning

The question of sexual harassment -- "seku hara" -- has, after years of neglect, become one of the hottest media topics. Not that suddenly men are beginning to harass women. It is that women are making accusations while before many tended to view it as inevitable, something that went along with employment...
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2000

La resistance is futile

Once again, France is attempting to draw a line in the sand against the encroaching tide of English. This time, reportedly, the language police are focusing on business and computer-related vocabulary. Marketplace and cyberspace must now be conceived of en francais, thank you, even if that means talking...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2000

Reactor cutback eyed in energy policy shift

The government will overhaul the nation's energy policy and probably cut back on its plan to build 16 to 20 new nuclear plants by fiscal 2010 in the wake of mounting opposition to such facilities and a fatal atomic accident last September, trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Friday.

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