Search - 2000

 
 
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

Use of counterfeit passports to enter Japan on the rise

The number of arrests for entering Japan on fake passports rose sharply in the first half of the year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Robot project seeks to give industry boost

The government has announced plans to launch a project to foster the robot industry, viewed as a possible dynamo for economic growth, with subsidies and related legislative measures in fiscal 2002.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Employees' mental health on decline

The mental health of company employees has deteriorated significantly since fiscal 1996, with anxiety and obsessive behavior on the rise, according to a survey conducted by a private research institute.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Entertainment firm in tax evasion tangle

Entertainment production firm Rising Production Co., which counts pop stars Namie Amuro and Da Pump in its stable, was found by tax officials to have evaded taxes on income of 2 billion yen in the three years to August 1999, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2001

Pressure on reforms likely as bleeding starts

The nation's unemployment rate, which hit an all-time high of 5 percent in July, may present the greatest threat to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reforms, begging the question, "Is reform worth the pain?"
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2001

'Third sector' bankruptcies surge

The number of "third sector" bankruptcies has reached 17 this year, surpassing the annual record of eight set the previous year, a private credit research agency said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2001

Quake insurance tax break in works

The Cabinet Office said Saturday it will pursue an independent tax exemption system for earthquake insurance premiums in line with requests for revisions to the tax system in fiscal 2002, government officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 26, 2001

Hell on earth in '23

"The pillars of the house made groaning sounds and began to crack. An earthquake! The wall clock stopped, and the electric fan went flying." That was how Hisamatsu Yamato, then an 18-year-old living in Tokyo's Honjo district, recalled the moment.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2001

Engine of a nation's modernization

A HISTORY OF JAPANESE RAILWAYS: 1872-1999, by Eiichi Aoki, Mitsuhide Imashiro, Shinichi Kato and Yasuo Wakuda. Tokyo: East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, 2000, 256 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Few industries have a more illustrious history than that of the railroad. From its birth in the 19th century...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2001

Why Dear Leader isn't going to Seoul

SEOUL -- "All contacts have stopped. We had expected North Korea to take up the process again, but they haven't," says South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo. Since Pyongyang left negotiations last March, not much has happened diplomatically between the two estranged Koreas.
JAPAN / PRIVATIZING PAINS
Aug 25, 2001

Local authorities turn up noses at broke pension fund resorts

Kyodo News The sale of 12 health resorts to repay debts incurred by the now-defunct Pension Welfare Service Public Corp. is not proceeding smoothly because the local governments that were asked to purchase them are all refusing to do so.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2001

Japan's public schools grow more violent

A record 40,374 cases of violence were reported at public schools across Japan in the school year ending in March, the education ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2001

NPA to hire 5,000 officers as arrest rate falls

The National Police Agency intends to take on 5,000 more officers as an urgent measure and will incorporate the plan in its budget requests for fiscal 2002, which begins next April 1, agency officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2001

Envoys to Kenya rapped for false claims

The Foreign Ministry, already plagued by several money scandals, took punitive measures Friday against three officials at its embassy in Kenya for making false claims about their housing and other allowances.
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2001

Nipponkoa to gain Taiyo property unit as part of alliance

Mid-tier insurers Nipponkoa Insurance Co. and Taiyo Mutual Life Insurance Co. announced Friday a tieup that includes the merger of Nipponkoa and Taiyo's property insurance subsidiary in April.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Lawmaker's ex-aide tied to Chinese worker scam

A former private secretary of LDP lawmaker Koki Kobayashi made inquiries to the Justice Ministry at the request of a man involved in an illegal immigrant worker scam, sources close to the case said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

Bureaucrat suspected of padding hotel bills

Police are to question a 56-year-old Foreign Ministry official in connection with the latest fraud case to hit the ministry involving alleged padding of hotel bills.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2001

Misfortunes in tough times spur new breed of insurance plans

In May, Yamagata University disclosed that it had bungled its entrance exam grading, irretrievably altering the course of applicants' lives.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Medical experts get special role at schools for disabled

The education ministry plans to send medical experts to work with teachers at schools for blind, deaf and disabled children.
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Tradition in transition

Art went private at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then Cubism's quest for a new visual language, abstract art's pursuit of purity of form, and Surrealism's sense of inwardness had little appeal to a public who viewed Modern Art as self-serving and difficult.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2001

Uniformly stylish Japanese

WEARING IDEOLOGY: State, Schooling and Self-Preservation in Japan, by Brian J. McVeigh. Berg, Oxford, 2000, 231 pages, $19.50 The Japanese are some of the most fashion-conscious dressers in the world. They spend large amounts of their discretionary income on clothes, have a strong preference for designer-made...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

UNICEF ambassador to urge Koizumi not to cut funds

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, an actress and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Children's Fund, will visit Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Aug. 29 to request that the government not reduce its contributions to the organization.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2001

Foreign carmakers going small to increase presence in Japan

By offering smaller, more affordable cars and increasing their visibility in the marketplace, foreign automakers are gradually increasing their presence in Japan.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2001

Crucial days of negotiations lie ahead for 'oil diplomacy'

Quietly, but nevertheless significantly, Japan's oil diplomacy is entering one of its most crucial stages ever. Success or failure could determine the future of the nation's energy security -- and even that of its economy as a whole.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2001

Virus scare downs ministry computer

The education ministry says it temporarily shut down a computer system Thursday due to fear that it may have been hit by the fast-spreading computer virus Code Red 2, which has caused damage mainly in the United States.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2001

'Beetlemania' taking Japan by storm

The Japanese children's pastime of catching stag beetles during the sultry summer months appears to be turning into outright "beetlemania," given the reported surge in overseas poaching of the six-legged black diamonds for sale in Japan.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?