Search - 2000

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2001

Koizumi stumps for redirection of road-use revenue

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi affirmed Sunday his determination to reform the current practice of earmarking some tax revenue exclusively for road-related projects.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001

China no threat to Asia just yet

CHINA AND THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY: Great Power or Struggling Developing State? by Solomon M. Karmel. MacMillan, 2000, 229 pp., 35 UK pounds (cloth). China is a revisionist state. It wants to challenge the existing international order -- or at least the way things work in Asia. The country's history,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001

Sounds of a poet who writes to live, and lives to write

COLLECTED POEMS OF SHUNTARO TANIKAWA, CD-ROM. Iwanami Shoten Publishers, Tokyo, 2000, 19,000 yen. It's been a recent trend in the music industry to come out with boxed sets commemorating the work of some of our most celebrated musicians, from John Coltrane to the Beatles. That such a trend has spread...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2001

Government to revise 2001 growth downward to 0.5%

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy plans to effectively revise downward Japan's fiscal 2001 economic growth target to a real 0.5 percent from the current 1.7 percent, government sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 17, 2001

When commuter hell takes on a whole new meaning

Several weeks ago, JR's Saikyo Line started to reserve at least one car on its nightly commuter runs for women. The move followed a precedent set last year by the Keio Line, whose new service, according to reports, is very popular.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001

A la cart

Masaru Tanaka's yatai has been open for business at the same roadside spot in central Tokyo almost every evening for the past 40 years or more.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Daiwa unit downgrades growth in GDP for 2001

A think tank affiliated with Daiwa Bank has revised its estimate of the growth in Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal 2001, which began in April, to 0.2 percent from its March prediction of 0.9 percent. Daiwa Research Institute Inc. blamed the downward revision mainly on a slowdown in both exports...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Insurance chief lauds FSA's proposal on cutting yields

The chairman of the Life Insurance Association of Japan welcomed the Financial Services Agency's plan to allow life insurers to cut yields promised to policyholders.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2001

Electronic travel marketing enjoys boom

Dealings in electronic travel marketing surpassed 10 billion yen during fiscal 2000, with more than half of the total attributed to domestic hotel inquiries, the nation's largest travel agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2001

Corporate bankruptcies continue to rise

The number of corporate bankruptcies rose 12.8 percent in May from a year earlier to 1,724, increasing for the second consecutive month, a private research institute said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Yamasaki to ask BOJ for even easier money

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Wednesday he will ask Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami to ease monetary policy further to prevent the economy from decelerating.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Pesky monkeys face death squads

Monkeys caused at least 850 million yen worth of damage to Japan's agricultural produce during fiscal 1999, an animal protection body said in a survey released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Upper House passes stiffer driving rules

The House of Councilors on Wednesday approved amendments to the Road Traffic Law that include heavier penalties and an extension of the validity of driver's licenses to five years from the current three.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2001

Royal Dutch/Shell to join Iran deal

The Royal Dutch/Shell group plans to join a Japanese public-private consortium in an oil development project in Iran's biggest oil field, industry sources have revealed.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Foreign rice growing on Japanese

Imports of foreign rice, which were only approved seven years ago, are increasing yearly, finding regular Japanese buyers and gaining in popularity amid an ethnic food boom.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

LDP begins search for preventative measures

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday held its first meeting to discuss possible measures to prevent similar incidents to last week's massacre of eight schoolchildren by a man with a history of psychiatric illness.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Koizumi's bid to empower urban voters hit

Toshikatsu Matsuoka is frustrated.
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Home buyers seek new designs for living

Man people dream of buying a brand-new home. In Japan, realizing that dream usually means settling for a factory-made house that looks like hundreds of its neighbors or a condominium that must be paid for even before it is built.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2001

Can Japan leave Les Bleus feeling blue after Confederations Cup final?

If you take the negative aspects of the Confederations Cup (the League Cup of international football) away from the equation, then FIFA couldn't have asked for a more intriguing final today at International Stadium Yokohama.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2001

Falling off a Kawasaki cliff, building an ashram

Sister Eugenie Fumiko Fujita went to bed toward the end of last year's rainy season, her life enlivened by a month of mold but still basically in order. She awoke before dawn July 8 to mayhem, her home hanging off the edge of a landslip.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

LDP to take donations over the Net

In an apparent bid to attract a younger generation to help fund the party, the Liberal Democratic Party will accept individual contributions via the Internet starting late next week, LDP member Hiroshige Seko said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Marubeni searched over tax evasion

Customs authorities searched Marubeni Corp.'s head office Thursday on suspicion that the major trading house evaded duties on octopuses imported from Africa, customs officials said.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2001

DSL needed to spur e-trade

Investors are turning to a high-speed Internet connection service in droves, providing a major lift to the online stock trading phenomena.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2001

Capital spending increases 2.5% in quarter

Capital spending by Japanese companies expanded 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter from a year earlier to 13.3 trillion yen, marking the fifth increase in a row, the Finance Ministry said Thursday in its quarterly survey.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Carriers at a loss as railway violence accelerates

Tokyo commuter trains have suffered a recent spate of violent incidents — two of them fatal — involving total strangers and minor confrontations that got out of hand.

Longform

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