Search - 2003

 
 
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Prefectures to examine incinerator waste water

The Environment Agency on Tuesday sent off a letter asking prefectures to check waste water from incinerators similar to the one in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, that has been found to be spewing record levels of dioxin into a local river.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2000

No stopping the IT revolution

Most economic experts seem to agree that the information-technology revolution will bring profound changes to the global economy, and to the Japanese economy as well. Some people still believe that the revolution and the development of multimedia communications technology are only a bubble. However,...
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2000

Development reaches the east

Today, it's free and takes only five minutes. But getting to the other side of JR Shinagawa Station was once no easy matter.
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

Toyota, GM, Yamaha tie up on Web

Toyota Motor Corp. is planning to advertise on its Web site cars manufactured by General Motors Corp. of the United States and motorcycles made by Yamaha Motor Co., company sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Hitachi to open showroom for public e-service demos

Hitachi Ltd. will open a showroom in central Tokyo on March 30 to let people experience its system for getting online services from public offices that the government plans to launch in the next few years, company sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Competition spurs flurry of mergers

The world's second largest telecommunications market is undergoing a rapid and radical transformation as deregulation, the Internet and mobile phones alter the way that Japanese people work and communicate.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 18, 2000

Rules said key to easing modified-food fear

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- As the trade in biotechnology-derived foods increases, consumer concerns over the safety of such foods are growing.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

JAMA targets 60% cut in diesel emissions by '05

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association announced Thursday that it will implement a scheme to reduce by 60 percent harmful emissions from diesel-powered vehicles in 2005, two years ahead of its original schedule of 2007.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

Talks on modified foods move to working groups

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- Participants at a meeting to establish international standards for genetically modified foods decided Wednesday to move their discussions to working groups.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Hong Kong still 'gateway to China'

With its accelerating economic recovery and shift toward a balanced budget, Hong Kong will continue to be "the gateway to China" for businesses from Japan and around the world in the coming century, according to the principal representative at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Record-low pay raises offered in 'shunto' talks

Major corporations' ongoing restructuring measures dealt a heavy blow to workers as the auto, steel, shipbuilding and electrical appliance industries effectively ended their annual spring wage talks Wednesday offering record low pay increases.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Three-bank tieup terms settled

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank formally announced Tuesday that they have reached a basic agreement to come under a joint holding company in April 2001, creating the world's third-largest banking group.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Global rules for GM foods to be debated

Members of an international commission on food standards are expected to clash on safety standards for genetically modified foods during a four-day meeting beginning today in Chiba Prefecture, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

Mori Building plans project with MOMA for museum

In a tieup with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Mori Building Co. will open a contemporary art museum in Tokyo's Roppongi district in 2003, the company said.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2000

State loses urge to revise tax law against Tokyo

Moves within the central government to revise the Local Tax Law in response to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's proposal to tax banks have subsided due to concerns that it would affect efforts toward decentralization, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Debit cards aim to break spending habits

Full-scale use of the debit card system, which allows consumers to pay for purchases with ordinary bank cards, is to begin in Japan on Monday amid hopes that it will alter the deeply ingrained habit of consumers paying in cash and also become an effective business tool.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2000

Japan needs a new, better Constitution

At long last, deliberations on the Constitution have started at both Houses of the Diet. It is not clear, however, what kind of conclusion will be reached and when. Indications are that the participants in those deliberations want to draw up a conclusion by 2003 at the latest. But this is by no means...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

National oil development strategy questioned

Staff writer The expiration Monday of the 40-year-old drilling rights of Japan's Arabian Oil Co. to a Saudi Arabian oil field dealt another blow to Tokyo's long-term policy of expanding Japanese-explored oil sources as a precaution against emergencies like the 1970s oil crises. The expiration was a...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2000

Arabian Oil sends chief to Riyadh to make last plea

Arabian Oil Co. President Keiichi Konaga left Friday for Riyadh for last-minute negotiations in an effort to extend his firm's oil concession in a major oil field in the former neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In an attempt to break the deadlock, Konaga is expected to propose an AOC offer...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Talks on drilling rights go down to the wire

Staff writer If Arabian Oil Co.'s last-ditch negotiations with Saudi Arabia to renew its 40-year oil drilling rights fail, the pioneer Japanese driller will be hard hit, but officials don't fear a national crisis. With his firm's rights in the Khafji oil field in the former neutral zone between Saudi...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2000

Free trade with U.S. comes at a cost to India

NEW DELHI -- A few weeks ago, India and the United States agreed to remove quantitative restrictions on imports between the two countries. New Delhi will do away with curbs on 714 items this April and on another 715 a year later.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2000

Saudi prince puts pressure on Tokyo to build railway

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Abdul Aziz has sent a letter to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to press the Japanese government to build the contentious mining railway in the desert kingdom in exchange for renewal of the oil-drilling rights of Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co., trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Friday. In...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

KEDO ready to begin construction on nuclear reactors

Staff writer Full-scale construction of two light-water reactors in North Korea is set to begin by mid-February, Desaix Anderson, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, said in an interview. On Monday in Tokyo, Japan signed a loan agreement with KEDO to provide up...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Japan signs pact for North Korea reactors

Japan signed an agreement Monday to finance the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, completing the funding of the project under an 1994 accord between the United States and North Korea on Pyongyang's abandonment of its nuclear development program. The loan agreement was...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2000

U.N. drug program calls for more funds

Staff writer The head of the United Nations Drug-Control Program hopes Japan will devote more of its U.N. contribution to the program, claiming it is cost-effective in the domestic war against narcotics. Pointing out Japan's declining contribution to the Vienna-based UNDCP, Executive Director Pino Arlacchi...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2000

Panel asked to find better ways of teaching English

To produce more Japanese who can communicate effectively in the international community in the 21st century, the Education Ministry set up an advisory panel Wednesday to map out recommendations on better ways of teaching English. At the panel's first meeting, Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Nations must cooperate to stop illegal drugs, Azuma says

Drug abuse is not a problem that can be solved by just one nation, Shozo Azuma, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, said at the opening ceremony of "Anti-Drug Conference, Tokyo 2000" on Monday. Law enforcement and financial officials as well as researchers from about 20 Asia- Pacific nations...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2000

Japan begins disposing of 1 million land mines

Work began Monday to destroy the Self-Defense Forces' stockpiles of antipersonnel land mines in accordance with the international convention that took effect in March. About 100 officials, including Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Shiga Gov. Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu and Defense Agency Chief Tsutomu Kawara,...
BUSINESS
Jan 10, 2000

DaimlerChrysler may purchase Nissan Diesel

DETROIT -- Robert Eaton, cochairman of DaimlerChrysler AG, expressed interest Sunday in purchasing embattled truck maker Nissan Diesel Motor Co. -- as long as terms of acquisition are acceptable.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go