Search - 2000

 
 
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2000

Land prices decline 7% for eighth annual drop

The average price of land facing main roads in Japan fell for the eighth straight year in the 12 months to Jan. 1, the decline only marginally less than a year earlier, the National Tax Administration said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2000

Chip plants won't take usual summer holiday

Major Japanese semiconductor makers are planning to keep their plants open during the summer holidays to take advantage of growing demand across the world as companies update their information technology facilities, according to officials of the companies.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2000

Gun-related crime leaps 26%

The number of serious crimes involving the use of firearms in Japan rose 26.1 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 4, 2000

Reggae's past and future heard on the Tokyo scene

Although talking about influences is a staple of the music press, copying (a charge leveled at so much Japanese music), even respectfully, is often the subject of scorn in serious rock journalism. Novelty, no matter how abstract or silly, generally trumps the enjoyment of the familiar, no matter how...
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2000

Rail infrastructure investment drops

Fifteen private railway firms plan to invest 256.5 billion yen on new and updated railway infrastructure in fiscal 2000, down 25 billion yen from the previous year, an industry association said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 3, 2000

Eco-conscious but comfortable: making environmentalism hip

Last year when advertising agencies asked Kazumi Oguro what his rival magazine was, he replied: "I wouldn't have to put out a new magazine if there was a rival."
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 2, 2000

Part 2: Jealousies, revenges and tradeoffs

European soccer chief Lennart Johansson has never shied away from attacking FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, especially since being defeated in the race for the FIFA presidency two years ago.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2000

Disneyland offers gays chance to come out in the sun

As is always the case at weekends during summer vacation, Tokyo Disneyland was packed by tens of thousands of visitors Sunday.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2000

Toyota, affiliate to merge logistics, forklift divisions

Toyota Motor Corp. and its affiliate Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Ltd. agreed Monday to integrate their logistics and forklift divisions in April 2001, the two firms said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 1, 2000

First glimpses of the West

THE SATSUMA STUDENTS IN BRITAIN: Japan's Early Search for the "Essence of the West," by Andrew Cobbing. Japan Library: Curzon Press, 2000, 201 pp., with maps and 11 b/w photos, unpriced. On a summer morning in 1865, the steamship Delhi dropped anchor in Southampton. On board were 17 young students...
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2000

DDI to unite cell-phone providers into 'au'

Telecom carrier DDI Corp. said Friday it will merge seven of its eight regional cell-phone service providers on Nov. 1 to increase efficiency, naming the merged entity "au."
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2000

Russia peace treaty stance remains firm

The government on Friday rejected a call by the ruling party's No. 2 man to seek a peace treaty with Russia without setting the resolution of a long-standing territorial dispute between the two countries as a precondition.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 29, 2000

Play revives old debate over Nazi A-bomb

"Absence of A-bomb: Were the Nazis duped -- or simply dumb?" So asks the weekly U.S. News & World Report in a piece for its July 24-31 cover story, "Mysteries of History." The question is being revisited now perhaps because of a recent Broadway import from London: Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen."
COMMENTARY
Jul 29, 2000

Putin the big winner at G8 summit

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both attending a summit of major industrial powers for the first time, played markedly different roles at the Group of Eight Okinawa summit that ended July 23.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2000

First-half vehicle exports rise 2.8%

Japan's 11 automakers exported 2,221,012 cars, trucks and buses in the first half of 2000, up 2.8 percent from the same period last year to mark the first rise in two years, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2000

Matsushita's quarterly profit slides 2%

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday that it registered a consolidated net profit of 9.4 billion yen in the April-June quarter, down 2 percent from a year earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000

Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence

It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2000

Sony to consolidate domestic assembly to increase efficiency

Sony Corp. will unify its 13 domestic assembly facilities for electronic products under a new company to be set up next year in an attempt to enhance its engineering and manufacturing operations, the firm announced Wednesday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Jul 27, 2000

Memory of a rebel ages well in Californian wine

Sailboats frolicked in the bay like impish elves, rocking lightly in the wake of yachts that cut through the water like dolphins, as the sun slipped out of sight in Sausalito. I was back in this same little haven-by-the-sea in north California, in the Ondine restaurant with good friends, sipping good...
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2000

Trade surplus down 4.6% in first half

Japan's customs-cleared merchandise trade surplus came to 5.73 trillion yen in the first half of fiscal 2000, down 4.6 percent from a year earlier as imports outgrew exports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2000

The debate on Nanjing is now closed

DOCUMENTS ON THE RAPE OF NANKING, edited by Timothy Brook. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1999, 301 pp., 2,616 yen. AMERICAN GODDESS AT THE RAPE OF NANKING: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin, by Hua-ling Hu. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000, 184 pp. The adversity...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2000

Making peace in Cambodia

EXITING INDOCHINA: U.S. Leadership of the Cambodia Settlement & Normalization with Vietnam, by Richard H. Solomon, with a foreword by Stanley Karnow. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000, 113 pp. (paper). Contrary to popular opinion, America's involvement with Vietnam did not end with the hurried...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

Mori seeking contact with Kim Jong Il

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori indicated his readiness Sunday to have direct contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as Tokyo pursues normalized ties with Pyongyang.
SUMO
Jul 24, 2000

Nagoya Basho ends in both triumph and disappointment

Akebono wrapped up the Nagoya Basho on both triumphant and disappointing notes, losing to fellow-yokozuna Musashimaru in the final bout but finishing his first yusho in more than three years with an excellent 13-2 record and reaching his long-awaited goal of 10 championships.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 24, 2000

Persistent organic pollutants: toxic chemicals here to stay

The acronym POPs sounds harmless enough, bringing to mind glasses of bubbly champagne and harmless fireworks. The reality is far less celebratory.
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 22, 2000

Foreign refs aiming to help Japanese colleagues

International referees Jose Maria Garcia-Aranda Encinar and An Yan Lim Kee Chong have brought their experience to Japanese soccer this summer in order to try and help the standard of Japanese referees and the J. League.

Longform

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