Search - 2000

 
 
BUSINESS
May 17, 2000

Budding recovery prompts fiscal focus shift

The economy is moving upward slowly, fueling debate about the need to put the nation's financial house in order. The question is how soon efforts should be stepped up to put both the central and local governments on a sounder fiscal footing.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2000

Trade paper urges wider scope

Japan must adopt a multilayered approach to its trade policy to cope with the ever-accelerating globalization of world economies through greater regional integration, according to the 2000 White Paper on International Trade released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2000

Daihatsu reports gains in '99

Daihatsu Motor Co. reported higher sales and pretax profits on a consolidated basis for the 1999 business year due to improved sales of minivehicles, company executives said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 17, 2000

Nagoya community to hold walk-a-thon

Each year for the past nine years, Nagoya's foreign community has gathered in the city's Meijo Park district for an annual charity walk-a-thon. Thousands of people, from members of the local expatriate business community to players from the Chunichi Dragons to ordinary citizens, participate in a day...
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2000

Asia's storm clouds haven't dispersed

ASIAN STORM: The Economic Crisis Examined, by Philippe Ries. Translated by Peter Starr. Tokyo: Tuttle, 2000, 2,800 yen. The economic typhoons that swept though Asia in 1997 capsized regional economies, sent the misery index skyrocketing, wiped out colossal amounts of wealth, swept away an aging dictator...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 16, 2000

Enchi's made-up 'monogatari'

A TALE OF FALSE FORTUNES, By Fumiko Enchi. Translated by Roger K. Thomas. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. Unpriced. The late Fumiko Enchi was, besides being a well-known novelist, a major scholar of Japanese literature. Like her father, Kazutoshi Ueda, she was a classicist. Her 1972-3...
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2000

Japan still has its strengths

PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT: How Japanese Enterprises Meet the Challenge, by Hirotoshi Shibuya and Hideyuki Kamiryo. The Japan Times, 2000, 209 pp., 3,000 yen (cloth). While corporate philosophies and principles may change from country to country, the basics of finance are constants. "Productivity Improvement"...
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Japan, U.S. to cap host-nation support

Japan and the United States are poised to agree on measures to keep upper limits intact when they renew a treaty on host-nation financial support for U.S. military facilities in Japan, Japanese government sources said Sunday.
COMMUNITY
May 14, 2000

Ex-garbage man bags career as pro caddie

If Jeff Mulberry has any aspirations beyond the odd hole in one, it is to lead as uncomplicated a life as possible. His needs are modest and his interests narrowing down as he focuses on pro golf. Not that he has his eye set on being a winning player, but rather on being the best caddie that friendship,...
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Report focuses on NGOs, missile threat

The government will step up its efforts to build partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and other groups to meet emerging diplomatic challenges, according to the Foreign Ministry's annual foreign policy report released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Matsushita's memory card up against Sony's product

In a bid to compete against Sony Corp.'s Memory Stick, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will introduce a product in June featuring a small flash memory card named the SD Memory Card, Matsushita announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

NTT to buy U.S. Net firm

NTT Communications Corp. announced Monday that it will acquire Verio Inc. of the United States, a major Internet service provider, in order to become a "full-service player" in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

First 2,000 yen bank note rolls off mint's printers

With a push of a button the first-ever 2,000 yen bill was christened with the serial number "A000001A" on Monday, kicking off printing of the new bank note.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 9, 2000

Kafu's sure but fleeting touch

AMERICAN STORIES, by Nagai Kafu. Translated and with an introduction by Mitsuko Iriye. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 240 pp., unpriced. In 1903, the young man who was to become one of Japan's finest writers left for the United States. He did not particularly want to go -- he would have...
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2000

'Shuttered' to the West, Japan opened to the East

CHINA IN THE TOKUGAWA WORLD, by Marius B. Jansen. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2000, 137 pp., $8.50 (paper). With the 400th anniversary of Japanese-Dutch relations upon us, interest has been rekindled in Japan's foreign relations during the Tokugawa period, and the part played...
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2000

Two Murakamis mull quake in Japanese life

A look at recent best-seller lists reveals several familiar faces. "Eien no Ko," a two-volume novel about the long-term effects of child abuse, is back with the broadcasting of a TV dramatization (Monday nights on NTV). There's another mystery by Nishimura Kyotaro and a book for improving one's English,...
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2000

Swimming 'Sea Monkeys' and rolling digital mice

Sometimes you just get lucky. That, better than anything else, works for me as the reason why the unfocused, gadget-dependent and low-tech exhibition "New Media New Face/New York" manages, against the odds, to end up being a fairly good show.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2000

Make the high seas safe

It seems hard to believe, but pirates still roam the seas. The International Chamber of Commerce reported 285 attacks on ships in 1999, up from 42 in 1991, but even that statistic is assumed to be a fraction of the actual number. Nearly three-quarters of the attacks occur in Southeast Asian waters. A...
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Location of leader's summit hinges on the whim of nature

OSAKA — It's billed as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, but if Mother Nature turns capricious, then this year's Group of Eight gathering may be forced to a different venue.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 3, 2000

Following old paths

Last Sunday we considered flowers -- peonies, azaleas and wisteria -- and the best places to see them during our Golden Week holidays. Here is one more outing to add to your flower calendar. The Tokyo Garden Show 2000 is being held through May 7 in the large open space in front of the picture gallery...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2000

Everything about Tanizaki

TANIZAKI IN WESTERN LANGUAGES: A Bibliography of Translations and Studies, by Adriana Boscaro, with a list of films based on Tanizaki's works compiled by Maria Roberta Novielli. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2000, 82 pp., $19.95. This fine bibliography is one...
JAPAN
May 1, 2000

Putin saves Mori blushes by offering August visit

The two leaders reached the agreement while attending an ice hockey game after they failed to set the schedule in an informal summit earlier in the day, the official told a press briefing Saturday night.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2000

Lessons from Japan needed for Asian structural reforms

The world's view of East Asian economies has drastically changed since the turmoil that swept the region in mid-1997.
COMMUNITY
May 1, 2000

Realigning your life force

"One of the main reasons we are not able to operate effectively is because we do not have full access to our life force," explains healer Claudette Bouchard, whose work is to assist people in what she terms "life force recovery."

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.