Search - 2005

 
 
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2000

Ground the flying-tanker plans

With the government budget for fiscal 2001 now in preparation, a controversial question concerning defense procurement looms large: Do the Self-Defense Forces need in-flight refueling aircraft? The Defense Agency is requesting appropriations to purchase one such aircraft in the year beginning next April....
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Costly Kansai airport plagued by pullouts, rivals, debts, sea

OSAKA -- Six years after opening, Kansai International Airport is struggling to stay above water -- literally and figuratively.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Japan to promote commercial use of space station

The Space Activities Commission on Monday compiled a draft report that includes the promotion of commercial use as well as scientific and technological research at a Japanese laboratory to be built within the International Space Station, commission officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Rokkasho to be site of MOX plant

Nine major power utilities and Japan Atomic Power Co. have selected the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture as the site of a planned factory to manufacture mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuel (MOX).
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

State pushes life science in draft of five-year plan

The government on Thursday compiled a draft of Japan's next five-year science and technology plans through fiscal 2005, emphasizing four fields, including life science and data communications, government officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2000

Ruling bloc eyes bill to cut state-funded corporations

The three ruling parties agreed Wednesday to submit to a bill to the Diet next week to slash the number of state-funded special corporations by the end of fiscal 2005 as a means of streamlining the administration, party officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2000

Fiber-optic network viewed as road to economic revival

Japan should create one of the world's most advanced information technology infrastructures in the next five years so that far more than 60 percent of the public will have Internet access by then, a government advisory panel said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2000

Agency plans to improve SDF's welfare

The Defense Agency intends to include measures to improve the welfare conditions for members of the Self-Defense Forces in Japan's next five-year defense buildup plan for fiscal 2001-2005, agency sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2000

Japan's new disarmament offensive

At the current meeting of the disarmament committee of the United Nations millennium assembly, Japan has presented a draft resolution calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The proposal, which lays out a timetable for total nuclear disarmament, marks a step forward from previous appeals...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Kono hopes for passage of nuclear ban proposal

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono expressed hope Tuesday that a nuclear elimination draft resolution Japan submitted to the U.N. Millennium General Assembly's committee on disarmament will be adopted in the upcoming vote.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Japan to create fauna, flora database

Japan will create a database covering 1.75 million species of plants and animals in Japan and 11 other Asian countries, Environment Agency officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2000

Western Pacific declared free of polio

KYOTO -- The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the western Pacific region free of the virus that causes polio, an important step in international efforts to eradicate the crippling childhood disease from the world.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2000

Zhu tones down stance on wartime atonement

Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said Monday that Japan needs to admit its wartime aggression and be careful not to repeat the same mistake.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2000

Taiwan shift away from reactors may deal blow to Japanese firms

Taiwan's Economics Ministry has taken a step toward loosening the island's reliance on nuclear power in a move that could be a major blow to Japanese firms in the atomic power industry.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2000

Mizuho has big goals -- and hurdles

The Mizuho Financial Group, the world's biggest financial empire in terms of assets, takes shape today, integrating Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan under a newly created holding company.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2000

Chemical firms Mitsui, Takeda tie up

Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. said Wednesday that they have agreed to set up a joint venture by integrating their urethane chemicals and urethane composite materials businesses.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2000

Banks agree to forgive Hazama debt

Hazama Corp. said Wednesday that its four main creditor banks have agreed to forgive a combined 105 billion yen in loans to the debt-saddled construction company.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2000

1,200 try out new combined train-subway service

About 1,200 people tried out a new combined train-subway service linking lines in Kawasaki with those in Tokyo's Kita and Itabashi wards on Monday, ahead of today's official launch of operations.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

Economists push for transparency

A group of economists and finance professionals from the private sector will today launch what it has termed a "financial NPO" aimed at issuing opinions and recommendations on the nation's financial system.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Sony to invest 100 billion yen in plant

Sony Corp. will invest roughly 100 billion yen to build a new manufacturing plant in Kumamoto Prefecture to meet strong demand for electronic devices, the company announced on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Talks to hold up Kitakyushu as environmental success story

Asia, with more than half the world's population and economies that continue to grow, poses one of the biggest environmental challenges of the coming century. The United Nations predicts that by 2025 more than half the region's population will have moved to the already packed metropolises.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?