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LIFE / Digital
Feb 22, 2001

Internet auctions boom

Kazutoshi Kitazawa, a 37-year-old university professor, has been bidding and selling in online auctions for two years. When he feels like upgrading his computer, he browses through Yahoo! Japan's auction Web site to buy memory cards and other computer components at bargain prices. When he decides the...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Feb 22, 2001

Take time to savor the days of wine and oysters

Once again fate finds me back in Japan, wondering what I can enjoy eating here that I can't enjoy back in lovable Leuven, Belgium, where one can have excellent cuisine of all kinds with a glass of well-made wine for a pittance (the norm is the Belgian franc equivalent of under 1,000 yen). It's hard to...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2001

Otaru racism controversy lingers on

OTARU, Hokkaido -- The controversy over some "onsen" (hot spring) bathhouses banning foreigners from their facilities in this northern port town, which is frequented by Russian ships, lingers on more than a year after the issue was first raised.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2001

BOJ to purchase bills

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday that it will purchase 200 billion yen outright in short-term government bills to provide liquidity to the Tokyo money market, effectively doubling the scale of the open-market operation.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2001

BOJ to purchase bills

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday that it will purchase 200 billion yen outright in short-term government bills to provide liquidity to the Tokyo money market, effectively doubling the scale of the open-market operation.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2001

Corporate investment is key

Amid widespread economic uncertainty, some economists prefer a more expansionary monetary policy or inflation targeting. At a recent meeting of the government's Economic and Fiscal Advisory Council, many members called on the Bank of Japan to relax credit restraints even further.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2001

No game plan for a new politics

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's days are numbered. The latest popularity survey by one vernacular newspaper has found that public trust in his administration has plummeted to 9 percent. Not only the leader of a coalition party but also members of his Liberal Democratic Party are now speaking of the possibility...
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2001

Toward financial transparency

Fifth in a series
MORE SPORTS
Feb 19, 2001

'Q-chan' sets 30k mark

Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi broke another record Sunday, when she set a new Japanese best in the women's 30-km road race at the annual Ome "marathon" races in western Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2001

Toward financial transparency

Fifth in a series
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2001

Extend a helping hand to Mongolia

The coming spring promises more, not less, hardship for Mongolia's nomad households. The pastures are covered with snow, with no signs of sprouts emerging. The stocks of hay built up last autumn are already depleted, and many sheep and horses -- essential assets of the nomads -- are on the verge of starvation....
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2001

Alcohol sales on Tokyo train platforms to be banned

East Japan Railway Co. and East Japan Kiosk Co., a subsidiary owned 90 percent by the railway, said Friday they will stop selling alcoholic drinks at kiosks on the platforms of 24 stations in central Tokyo from today.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2001

Private panel to advise on environment

A private advisory group to the prime minister will start deliberations as early as next month with the goal of charting a more environment-friendly path for Japan, government officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Mori pledges more aid for Mongolia

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his Mongolian counterpart, Nambaryn Enhbayar, agreed Thursday to further efforts to build a comprehensive bilateral partnership, with Tokyo pledging to continue economic assistance to Ulan Bator.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2001

Domestic firms balk at Mori's IT initiative requiring investment abroad

Just seven months after Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced with much fanfare a $15 billion aid initiative in the area of information technology, concerns are already growing within the government that the plan may eventually fizzle out.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

China agrees to sea-use framework

Japan and China agreed Tuesday to give two months' notification for marine research activities in each other's economic waters, setting up a framework to guard against incidents similar to one last year in which the entry of Chinese vessels into Japanese waters caused turmoil in bilateral relations....
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

China agrees to sea-use framework

Japan and China agreed Tuesday to give two months' notification for marine research activities in each other's economic waters, setting up a framework to guard against incidents similar to one last year in which the entry of Chinese vessels into Japanese waters caused turmoil in bilateral relations....
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 14, 2001

Sakhalin oil sparks hopes and fears

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia -- Sakhalin Island is a remote former penal colony where the sea freezes for up to six months a year and villagers have been known to sleep in tents pitched in their bedrooms when the central heating fails.
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2001

Will trade surplus continue its slide toward acceptance?

It is estimated that Japan's trade surplus on a customs clearance basis declined to 12.6 trillion yen in 2000, significantly lower than the 14 trillion yen recorded in 1999 and the 16 trillion yen of 1998.
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2001

Will trade surplus continue its slide toward acceptance?

It is estimated that Japan's trade surplus on a customs clearance basis declined to 12.6 trillion yen in 2000, significantly lower than the 14 trillion yen recorded in 1999 and the 16 trillion yen of 1998.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 12, 2001

Forget Big Brother -- it's little brothers that count

ORDER BY ACCIDENT: The origins and consequences of conformity in contemporary Japan, by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000, 156 pp., $25/17.99 pounds(cloth). The title of this book is misleading, although it captures the main idea of the authors, two social...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Osaka Securities Exchange chief took unusual path to financial peak

OSAKA -- When Goro Tatsumi joined a securities firm in Osaka's Kitahama district -- the city's financial hub -- more than 40 years ago, he predicted that the finance business would become a leading economic force in this country.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

BOJ cuts discount rate to record low of 0.35%

Coming under intense political pressure, the Bank of Japan decided Friday to reduce the official discount rate by 0.15 percentage points to a record low 0.35 percent.

Longform

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