Search - 2002

 
 
COMMENTARY
Apr 29, 2003

Will Chirac's luck run out?

PARIS -- When he had to appoint a general, Napoleon Bonaparte would ask if the candidate possessed the main quality for the job: luck. No politician in French contemporary history meets that condition more than President Jacques Chirac.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Apr 29, 2003

Latecomer Sharp leads the pack in LCD TV sales

It took a while for the average engineer at Sharp Corp. to tune into the idea of the company dumping cathode-ray tube televisions by 2005.
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2003

Fair, transparent foreign aid

Last September the Japanese government was stunned by a lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court by 3,861 residents of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. The plaintiffs said their life had been disrupted by a dam for hydroelectric power and flood control built with Japan's official development assistance....
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Fujitsu slashes group net loss but remains in red

Fujitsu Ltd. remained in the red in fiscal 2002, posting a consolidated net loss for the second consecutive year after booking a restructuring cost of 151.49 billion yen, the firm reported Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Honda reports record group net profit and sales

Honda Motor Co. reported Friday a record group net profit of 426.66 billion yen for fiscal 2002, up 17.6 percent from the previous year.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

Department store sales fall for sixth consecutive year

Department store sales fell 2.5 percent to 8.29 trillion yen on a same-store basis in fiscal 2002, the sixth consecutive year of decline, an industry association said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2003

Responding to provocations

SINGAPORE -- In late February and early March, North Korea launched two antiship cruise missiles in the direction of Japan. Japan tried its best to downplay the events. In the first instance, it said the 90-km test did not technically violate the North's moratorium on ballistic-missile tests. After the...
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2003

Tokio Marine to acquire capital stake in new Shanghai-based life insurer

Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. is finalizing a plan to take a capital stake in Shanghai-based Sino Life Insurance Co., which will begin operating this fall, company officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2003

Hoya logs record-high pretax profit

Optical glass and eyeglass maker Hoya Corp. said Monday its group pretax profit for the 2002 business year, which ended March 31, rose 11.1 percent from the previous year to a record 50.87 billion yen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2003

Suzuki prepares a 'mini' blitz

Suzuki Motor Corp., Japan's top minivehicle maker three decades running, is preparing an assault on the global market with a new line of compact cars, according to company President Hiroshi Tsuda.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2003

Mark-to-market rule to remain for fiscal 2003

Corporate accounting rules will remain unchanged through the current fiscal year, meaning listed companies will file their financial statements based on the globally accepted mark-to-market accounting rule, the Accounting Standards Board of Japan said Thursday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Making a stanza for life

HOW TO HAIKU: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms, by Bruce Ross. Tuttle Publishing, 2002, 167 pp., 1800 yen (paper); TAKE A DEEP BREATH: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace, by Sylvia Forges-Ryan & Edward Ryan. Kodansha International, 2002, 129 pp., 1,800 yen (cloth); THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku...
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2003

NEC expects to book loss for second straight year

NEC Corp. has lowered its group earnings forecast to an expected group net loss of 25 billion yen for the 2002 business year, which ended March 31, the firm said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2003

Nintendo lowers earnings estimates

Game console and software maker Nintendo Co. said Monday it has revised its earnings estimates downward for fiscal 2002 due to lower-than-expected sales of game consoles.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2003

Sumitomo Mitsui expects 470 billion yen loss

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Friday it has cut its group earnings forecast for fiscal 2002 due to much larger losses in its securities holdings and bad loans.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2003

Imported car sales surged last year

Sales of automobiles built overseas rose 2.5 percent in fiscal 2002 from the previous year to 279,381 units, marking the first increase in two years, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2003

FSA to take action at banks that don't meet earnings goal

The Financial Services Agency is taking a step that will allow it to order changes in the top management of banks that do not meet earnings targets spelled out when they received taxpayers' money beginning in 1998, according to government sources.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2003

Tokyo Electron looks to trim fat

Tokyo Electron Ltd., the country's largest manufacturer of chip-making equipment, said Thursday it will slash about 10 percent of its group workforce to weather bleak semiconductor demand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Apr 3, 2003

"Going for Stone," "Through the Night"

"Going for Stone," Philip Gross, Oxford University Press; 2002; 224 pp. It seems there's only one thing more terrifying than anything you could dream up -- the world you actually live in. Nick is a teenager who hasn't seen much of that world while growing up, but he's in for a shock when he leaves home....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 2, 2003

Pedraza, Bailey key to Yomiuri 'relay'

There are various categories of baseball pitchers. You've got your starters, closers, middle relievers, "one-point" relievers, set-up men and mop-up and "reverse mop-up" guys. For the Yomiuri Giants this season, Americans Rodney Pedraza and Cory Bailey may be creating a new classification. Call them...
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2003

Mitsubishi Electric hit by share falls

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Tuesday its group net profit for the 2002 business year, which ended Monday, was wiped out by the plummeting prices of bank shares.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2003

Compaq fined over hidden income

Tokyo tax authorities penalized the Japan unit of U.S. computer maker Compaq Computer Corp. for failing to report 3.6 billion yen in taxable income, industry sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2003

National tax revenues tumble 5.9%

With deflation undermining corporate profits, national tax revenues in February fell 5.9 percent from a year earlier, marking the 18th consecutive month of decline.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2003

Nikkei dives below 8,000 amid fears of longer war

Tokyo stocks plunged Monday, the final day of fiscal 2002, with the key Nikkei index ending below 8,000 amid growing concerns over a prolonged U.S.-led war in Iraq and its effects on the global economy.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2003

BOJ leaves liquidity at record level

The Bank of Japan left a record-high level of liquidity in the financial system Monday, as many companies closed their books on the last day of fiscal 2002.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 30, 2003

Irabu makes winning return

Hideki Irabu made a successful return to Japanese baseball Saturday, picking up a win in his first game after spending six years in the major leagues.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2003

RCC buys more, pays more for soured loans

The state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. has bought 2.3 trillion yen worth of bad loans from hobbled banks since a revision of the financial-system revival law, the RCC said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2003

Tokyo consumer prices fell 0.9% in '02

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.9 percent in 2002, down for a record fourth straight year and indicating the increasing deflationary pressure across the country, according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

68 prison deaths warranted autopsy in decade

Of the 1,592 deaths in Japanese prisons and detention houses in the 10 years to 2002, only 68 required autopsies because of questions over the circumstances of death, according to a Justice Ministry official.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

Comic culture is serious business

Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?

Longform

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