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COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2000

The tragedy of another senseless war

NEW YORK -- The arms embargo on Eritrea and Ethiopia just imposed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council is a much needed measure that brings hope for an end to an irrational conflict between the two neighboring countries. The U.S.-initiated measure, later co-sponsored by Britain and the Netherlands,...
JAPAN
May 20, 2000

Life folds with debt of 966 billion yen

Saddled with massive liabilities, Life Co., one of Japan's six major consumer credit companies, filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law on Friday.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

EPA revises downward March economic indicators

The Economic Planning Agency said Friday it has revised downward its three diffusion indexes of economic indicators for March from the preliminary figures released earlier this month.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

Banks return to winning circle

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Sanwa Bank both returned to profitability in fiscal 1999, due largely to fewer bad-loan writeoffs than in fiscal 1998, according to the two major banks' earnings reports, released Friday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 18, 2000

You too could be the target market of a new drug

Every time I visit the United States, I am increasingly alarmed at the number of TV commercials for prescription drugs, which is something I never saw when I was a child. As a matter of fact, between 1994 and 1998, drug manufacturers increased their spending on direct-to-consumer advertising in the U.S....
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2000

A grim future for China's hinterlands

A sense of deja vu comes over me when I read the Chinese government's proposals for the development of China's western, or hinterland, provinces.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2000

Deutsche Securities faces penalty

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended Monday that financial regulators punish the Tokyo branch of Deutsche Securities Ltd. for illegal soliciting and two other financial violations.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2000

Correction cloud has bargain silver lining

Major factors driving the corrections last month on the Tokyo stock market were steep reactionary price falls in the information technology sector and foreign investors' sales following tumbles in New York stock prices.
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 11, 2000

'Ekiben' gets global spin for the rail connoisseur

The business of making and selling "ekiben," packaged lunches sold at train stations throughout Japan, is going somewhat global.
LIFE / Travel
May 11, 2000

Firing up Fukuoka's hippest corner

FUKUOKA -- A long feature on Fukuoka in a recent issue of Toyo Keizai magazine examined three different areas that represent development in the city. Two of these, the reclaimed land of Momochi, and the city's historic Kawabata area, have seen much growth in the last 10 years, boosted by giant government-funded...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Economic growth in March was ninth straight expansion

The March coincident index of economic indicators, which gauges the current state of the economy, measured above 50 percent -- an indication of economic expansion -- for the ninth straight month, the Economic Planning Agency said Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
May 10, 2000

Trees and taste at Mito Botanic Garden

Mito, in Ibaraki Prefecture, is well known throughout Japan for natto (fermented soybeans), an acquired taste. It is also known for Kairakuen Garden, one of the Three Famous Gardens in Japan, which I've written about before. Just a couple of kilometers south of Mito in the lush green countryside, there...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Five firms tie up on trust bank

Four Japanese financial institutions have teamed up with Deutsche Bank AG to acquire DMG Trust Bank, a Deutsche Bank subsidiary, with the intention of turning it into Japan's first trust bank specializing in administering corporate pension funds, company officials 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

Osu survives with blend of old and new

NAGOYA -- Young people browse through the shirts and jeans at a used clothes store, while an elderly woman picks up some tea at a shop around back. On the street, a young couple eating ice cream pass a man with a computer.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

'Manga' role-playing draws date-seeking 'otaku' together

The model who goes by the alias Ai O-totsu, or Bumpy Love, is dressed in the crimson high school uniform of her video game personality today, but instead of acting out pubescent fantasies on the computer screen like her electronic double, she's posing for pictures, smiling bashfully and giving out name...
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Daiichi Mutual ordered to shut down

The Financial Supervisory Agency ordered financially troubled Daiichi Mutual Fire & Marine Insurance Co. to suspend its operations Monday. It is the first bankruptcy in the nation's nonlife insurance sector.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000

Lessons of the Nanjing debate

THE NANJING MASSACRE IN HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY, edited by Joshua Fogel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000; 238 pp, $49 (cloth), $15.98 (paper). Did the Nanjing Massacre really happen? In a review of Katsuichi Honda's excellent book on this subject last year ("The Nanjing Massacre:...
COMMUNITY
Apr 9, 2000

Financial services fly at Banner

Some loudmouth once said that anyone who was in Japan during the bubble years of the late 1980s and had not made money -- a lot of money -- was a fool. Well, that makes me a dunce of the first order.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 6, 2000

Commercial success -- and cultural

In advertising, success doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone involved. For the client, it means increased sales of his product, while for the copywriter it means cultural impact, and though there's nothing that says these two successes can't coincide, there's also nothing that says they have...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Apr 6, 2000

Ayurvedic beauty adventures

On a recent trip to India it quickly became apparent that many foreigners seek out all that is Ayurvedic.
COMMUNITY
Apr 6, 2000

Sisters doing it for themselves at any age

Seiko Kuboi stops at the end of the catwalk and poses with hand on hip, showing off her gold lame-edged jacket, long black skirt and black bolero hat. The crowd goes wild. "Whoo-hoo! Looking good! Great hat!" they scream in raucous appreciation.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 5, 2000

Take your vitamin C -- but how much?

The message is everywhere -- take vitamin C.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 2, 2000

Time traveling

There have been many observations about nostalgia. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, There's no "stalgia" like nostalgia -- but nostalgia is where I am today. I have just returned from three weeks in California, and it is a nostalgia mix, what I have left behind, what I have gained, from living so...
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2000

Tokyo's new tax raises big questions

The tax debate sparked by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has reached a milestone now that the metropolitan assembly has almost unanimously approved his plan to impose a new asset-based tax on large banks operating in the capital. The bank tax, which is good for five years and replaces the current business...
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

Sony headquarters gets new moniker; call it eHQ

In a move to demonstrate its renewed focus on network business, Sony Corp. will rename its group headquarters "eHQ" -- short for e-headquarters -- effective Saturday, President Nobuyuki Idei announced Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2000

Matsushita to set up unit for groupwide data system

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will establish an in-house company Saturday to create a shared information system within the Matsushita group, company officials said Wednesday.
LIFE
Mar 30, 2000

A gathering of cultures and characters

Surrounded by trees, birdsong and a riot of cherry blossoms as you head up the hill into the nature preserve surrounding Tokurinji Temple, you can easily forget that a moment ago you were in the middle of Nagoya, one of Japan's largest cities. When you enter the temple grounds during the annual Hana...

Longform

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