Search - 2000

 
 
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2000

Budget to again top 80 trillion yen in 2001

General-account budget requests from government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2001 are likely to total about 84 trillion yen, exceeding the 80 trillion yen mark for the third year in a row, government sources said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Aug 19, 2000

Autumn wind from Tsugaru fans Tokyo's waning summer

The last weeks of summer offer many hogaku concerts, both in Tokyo and around Japan, including two spectacular outdoor events.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Record paper production expected

Paper production in Japan will likely rise to a record high this year, reflecting an information technology-led economic recovery, industry officials said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

China stays focused on the big picture

INTERPRETING CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY: Past, Present, and Future, by Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis. RAND 2000, Project Air Force, 2000, 283 pp., $35 (cloth), $20 (paper). Dealing with China is the chief foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century. Governments in Tokyo, Washington and elsewhere...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Cases of student violence toward teachers up 11%

Incidents of students being violent toward teachers at public schools increased more than 11 percent to about 5,000 cases nationwide in the 1999 school year, according to an Education Ministry report released Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2000

Confidence among firms improving

A quarterly business and investment survey released Wednesday by the Economic Planning Agency shows confidence among Japanese companies about the domestic economy improved considerably in the April-June period.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 7, 2000

Falcons fly sky high in Tokyo

The Atlanta Falcons made their first ever international game a successful one Sunday as they defeated the Dallas Cowboys 20-9 behind reserve quarterback Tony Graziani's two touchdown passes in NFL Tokyo 2000 to extend the frustration of "America's team" to 0-7-1 in international preseason play.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 5, 2000

Cowboys, Falcons facing tough questions

Tokyo will host its 10th NFL American Bowl on Sunday when the Atlanta Falcons take on the Dallas Cowboys at the Tokyo Dome.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2000

Best of Asian music on offer

Asian Music Week 2000 in Yokohama (the 21st Asian Composers League, Conference and Festival) will be held at Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall and elsewhere in Yokohama Aug. 3-9, featuring a variety of music by Asian composers and performers. Programs will include many Japan premieres and world premieres as...
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2000

Real support, not 'sympathy,' is key

Japan and the United States agreed earlier this month to cut the Japanese share of the cost of maintaining U.S. forces here -- special host-nation support, which is often called the "sympathy budget." The cut, about 3.3 billion yen a year, is actually a drop in the bucket -- 1.3 percent of the approximately...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2000

Defense Agency cautious over Korean developments

Although the historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung last month is expected to ease military tension on the peninsula, how this will affect the Asia-Pacific security equation remains unclear, according to the Defense Agency's 2000 white paper, released...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2000

Latest Nissan is first ultra-low emission vehicle

Nissan Motor Co. will introduce what it says is the cleanest gasoline-fueled vehicle in Japan on August 30, company officials announced Thursday.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jul 25, 2000

From the streets of Tokyo to Royal Albert Hall

The night before they left for Europe, Japanese group Cicala Mvta (pronounced Chicala Muta) played for about 50 people in Tokyo -- about par for the course for them. When they arrived in London the next day, theirs was the hottest ticket in town. Sort of.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

NGOs eye future cooperation

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — With the official closing of the Group of Eight summit here Sunday, some nongovernmental organizations say they have strengthened their ties and will cooperate in working toward — among other things — resolved conflicts, a healthy environment and human rights.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Nigeria leader frustrated at G8 inaction on debt

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed frustration Thursday over the lack of concrete action by the Group of Eight major nations to cancel the debts of developing countries.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2000

Long wait for 2,000 yen bank note finally over

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday began distributing 2,000 yen bank notes, the country's first new bill in 42 years, to financial institutions at its head office in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 20, 2000

It's convention time again

It is convention time, folks. The Republicans meet in Philadelphia's Comcast-Spectator's First Union Center from July 31 through Aug. 3; the Democrats at the Staples Center in Los Angeles from Aug. 14 through 17. The conventions have a serious purpose. They are the supreme authorities in which the parties...
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2000

BOJ chief reiterates desire to abandon 'zero-rate' policy

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Tuesday reiterated his desire to abandon the current "zero-interest-rate" policy, describing it as "unnatural."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2000

G8 must act to save forests

There are few losses more profound than a forest laid waste and vanished.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2000

Bankrupt firms owe 6.95 trillion yen

The combined debts of companies that went bust in the first half of 2000 came to 6.95 trillion yen, down 24.2 percent from a year earlier but the second-largest figure for a first-half period in postwar Japan, a major credit research agency said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2000

EPA echoes economic outlook for July

The Economic Planning Agency maintained its assessment of the economy in its report for July released Friday, following two successive months of upgrading.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2000

China between a rock and a hard place

OXFORD, England -- There has been much discussion recently about whether China is heading for a soft landing or hard landing. My first reaction to such discussions is always to ask landing from what? In this case the answer is relatively easy, the Asian financial crisis of 1997, from which China allegedly...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2000

Mori gets ball rolling on another extra budget

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Sunday he has ordered government officials to get ready to compile a supplementary budget for fiscal 2000 in case the economy starts to fizzle.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2000

DPJ offers bitter medicine as poll strategy

Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party of Japan In campaigning for the Lower House election, the Democratic Party of Japan will push policies that may seem to voters like "bitter medicine," such as lowering the minimum taxable income level, to show the party is thinking seriously about the nation's...
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2000

Keidanren urges structural reform

Takashi Imai, chairman of the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), called on the government Friday to implement structural reforms to achieve sustainable economic recovery.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 8, 2000

Jagr's Penguins to take on Predators in Japan

Hockey's been called the best-kept secret in pro sports.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2000

Market clear of latest correctional phase

The Tokyo stock market has crawled out of a corrective phase, with the key market indexes recouping much of their recent losses.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 3, 2000

Drumming to a Japanese beat

The drum is easily Japan's most popular instrument.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2000

Bright prospects for corporate Japan

Corporate-earnings reports for fiscal 1999, which ended March 31, provide further evidence of a budding recovery in the corporate sector. Most of the companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange posted their first net profit increase in three years. On a consolidated basis, pretax profits surged an estimated...

Longform

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