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BUSINESS
May 28, 2003

Cabinet OKs plan to move up pension refunds

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a government proposal to move up by one month to Sept. 1 the date when corporate employee pension funds will be allowed to start handing back to the government the portion of pension assets they manage on the its behalf.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2003

Slander poses a greater danger than SARS itself

EDMONTON, Canada -- Outside of Asia, Toronto has been the city hardest hit by severe acute respiratory syndrome. Canadian Chinese living there, as well as Canadians of Japanese and Korean ethnic origin, have felt the chill of blame.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2003

Cell-phone sales push Japan Telecom into black

Japan Telecom Holdings Co., a subsidiary of Britain's Vodafone Group PLC, said Tuesday it swung back to the black in the year through March 31, thanks in part to brisk revenues from its mobile-phone business.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2003

Japan still aiming to meet WTO frameworks deadline

Japan will continue efforts during the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations to set up frameworks for nonfarm trade liberalization by Saturday's deadline, trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2003

Enjoy your complicite in a world of dizzying multiplicity

It was a difficult delivery. The fruit of the union between actor/director Simon McBurney, founder of London-based Complicite (formerly Thea^tre de Complicite), and a Japanese cast in Tokyo had been long-awaited, but even so it kept everyone guessing past the expected arrival time.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003

Spacek: "Vintage Hi-Tech"

With just a few beats, some blips and moist, high-pitched vocals, "Vintage Hi-Tech" explores the promising territory of futuristic soul music. As a group, Spacek has a sweetly extraterrestrial vibe, but here on earth they hail from South London.
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2003

Popping the question

Favorite record for an overcast Sunday afternoon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2003

When heaven's riches rivaled Russia's czars

Church and State have, down history, done battle for wealth and power.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003

Four Tet: "Rounds"

Whether through dewy-eyed computer-animation's marvels or Sony's Aibo, today's "digerati" yearn to simulate real life through hardware. The same goes for "laptop musicians," but few sound as warm and organic as the one-man band Four Tet, which is Kieran Hebden. Using extensive samples of instruments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2003

An icon of her times

In the history of Russian icons, one image is pre-eminent as the most copied, most decorated and most adored: "Our Lady of Kazan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 28, 2003

Arab Strap: "Monday at the Hug and Pint"

The Scottish duo Arab Strap are the poet laureates of alcohol-induced sexual torpor. Vocalist Aidan Moffatt's slurred, sotto voce ramblings about unpretty girls picked up in seedy bars and bedded in a haze of beer and E would normally be an acquired taste, but in the U.K. the group's songs have graced...
MORE SPORTS
May 27, 2003

Takahashi named to national squad

Seven-time All-Star forward Michael Takahashi is among the 16 members named to the men's national squad for the upcoming Europe training tour, the Japan Basketball Association said Sunday.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Accounting panel against freezing real-time rules

An influential accounting board reached a consensus Monday in opposing a proposal by ruling coalition lawmakers that would allow companies to hide unrealized losses on their shareholdings.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Kumagai Gumi falls deep into red

Ailing construction firm Kumagai Gumi Co. fell into the red in fiscal 2002. The general contractor blamed poor sales and massive extraordinary losses, including appraisal losses on its fixed assets.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

JETRO, ministries opening 14 foreign investment offices

The Japan External Trade Organization and 13 other entities, including the trade and foreign ministries, were to each set up an office Monday aiming to boost direct foreign investment in Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2003

Stage set for Iraq's reconstruction

With last week's almost unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution lifting economic sanctions against Iraq, the stage is set for a multilateral drive to rebuild the war-shattered country. The effort will be led by the occupying powers, the United States and Britain, but the international community will...
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Supermarket sales off 2.6% in April

Sales at supermarkets around the nation dropped 2.6 percent in April from a year earlier on a same-store basis, down for the 10th consecutive month, the Japan Chain Stores Association said Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
May 27, 2003

Toilet manufacturer plucks success from depths of despair

Failure is but a stepping stone to success. The proverb rang dramatically true in the process of developing a new product at Toto Ltd., the major toilet manufacturer based in Fukuoka Prefecture.
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2003

Recovery debate overlooks sensible economic policies

Is there something in the Japanese mind that prevents sensible economic debate?
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Tokyo to issue bonds on own terms

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government decided Monday to issue bonds under terms it will set by evaluating market conditions, officials said.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Profit dips 13.4% for Shinsei Bank

Shinsei Bank said Monday that its group net profit fell 13.4 percent in fiscal 2002 to 53.03 billion yen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Banks remain in the red for second straight year

Japan's seven major banking groups stayed mired squarely in the red for the second year in a row, spending more than 5 trillion yen to dispose of bad loans and shouldering over 3 trillion yen in stock-related losses for the 12 months ended March, business results confirmed Monday.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Japan carmakers' banner year not likely to repeat

Restructuring efforts and strong sales in the United States helped the five major Japanese automakers record drastically higher profits in the year through March 31.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Fukuda, Shiokawa clash on sales tax

The government has yet to make a decision on raising the consumption tax in fiscal 2007, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday, downplaying the finance minister's remark the previous day in favor of such a hike.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 27, 2003

Painless driving instruction and a move to Japan

More on DIY trading "Gaijin" writes that further to my answer to Wilma Jay (Lifelines; April 29), there are around 60 Internet brokers through which she could do day trading. (Gaijin himself/herself makes a living through trading).
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Norway to push whale meat exports

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who arrived Monday in Tokyo, will promote controversial plans to export whale meat to Japan during three days of trade and business talks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
May 27, 2003

Japan's cup, it runneth over

This week, Notes From the Smoke features a saucy deviation from the usual format.
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2003

Is there something in the Japanese mind that prevents sensible economic debate?

Japan's semi-public National Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) recently gave more than three hours of prime time for a round-table discussion on how to save the economy. Predictably, much of the talking revolved around Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's claim that "structural reform" is the key to recovery....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 26, 2003

Floating ABCPs on open market could repair interest rate gap

On May 17, the finance ministers of the world's major powers gathered in Deauville, France as part of efforts to set the stage for the annual Group of Eight summit in Evian. A statement adopted at the meeting urged Japan to pursue structural reforms in its financial and corporate sectors and overcome...

Longform

The volunteer lifesavers of Nishihama Surf Lifesaving Club never know what's in store at the start of their day.
It's no simple day at the beach for Japan's volunteer lifesavers