search

 
 
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

German deal seen as model for war laborer claims

A $5.2 billion compensation deal struck by Germany with representatives of victims of forced labor during World War II, to be shared by the government and industry, could serve as a model for Japan in dealing with redress claims by Asian wartime laborers, according to two key negotiators.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

Wearable display does not block view

OSAKA -- Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has developed a headset-mounted liquid crystal display that does not block the viewer's field of vision, making a radical departure from the goggle-style displays being marketed as portable movie theaters.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2002

Let the Games begin

The 2002 Winter Olympics begin today. More than 2,000 athletes from 80 countries have descended on Salt Lake City, Utah, for the XIX Winter Games. This year's Olympiad takes place in the shadow of the Sept. 11 terror bombings. The games are a vital reminder that competition among nations may be inevitable,...
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

BOJ Policy Board seeking to enhance its credit-easing tools

The Bank of Japan convened a two-day meeting of its Policy Board on Thursday to discuss ways of refining its credit-easing tools in a bid to ensure that its current quantitative-easing policy will not be undermined.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2002

An optimistic economic outlook

How will Japan's economy develop from fiscal 2002 through 2006? The official answer, in a nutshell, is that it will stage a slow but steady recovery led by private demand. Under the circumstances, that is probably the most the government can hope for. The big question is whether this scenario will come...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2002

Canberra sticks to its policy on illegal immigrants despite growing protests

SYDNEY -- Just as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was addressing world economic leaders in New York on the profits to be made from investing here, Afghan asylum seekers held in detention camps in the Australian desert were trying to die in hunger strikes.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 7, 2002

Yomiuri's Almonte feuds with trainers

Yomiuri Giants right-hander Hector Almonte provided drama to the Central League club's spring training Tuesday when he refused to continue running and abruptly returned to the team hotel.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Baldness may be cured -- in 2010

OSAKA -- Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it has developed a synthesized protein that can help reactivate dormant hair root cells.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Jewelry van robbed of 50 million yen

Three bags of jewelry items worth some 50 million yen were apparently stolen Wednesday from a van used by a jewelry store employee while it was parked on a street in Tokyo's Taito Ward, police said.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Feb 7, 2002

Japan outlook still dim as U.S. finds footing

U.S. industrial production capacity has been brought more in line with demand, brightening economic prospects.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 7, 2002

Snowboarding: street cred or Olympic discipline?

For many of the dudes and dudettes that flock to the ski resorts every winter, one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be the snowboarding parallel slaloms and half-pipe freestyle competitions.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Snow Brand told to avoid foreign tieup

The government's efforts to protect the agriculture sector is affecting ailing Snow Brand Milk Products Co. and its plans to restructure.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Nidec to set up subsidiary in China

Precision motor manufacturer Nidec Corp. said Wednesday it will set up a wholly owned subsidiary in China to make and sell spindle motors for hard disk drives.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2002

Table topics for Bush, Jiang

HONOLULU -- U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to include China as part of a three-nation Northeast Asia tour later this month underscores his personal commitment to start building a more "constructive, cooperative" relationship with Beijing.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Imported vehicle sales fell 4.9% in January

Domestic sales of imported vehicles dropped 4.9 percent in January from a year earlier to 15,000 units, marking a fifth consecutive month of decline, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Look out for suicidal signals amid these hard times: doctor

Psychological stress is building among Japanese businessmen due to the crisis of lifetime employment, which has deep roots in the nation's way of living.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

G7 to pour wrath on Japan's economy, yen dive

With the economy already wobbling, Japan may find itself on the ropes when finance chiefs from the Group of Seven major economic powers gather this week in Ottawa.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Sept. 11 didn't change everything: e-symposium

The second e-symposium on conflict prevention got under way Wednesday with a number of presenters stressing that although the events of Sept. 11 had far-reaching consequences, a number of issues remain virtually unchanged.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Checks of large MMC vehicles reveal hub abrasions

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday that in voluntary checks of 5,598 large vehicles made after an accident last month in Yokohama, it found that hubs on 8.6 percent of them showed signs of abrasions.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Bank losses near 5 trillion yen

With the downtrend in domestic stock prices continuing unabated, unrealized losses on shares held by major Japanese banks amounted to some 4.8 trillion yen, up from 3.5 trillion yen at the end of September, according to Daiwa Institute of Research.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

NTT union passes on wage hike

The labor union of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. for a second consecutive year will not seek a uniform hike in base wages during spring salary negotiations, union officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FLOWER WALK
Feb 7, 2002

Bloomin' good fortune in winter

A Greek myth tells of the beautiful youth Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite, who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. A flower growing on the spot where he fell was stained crimson by his blood and was named Adonis aestivalis.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

75% foresee Snow Brand doom: poll

Seventy-five percent of respondents to a recent Internet survey believe Snow Brand Milk Products Co. will not be able to regain the trust of consumers even if it carries out a restructuring program.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Okuda opposes mark-to-market accounting freeze

Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren), voiced opposition Wednesday to a proposal to temporarily freeze the mark-to-market method of accounting to protect banks' weakening capital bases.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2002

Fukuda: No plans to prod BOJ

The government has no immediate plans to ask the Bank of Japan to take additional monetary-easing measures in a bid to prevent the economy from falling into a deflationary spiral, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 7, 2002

Early retirement, outplacement, or just pink slip?

Makoto Kawamura, 51, felt he had few options left when the medium-size life insurer he worked for collapsed and a U.S. firm took over management.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 7, 2002

Hypersexual farming

Humans have practiced selective breeding for thousands of years to develop plants, animals and fungi better suited for human use than they are in their natural states. No genetic engineering is required, yet the genes of selected strains are different, "improved." Even people opposed to genetic modification...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Feb 7, 2002

Geek culture bashing

http://homepage.mac.com/jcarusone/iMovieTheater2.html The unveiling of the new iMac has reignited the Mac vs. Windows debate all over the Internet, with journalists, computer users, economists and other eccentrics predicting whether the latest Apple hardware/software combo will take a bite out of Microsoft's...

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’