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BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2002

Hitachi streamlining returns firm to black

Hitachi Ltd. said Thursday it returned to profitability in the first half to Sept. 30, posting a net profit of 12.85 billion yen, reversing a 110.54 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 30, 2002

Great Tokyo Air Raid was a war crime

On Dec. 7, 1964, the Japanese government conferred the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun upon Gen. Curtis LeMay -- yes, the same general who, less than 20 years earlier, had incinerated "well over half a million Japanese civilians, perhaps nearly a million."
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2002

Testing times for the U.N.

In finally taking the vexed issue of war with Iraq to the United Nations, U.S. President George W. Bush has presented the organization with a double-edged test of credibility. Will it lift its performance and remain relevant to U.S. foreign policy on Washington's terms, or in doing so will it be seen...
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2002

Yamaha raises profit forecast to 17 billion yen

Yamaha Corp., a major maker of musical instruments and special semiconductor chips, said Thursday it has revised upward its group profit forecast for the 2002 business year, citing personnel-cost cuts and brisk sales of mobile phone chips.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2002

Tepco set to release results of voluntary inspections

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will soon release the results of its voluntary nuclear reactor inspections in an attempt to appease local communities and restore its recently battered credibility, Tepco officials said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Sep 13, 2002

Okinawa's free-trade zones failing to attract companies

GUSHIKAWA, Okinawa Pref. -- The Acrorad Co. factory in Okinawa's Nakagusuku Free Trade Zone looks out on more than 100 hectares of empty lots.
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2002

Mori Seiki to take over Hitachi Seiki

Major machine-tool maker Mori Seiki Co. said Wednesday it has signed an agreement in which a subsidiary will take over the assets and accept the engineers of failed machine-tool maker Hitachi Seiki Co.
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

Hey Taxi!

An arm stuck out from the sidewalk and Hideaki pulled up his cab, let the customer in . . . and immediately sensed trouble.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2002

Osaka officials declare USJ drinking fountains safe

OSAKA -- Osaka city officials on Tuesday declared the drinking fountains at the Universal Studios Japan theme park safe.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2002

Deadline for winter attack is drawing near

WASHINGTON -- As the saying goes, while politicians and civilians like to think about strategy when contemplating war, generals think logistics. If the United States and any coalition partners go to war against Iraq, the first part of that logistics effort requires getting up to a quarter million combat...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2002

Defense Agency budget request exceeds 5 trillion yen

The Defense Agency hopes to increase the capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces to combat terrorism, guerrilla attacks and spy ships, and on Friday requested an allocation of 5.0043 trillion yen in the fiscal 2003 general account budget to achieve this -- an increase of 64.8 billion yen, or 1.3 percent,...
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2002

Inamine asks Koizumi to review SOFA, reduce U.S. presence

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine asked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday to review the Japanese-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement and reduce the size of U.S. forces based in Okinawa.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2002

Cops cashing in on driver licenses: lawsuit

Freelance journalist Yu Terasawa, 35, filed a suit in 2000 against the state, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and police-related organizations, claiming Japan's 74 million licensed drivers are being systematically financially exploited by police.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2002

Japan Telecom to sell off part of engineering unit

Japan Telecom Holdings Co. said Friday it has agreed to sell off part of an engineering subsidiary to Australian-based construction and real estate company Bovis Lend Lease Corp. in an effort to concentrate on its core telecommunications business.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2002

What matters for Nago airport

Japan is set to build an offshore airport for U.S. military and Japanese commercial planes in Nago City, northern Okinawa, almost six years after Tokyo and Washington agreed to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City, central Okinawa. On Monday, the central government and...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2002

Emergency defense legislation believed too vague

Political dynamics aside, even some Defense Agency officials admit the emergency-contingency bills the ruling coalition plans to carry over to the next Diet session were flawed from the start.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2002

Spending by wage earners up 3.4%

Spending by wage-earning households rose an inflation-adjusted 3.4 percent in June from the year before, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2002

Two men held over CFC smuggling

Police and Tokyo customs officials said Thursday they have arrested two men on suspicion of trying to smuggle some 6 tons of chlorofluorocarbon, a controlled ozone-depleting substance, into Japan.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2002

Locally designed regulatory reform zones pushed

The Council for Regulatory Reform released a report Tuesday calling for establishment of so-called special regulatory reform zones, backing the government's deregulatory efforts.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2002

Ex-governor pleads guilty to taking bribes

Former Tokushima Gov. Toshio Endo pleaded guilty Friday to charges of receiving 8 million yen in bribes from a business consultant in 1997 and 2000 in return for helping a local construction firm win public works projects in the prefecture.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2002

Diet enacts bills to liquidate JNOC, scale back state's hand in oil business

The Diet enacted legislation Friday to dissolve the debt-ridden Japan National Oil Corp. in 2005 and reshuffle the nation's oil-exploration and petroleum-stockpiling policies.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2002

Honda touts cogeneration system

Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it has developed a compact cogeneration device for households and will market it at roughly 200,000 yen by the end of March.
BUSINESS
Jul 18, 2002

Toshiba seeking to bolster reactor-dismantling business

Toshiba Corp. will set up a team of nuclear-plant experts to beef up the company's reactor-decommissioning business, company officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2002

IT services seen growing at 7.4%

The Japanese market for information-technology related services will grow an annual 7.4 percent and reach 7.93 trillion yen in 2006, a private market-research firm said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2002

Key gauge stayed above boom-bust line in May

The government said Friday its key gauge of the current state of the economy stayed above the boom-or-bust line in May for the fourth straight month.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2002

The Cyprus connection: How Milosevic evaded arms sanctions

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- On Dec. 27, 1998, a Yugoslav named Drakomir Stojkovic flew from Belgrade to Cyprus's Larnaca airport on a private jet carrying bags stuffed with 35 million deutsche marks -- worth roughly $17 million.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2002

Tollgate mentality in Japan

Straddling the Keiyo Expressway linking Tokyo and Chiba is the Funabashi tollgate. A long row of booths collects a 200 yen toll from most drivers. Perennial jams at the tollgate have long caused frustration to me and others heading toward Chiba. People late for planes at Narita suffer even more.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2002

Aging YS-11s to fly off into the sunset

Time, it seems, is sounding the final death knoll for the YS-11, Japan's only domestically produced passenger aircraft.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it