search

 
 
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

Panel pushes early abolition of capital gains tax option

The Tax Commission on Tuesday drafted a basic position paper on securities tax reform, including a plan to abolish the withholding tax option on capital gains.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Bomb threats made against offices, hotels

Bomb threats were made Tuesday afternoon against major hotels and office buildings housing U.S. banks in and near Tokyo, but the Metropolitan Police Department said it believes they were pranks.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

Crude steel output continues decline

Crude steel production fell 5.4 percent in August from a year earlier to 8.6 million tons, marking the fifth straight month of decline, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

U.S. attacks leave Honda strategy on hold

Honda Motor Co. may have to review its North American strategy depending on developments following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the company president said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 19, 2001

Art with some things to say

When the Yokohama Triennale opened a couple of weeks ago, several people asked which of the pieces I particularly liked. When pressed, from the works of more than 100 artists on show, I singled out Yoko Ono's "Freight Train" and Casagrande & Rintala's "Bird Cage," two large outdoor installations located...
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 19, 2001

Puppet-actors drum up enthusiasm

Using the unique device of actors performing as bunraku-style puppets, complete with visible, black-clad puppeteers, France's Theatre du Soleil is in Tokyo to present its 1999 creation, "Tambours sur la Digue (Drummers on the Dike)." Directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, the play's unusual nature is indicated...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Famed Atami inn Tsuruya to close down in November

Tsuruya Hotel, a landmark institution in the hot spring town of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, will close on Nov. 1, sources close to the hotel said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2001

Girl's night out! OI! OI! OI!

Tokyo-based Lolita No. 18 is billed as the headliner of the "Wild Wacky Party Asia" tour, and they're probably the craziest bunch of rock chicks you'll ever see. They are party animals (vocalist Masayo Ishizaka lists alcoholism as her favorite hobby) and nothing if not extreme. They've even started wearing...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Hokkaido farm shipped 72 suspect cows

Seventy-two cows have been shipped since 1996 from a farm in the town of Saroma, Hokkaido, where a 5-year-old cow suspected of having mad cow disease was born, according to the farm ministry, which on Tuesday banned the use of cow meat and bone meal for use in cattle feed.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2001

Poetry and the pursuit of freedom

Before Night Falls Rating: * * * Director: Julian Schnabel Running time: 133 minutes Language: Spanish, English Now showing
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

Arabian Oil given ray of hope

Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co. has agreed with the Kuwaiti government to the principles of operation regarding its continued drilling in the Kuwait-controlled portion of the Khafji oil field, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Slayer of elderly land holder gets 15-year term

OSAKA -- An executive of a real estate firm was sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering an 81-year-old woman who refused to vacate her house, which stood in the middle of a condominium construction site.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 19, 2001

Bob Dylan: 'Love and Theft'

You can tell how much the critical establishment needs Bob Dylan by the praise heaped on his last studio album, 1997's "Time Out of Mind," which contained five excellent songs, five pretty good ones and one 161/2-minute bore. Music critics decided the album was all about death, and as this was, after...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2001

Coincident indicators get downward revision

The government said Tuesday it has revised downward its key gauge of the state of the economy for July, with the index of coincident indicators falling to 10 percent from a preliminary 12.5 percent.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 19, 2001

Kodo: 'Mondo Head'

For some, that Kodo is based on Sado Island might encourage the stereotype of the Japanese master taiko drum troupe living and working in splendid isolation fully dedicated to its traditional Japanese art. But what Japanophile types may not realize is that Kodo, perhaps uniquely among its peers, has...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Rice monitors arrive in North Korea

A Japanese government mission arrived Tuesday in North Korea to monitor the distribution and use of rice donated by Tokyo since last year, Foreign Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Support for U.S. possible despite '97 defense guidelines: Nakatani

Laws enacted in 1999 covering emergencies "in areas surrounding Japan" may allow the nation to extend logistic support to the United States in any retaliation against last week's terrorist attacks, Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani indicated Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

SDF to be tasked with counterterrorism duties

In a bid to heighten antiterrorism preparedness following the devastating attacks in the United States, the ruling coalition agreed Tuesday to enable the Self-Defense Forces to guard public facilities, including U.S. military installations in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2001

Public housing strategy at the crossroads

National housing policy is set for change with the reformist Koizumi Cabinet having launched a political battle to abolish or privatize all unprofitable semigovernmental corporations.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 18, 2001

Nishitani injured

OSAKA -- Cerezo Osaka midfielder Masaya Nishitani will be sidelined for around one month because of an ankle injury sustained during a J. League match, officials of the first-division side said Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 18, 2001

TUFF TALK

Kintetsu Buffaloes slugger Tuffy Rhodes is in the process of chasing one of the most revered records in Japanese sports -- Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run mark of 55 set back in 1964.
Events
Sep 18, 2001

Matsushita woes mean more pain for Kansai

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s announcement that it will post operating losses of 38.7 billion yen in the April-June quarter and begin restructuring shocked the Kansai business community and prompted worries about what it would mean for the region's economy.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2001

Suspect feed shipped only to Tokushima

The farm ministry said Monday it has confirmed that a feed factory in Ibaraki Prefecture that produced meat and bone meal from a cow suspected of having mad cow disease shipped the MBM only to a company in Tokushima Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2001

Illness to force Ogi out as leader of the NCP

Chikage Ogi, head of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, will step down as leader of the New Conservative Party, the smallest member of the ruling coalition, party officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2001

Bin Laden followers may be here

The government has received information that 12 foreign Islamic extremists may have entered Japan shortly before last week's terrorist attacks in the United States, informed sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2001

Nikkei down on European tumble

Tokyo stocks plummeted Monday morning, with the key Nikkei average dipping below 9,500 at one point, as the tumble in European stocks Friday made investors nervous ahead of the restart of U.S. trading.

Longform

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