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BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Chuo Mitsui to buy Sakura Trust

Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. will acquire Sakura Trust & Banking Co., a subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., in an effort to improve efficiency within the trust business of the Sumitomo Mitsui financial group, bank sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Ministry panel mulls reducing ODA

A Foreign Ministry panel began discussions Wednesday on how official development assistance can meet Japan's national interests amid mounting calls for the reduction of the ODA budget in the current economic climate.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Honda merges sales units

Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it will merge three subsidiaries to form a new motorcycle sales unit in August to strengthen its domestic bike business.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Four arrested in house robbery

Police arrested four men Wednesday on suspicion of breaking into the house of a telephone dating club operator in February and stealing about 100 million yen in cash and 40 million yen in jewelry.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Employees encouraged to start ventures

When Noriyuki Ichihashi, an employee of Itochu Corp., proposed his idea to the firm's Internet venture incubation office about a year ago, the trading house was quick to give him the green light. Within a month, the 34-year-old had set up a planning company.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Koizumi must deliver before hoopla fades

Staff writers Reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi seems to know too well that what counts is his image.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Toyota tops income list: research firm

Toyota Motor Corp. declared 483.1 billion yen in taxable income for calendar 2000, the largest declaration by a Japanese firm in the year, private research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd. said in a report released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Fuji Heavy sees falling profits on weak euro

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday its consolidated pretax profit for fiscal 2000 dropped 17.8 percent to 71.5 billion yen, mainly due to sluggish sales in Europe and the yen's strong performance against the euro.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Tobishima reports return to profit

Construction firm Tobishima Corp. said Wednesday its group net balance returned to the black in fiscal 2000, mainly due to sales of securities holdings.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

BOJ united on quantitative easing

The policy-setting panel of the Bank of Japan voted unanimously for maintaining quantitative monetary easing, in which it sets a roughly 5 trillion yen target for the outstanding balance of its current accounts, according to the minutes released Wednesday of its meeting April 12 and 13.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

State won't appeal court ruling on redress for Hansen's patients

The government decided Wednesday not to appeal a landmark court ruling ordering the state to compensate former Hansen's disease patients for violating their basic human rights by forcing them to be isolated in sanitariums.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2001

Rampant piracy posing political problems for Southeast Asia's policymakers

Piracy is alive and well in Southeast Asia, and it is posing political problems for policymakers. Piracy incidents in and around the Straits of Malacca and Singapore have recently increased at an alarming rate -- in both number and severity. But these modern pirates are a far cry from the swashbuckling...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Matsushita Electric allies with Hitachi

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. formally announced Wednesday an alliance to promote businesses centering on information services and home appliances.
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
May 24, 2001

Foreign managers bring change to corporate life

Takashi Sato of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. fears he may be transferred because of his poor command of English -- a potentiality that was unthinkable until last year.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Koizumi's popularity propels LDP poll rating to two-year high

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to enjoy better than 85 percent support among voters, and his appeal even lifted the LDP above the 40 percent support line for the first time in almost two years, according to a Kyodo News poll released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Mitsui hopes for listing on NYSE

Mitsui & Co. said Wednesday it will try to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange as early as next year as part of its new three-year management plan.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Sumitomo Heavy posts 28.6 billion yen net loss

Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday its group net loss swelled to 28.61 billion yen in fiscal 2000 from the previous year's 6.33 billion yen, remaining in the red for three years in a row on sluggish revenues and heavy restructuring costs.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

15,000 more day-care centers vowed

The government has decided in principle to provide an additional 15,000 after-school day-care centers for elementary school children by fiscal 2004, using vacant classrooms, government officials said.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Hankyu profits jump to 6 billion yen

Hankyu Department Stores Inc. said Wednesday its group pretax profit for fiscal 2000 jumped 25.2 percent to 6.21 billion yen despite a sales drop of 2 percent to 394.96 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2001

Trains, ships eyed to haul more cargo

The government will seek to reduce the amount of pollution caused by the domestic long-distance cargo transportation system by shifting from trucks to trains and ships, according to a draft report obtained Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 24, 2001

Bone collectors dig into our past

Two papers published today shed light on our early evolution, though "early" is a relative term. The first describes what could've been the first species of mammal, a tiny beast that quivered in the shadows of the dinosaurs 195 million years ago. The second reports on a shift in eating habits of early...
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
May 24, 2001

Mizu-basho (Asian skunk cabbage)

"When summer comes, I think of Oze Under distant skies. Midst rising mists and shadowed ways Marsh lilies are blooming, And dreams are flowering, too. Where evening tints, azalea pink, Those far-off, distant skies."
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 24, 2001

Perez is talking the talk in Japan

All it took for Eduardo Perez to learn the names of his Hanshin Tigers teammates was one embarrassing moment.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 24, 2001

Highway interchange to obliterate historic sites

Look southwest from the top of Mount Takao on clear winter mornings. Mount Fuji soars above its surroundings, white and massive in the royal blue sky. Except for a few pylons in the distance, the view is timeless.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 24, 2001

Just plant grass, and mow it for 400 years

The Hosokawa family is deeply rooted to the history and development of Kumamoto. Hosokawa Tadatoshi (1586-1641) was granted the domain of Kumamoto (540,000 koku) by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1632 and started work on the gardens which became Suizenji Jojuen in the same year.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Radio-band feud grounds flying doctors

A government initiative to helicopter doctors to accident sites has been grounded by bureaucratic bickering over the use of a radio band to facilitate coordination of such operations, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Police descend on home of ex-Sogo chairman

The Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday searched the home of former Sogo Chairman Hiroo Mizushima in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward for evidence showing he hid personal assets from creditors.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports