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BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2001

ATM boom reflects banks' struggle for survival

Automated teller machines are reaching deeper into your neighborhood, offering a range of services, including some that are unprecedented in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2001

Noblesse oblige in short supply

The immediate task for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to wrap up a specific reform package. While his slogans — "Structural reform with no sacred cows" and "No economic recovery without structural reform" — are basically supported here and abroad, stock prices have continued to fall.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

Shinkansen tax break eyed for JR Tokai

The transport ministry may give tax relief to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) in an attempt to reduce the financial burden stemming from the carrier's repairs to the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, ministry officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Household spending drops 3.8%

Average household spending dropped an inflation-adjusted 3.8 percent in June from a year earlier to 284,471 yen, marking the third consecutive month of decline, the government said in a report Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2001

Loner behavior vexes allies

LONDON -- For Europe and for Japan the maintenance of good relations with the United States is vital. The U.S. commitments to NATO and to the defense of Japan are so important that Europe and Japan may often have to make concessions to U.S. views with which they have good reasons to disagree. The U.S....
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2001

Minicar presence gains on automaker innovation

Minicars were once regarded by Japanese consumers as second-class, cheap vehicles.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Life improving for Russian residents of the disputed Northern Territories

KURILSK, Russia -- After a time of neglect, the federal and local government are investing more in the economy of the Southern Kurils -- a group of disputed islands governed by Russia but also claimed by Japan. As the life of the islanders is gradually improving, they are less likely to agree to transferring...
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2001

Matsushita warned over unfair trading

The Fair Trade Commission on Friday warned Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. against urging wholesalers and retailers not to sell its products to discount stores, FTC officials said.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2001

Transferred NTT employees face wage reductions

NTT Corp. plans to introduce a new wage system for the roughly 100,000 staff being transferred from its group companies to regional subsidiaries under which salaries will be cut by 15 percent to 30 percent, company officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2001

Drill relocation difficult: Hailston

The top U.S. commander in Okinawa said Thursday he believes relocating some U.S. Marine Corps drills to Guam or Saipan will be difficult because those locations are too small.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 20, 2001

'Miss E . . . So Addictive': Missy Misdemeanor Elliott

Picking up on the drug reference in the title of the former Hefty Bag Queen's third album, we can easily wonder if Missy Misdemeanor Elliott hasn't lately been feeding her head as much as she'd previously fed every other part of her body. "I looked down at my stomach," she deadpans in the liner noters,...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2001

Koizumi stumps for redirection of road-use revenue

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi affirmed Sunday his determination to reform the current practice of earmarking some tax revenue exclusively for road-related projects.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Privatization law on three JR firms gets Diet approval

The Diet passed a bill Friday to revise the Japan Railway law to fully privatize three JR group railroads operating in Honshu.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Amazon Japan adds video tapes, CDs, DVDs

The Japanese unit of Amazon.com announced Wednesday its expansion to sell compact discs, digital versatile discs and video tapes, but said there was no sign of the company making a profit yet.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 14, 2001

When a little profit exacts a high price

Public-works projects, such as the bungled reclamation of Isahaya Bay in Kyushu and Tokyo's ill-conceived Ken'odo ring road, exemplify the bureaucratic myopia that is razing Japan's natural heritage. But the destruction is not always on a grand scale, nor solely the handiwork of public servants. Private...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 10, 2001

All problems, great and small

Up-to-the-minute trends and subjects are often incorporated into the story lines of television drama series. Unfortunately, topicality is usually given more consideration than relevance, and the dramas themselves rarely explore the reality of problems such as AIDS or teenage depression.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Eight dead in school stabbing spree

A knife-wielding man stormed into an elementary school Friday morning in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, and fatally stabbed eight children and wounded 15 others before he was subdued, police said.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Japan, officially, still vague on Bush's missile defense plan

Reported critical remarks by Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on a proposed U.S. missile defense system may be problematic as they apparently contravene Japan's noncommittal position on the issue. Although Japan has engaged in joint technical research with the United States on the Theater Missile Defense...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Kubota hit with back tax for payoffs, false outlays

OSAKA — Tax authorities have determined that farm machinery maker Kubota Corp. disguised 450 million yen as legitimate expenses, including some 100 million yen in illegal payoffs to "sokaiya" corporate extortionists, over the past several years, industry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
May 28, 2001

Koizumi eyes higher burden for seniors

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is intent on capping medical expenditures and calling on wealthy senior citizens to bear more of the financial burden for social security, according to a draft version of his economic and fiscal policy seen by Kyodo News on Sunday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2001

Cosmetics companies give themselves a makeover

Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of...
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2001

Stopping pork barrel at the source

Barely a month on the job, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has yet to flesh out his reform blueprint. In this sense, he can be likened to a painter who has only just finished the outlines of a portrait. Now, however, he is about to draw a bold nose smack in the middle of the canvas. We refer to his...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 23, 2001

'Naturalizms': Sukpatch

The Beastie Boys are one busy crew. If fighting for a free Tibet, periodically reinvigorating hip-hop and dressing a good percentage of the B-boy hipsters wandering around Harajuku weren't enough, they continue to deliver the goods on their Grand Royal label. Luscious Jackson, Buffalo Daughter and Money...
ENVIRONMENT
May 22, 2001

China's shifting sands close in on Beijing

BEIJING -- Mother Nature has got it in for Wang Yongxian. In 1988, the farmer fled his hillside cave when flooding triggered landslides on Dragon Treasure Mountain, 70 km north of Beijing. Forced to abandon their traditional cave homes, Wang and neighbors moved down to the safety of the plain. Or so...
JAPAN
May 20, 2001

NTT West may halve its branch offices

NTT West Corp. is considering integrating and consolidating its 30 branch offices to between 10 and 15 in a bid to streamline operations, cut costs and weather intensifying competition, company sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

LDP sees nuclear as a core source of power

Nuclear power is regarded virtually as a core energy source in a bill for Japan's basic law on energy being prepared by Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers, according to the full text obtained by Kyodo News.

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