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BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Firms' entertainment outlays off 13.3%

Japanese firms nationwide spent 4.39 trillion yen on entertainment, gifts and other expenses in the year through last Jan. 31, marking a 13.3 percent drop from the previous year, according to a government survey released Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

World's stock markets battling pessimism

Pessimism abounds in stock markets worldwide. New York share prices have taken a beating amid concern over corporate earnings and economic prospects. The tumble in New York quickly spilled over to Tokyo, sending key market gauges to their year-to-date lows.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

TSE dives to 13,500 in high-tech sales spree

Tokyo stock prices continued to take a beating Thursday, as sharp declines on Wall Street overnight coupled with indications of a faltering economic recovery at home depressed the benchmark stock index to below the 13,500 mark, the lowest closing in over 23 months.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Dentsu announces first-half profit

Dentsu Inc., Japan's largest advertising agency, on Thursday announced consolidated net profit of 14.15 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Japan to give tsunami info to neighbors

Japan will start in January providing South Korea, North Korea and Russia with information on tsunamis originating in the Sea of Japan, the Meteorological Agency said.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Mori taps tech sector for IT advice

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has informally selected 10 people, including Sony Corp. Chairman Nobuyuki Idei, as members of his new team of Cabinet advisers for the government's information technology drive, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Car sales to increase 2.2% in 2001: JAMA

Domestic car sales in 2001 will reach 6.1 million units, up 2.2 percent from this year, as demand is expected to continue to slowly recover, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Toshiba, Infineon to work on nonvolatile FeRAM

Toshiba Corp. of Japan and Infineon Technologies AG of Germany on Thursday announced an agreement to jointly develop nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) technology and products.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 22, 2000

Cheju may see Japan-Korea rematch

South Korea may host Japan in a curtain-raiser friendly match at its brand-new stadium on Cheju Island in November next year, shortly before the draw for the World Cup finals, South Korean Football Association president Chung Mong Joon said Wednesday at Tokyo's National Stadium after the two nations...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

'Amakudari' continues, even for disgraced cops

Some 90 percent of the government's senior bureaucrats have found postretirement jobs at state affiliates or government-related organizations despite the sluggish economy, a government survey found.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Crimes at record high but arrests fall

The number of Penal Code violations reported in Japan between January and November hit a record high 2,228,567, according to a National Police Agency report released Thursday.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 22, 2000

Japan held to draw by 10-man S. Korea

It wasn't exactly the kind of welcome home party the Asian Cup-winning Japan team wanted to put on. And manager Philippe Troussier couldn't hide his disappointment -- although he tried.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Japan to ban EU beef imports

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry on Thursday decided to ban imports of European Union beef, processed beef foodstuffs and cow sperm starting in January to prevent mad cow disease from spreading to Japanese farms, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Volunteer ranks thin; lack of information cited

A majority of those who took up volunteer activities following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 have since quit because they feel there are too many restrictions and a lack of information, a survey released Thursday by the Economic Planning Agency showed.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

Bitterness over lack of jobs rising: poll

Employment opportunities are becoming scarce in Japan, particularly for people in their 40s and 50s, according to an employment survey conducted over a six-month period this year in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 22, 2000

The Captain reaches down deep into his inner funk

Funk usually brings to mind a heaving beat, thick, slapping bass lines and fashions straight out of "Shaft."
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Niigata Chuo purchase plan gets OK

The government's Financial Reconstruction Commission on Thursday approved a proposal by Niigata Chuo Bank's state-appointed administrators to sell it to six regional banks, FRC officials said.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2000

Mekong region set for ODA

After a few years of near neglect, Japan appears to be again turning its attention to the greater Mekong subregion as a policy frontier for official development assistance.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2000

The EU gets ready to grow

LONDON -- The recent European Union summit at Nice seems to have been bad tempered and acrimonious. Yet it eventually, even if only after days of wrangling, ended in an agreement of sorts and the way is now open to the admission of new members from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, leading in due...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2000

Taking it easy on tax reform

A basic agreement reached earlier this month by the three ruling parties on fiscal 2001 tax code changes is a case of being unable to see the forest for the trees. Their myopia distorts an overall tax review and undermines the basic principles of taxation: fairness, neutrality and simplicity.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2000

Ex-KSD execs indicted on breach-of-trust rap

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday indicted three former executives of KSD, an organization that provides industrial accident insurance to small businesses, on a charge of breach of trust for forcing a KSD affiliate to purchase -- using KSD money -- compact discs of a singer who...
SUMO
Dec 21, 2000

Kotomitsuki earns sekiwake ranking for New Year basho

confirmed Kotomitsuki as the sport's latest shooting star on Wednesday as it promoted the Sadogatake stable wrestler to sekiwake for next month's New Year tournament. Kotomitsuki, wrestling as a No. 9 maegashira, was a surprise runnerup to grand champion Akebono at last month's Kyushu tourney with a...
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2000

Economists unhappy with latest budget

In its attempt to formulate a budget with the dual and dueling purposes of bringing about an economic recovery and preparing for painstaking reform, it seems the government has managed to do neither.

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