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Reports on the merger between Japanese paper manufacturers New Oji Paper Co. and Honshu Paper Co.

TOKYO -- It is the second wild boardroom drama to shake up corporate Japan in days: the country's leading tissue maker, Daio Paper, said on Friday that it would file a criminal complaint against its former chairman, accusing him of illicitly borrowing $140 million in company money and channeling some of it to a Las Vegas casino company. The controversy provides yet another lens into the seemingly free-wheeling behavior -- and disregard for corporate governance -- still seen among top management at some of Japan's leading companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the coronavirus pandemic is exposing how Japan is unable to work from home due to its work traditions and company culture. Topics covered include the reason middle managers in Japan's team-oriented workplaces are hesitant to allow employees to work from home, the response of Japanese companies on the sudden need for social distancing and the effort of the government to urge companies and local government offices to move their functions online even before the pandemic.

Reports on the holding of a survey of the Japanese photographic film and paper market by Japan's Fair Trade Commission due to a dispute over practices by Eastman Kodak Co. and Fuji Photo Film. Commission's recognition of the oligopolistic structures in the markets; Kodak chairman George Fisher's call for the United States to take action against Japan for its refusal to negotiate on the dispute.

Reports that Tokyo, Japan subway operators decided to supply toilet tissue for their commuters. Reason why its was previously discontinued.

Focuses on the art collection of Maspro Denkoh Corporation, an electronics company based outside of Nagoya, Japan. Worth of the collection; Decision-making method that was used by Takashi Hashiyama, president of the company, to determine whether Christie's or Sotheby's should sell the collection; The use of such games of chance in Japanese culture; Details of the traditional decision-making process involving rock, paper or scissors; Pronouncement of Christie's as the winner.

Reports that diplomatic papers published in Tokyo, Japan in December 8, 1999 suggested that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1999 involved a deception effort by the Japanese government. Efforts of Japan to avoid hinting at war with the United States; Researcher who discovered the papers in the Japanese Foreign Ministry archives; Confirmation of the genuineness of the diplomatic papers.

Discusses Japan's financial crisis. Growth of the economy that has not been sustained; Governments that have attempted to resolve the crisis; Example of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi; Competition with China and South Korea; History of Japan's economy; Debt that the nation faces.

Reports that the newspaper `Yomiuri Shimbun' of Japan decided to ban advertising for two of its weekly magazines after receiving complaints about the sexual content of the advertisements. Implications of the advertising ban on women's rights in Japan; Effect of the ban on other newspapers' advertising policies for sexually explicit materials; Details on the advertisements.

Reports that the `Asahi Shimbun' newspaper of Japan apologized on January 1, 1999 for pressuring Princess Masako after she miscarried. Number of people that complained about an article about Masako's pregnancy; Views of the newspaper on the princess as a public figure; Date of the announcement of Masako's miscarriage.

Pays tribute to Muneyuki Matsushita, president of Japanese newspaper `Asahi Shimbun,' who died on February 10, 1999. Cause of his death; Background on Matsushita.

The article reports that inflation has been a concern in Japan due to increased spending in its paper money system. It notes that the impact of quantitative easing efforts by the central bank has been minimal. It mentions that the debt load of Japan can be manageable from inflation which instigates competitiveness in industries.

Recounts that one of the casualties of Kobe's earthquake was the Takatori Catholic Church. How it was reopened on September 17, 1995, exactly eight months after the disaster; How Shigeru Ban, an American-trained Tokyo architect, came upon the ruins and provided help; Its tented roof made out of Teflon-coated fabric; Ban and his volunteer university students. INSET: Under tubes and tents.

Reports on the plan to Japanese Defense Agency to issue another annual defense white paper as a version of a "manga" comic book to increase readership of the white paper.

IN honor of Persephone!'' she announced, cracking open a pinkish orb. She handed me half and I stared, shocked, at the gleaming maroon seeds. She was plucking them with abandon, letting the juice stain her fingers, not caring. I tried to breathe. It was winter in Pittsburgh, I was 18 years old, and I had never seen a pomegranate. I'd met her weeks after arriving in Pittsburgh for college. Somewhat randomly her boyfriend had asked me: ''Would you like to come to our party? We're going to have this Balkan band from Albuquerque and a Norwegian folk singer play, an Indonesian shadow puppet performance, and everyone has to bring a pie.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing Japan's worst recession in decades, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday that it would buy 1 trillion yen, or $10.7 billion, in corporate bonds, extend its purchases of commercial paper and maintain its near-zero interest rate to ease a crippling credit squeeze. The central bank voted unanimously to maintain its key policy rate at 0.1 percent. It said it would also buy prime-grade corporate bonds and commercial paper, or short-term corporate debt, until September, six months longer than planned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports that the architect of the Paper Dome Takatori in Kobe, Japan, Shigeru Ban, has decided to build homes for Vietnamese immigrants in the Nagata Ward, using his paper tube technology. What Ban did to solicit money for his venture; Comments from Ban; Reaction to the house.

Presents a criticism of Japan's protected consumer market by George M.C. Fisher, the chairman of Eastman Kodak company. Mr. Fisher's views on the control of consumer photo film and paper market by Fuji Photo Film; Reasons for Mr. Fisher's attack on the Motorola's cellular telephones; Investigation of Japan's consumer photo products market.

Reports that the European Union has joined the United States' efforts at the World Trade Organization to end what it contends is Japanese trade discrimination against foreign producers of film and photographic paper.

The article discusses the Japanese political right-wing's criticisms of former journalist Takashi Uemura over an article he wrote for "The Asahi Shimbun" newspaper examining whether the Japanese Imperial Army forced women to work in military brothels during World War II. Topics addressed include the paper's retraction of a number of articles under pressure from conservatives, as well as revisionist accounts of Japanese history.

Reports on the financial performance of the Japanese banks Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ Holdings in the first half of their fiscal year. Benefits derived by the banks from an improved economy, rising share prices and a tax refund from the Tokyo government; One-time gains and paper profits generated by an increase in Japanese stocks in the six months that ended September 30, 2003.

AS the kimono fell out of style, so too did Nishijin, the historic textile district in northwestern Kyoto. These days, the neighborhood's narrow, quiet lanes north of Imadegawa and west of Horikawa have fallen off the tourist map. But in recent years, local artists and artisans have opened small shops and studios in the neighborhood, many in the traditional wooden houses called machiya, spurring a revival. Here, time-honored Japanese traditions get a modern spin -- from hand-printed paper to classic confections -- with nary a souvenir chopstick in sight. INGRID K. WILLIAMS [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EVENING was falling in the old Japanese capital of Kyoto, and I was tucking myself into a container slightly larger than a refrigerator. I pulled down the shade and, after a bit of contorting, lay down, the wall a few inches from my feet. It was a dainty little space, about 3 1/4 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet long, charmingly traditional with rice-paper latticework and two woven-reed mats. I felt like an origami crane as I folded my 6-foot-2-inch frame into this ''tatami capsule.'' The eight units at Capsule Ryokan (204 Tsuchihashicho, Shimogyo-ku; capsule-ryokan-kyoto.com) go for 3,500 yen a night, about $46 at 76 yen to the dollar. You don't get a lot of real estate for your yen, though the box had plenty of modern conveniences: a small LCD TV, high-speed Wi-Fi, dimmable lighting and a wall-mounted alarm clock. The capsules are stacked in pairs, with chrome ladders at their entrances. Upstairs, the 32 en-suite rooms offer more space for sleeping -- about three tatami mats' worth -- and the luxury of a compact rain shower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVALS (Saturday and Sunday) Their blossoms have colorful but fleeting lives, so the time is now to see the city's cherry trees in all their splendor. Many of the celebrations, always annual displays of rebirth, are especially so this year; they are helping earthquake relief efforts in Japan. The grande dame of celebrations, the Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is in its 30th year and will offer sounds, sights and tastes of Japan on Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors can make paper cranes that will be matched by charitable donations from a philanthropic organization, or write their thoughts on tea-stained sacks that will be pinned together to make a tea quilt. On Roosevelt Island, above, a cherry blossom festival with Japanese-theme entertainment and food is planned for Saturday, from 1 to 3 p.m., on the West Promenade, with a grove of trees dedicated to the people of Japan. On Sunday a walking tour of the blooming trees on Roosevelt Island -- with a look at the island's history as well -- will meet at 11 a.m. at the Visitor Center Kiosk at the Tram Plaza; a $5 donation is suggested. Roosevelt Island is reachable by tram, bus, car and subway; rioc.com; rihs.us. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn; (718) 623-7200; bbg.org.; $15; $10 for students, 65+ and children 12 and older; free for children under 12 and members. Not to rush you, but one good windstorm, and the show will be all over. (Anne Mancuso) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japanese regulators and executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company are asking questions about a seemingly coordinated series of stock purchases two weeks ago that led to an undisclosed buyer or buyers acquiring a large block of the utility, which owns Japan's dangerously damaged nuclear power plant. Regulators want to know whether the trades, valued at up to $600 million and placed from Hong Kong during the week of April 3, were structured to circumvent Japanese securities laws, which require the owner of more than 5 percent of a publicly traded company to file disclosure papers identifying the shareholder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What does it mean, in the 21st century, for a Western artist to borrow heavily from aesthetic traditions of the East? It's a question that hovers around the career retrospective ''Rebecca Salter: Into the Light of Things'' at the Yale Center for British Art and the pendant show ''Rebecca Salter and Japan'' at the Yale University Art Gallery. Ms. Salter is a British artist who spent six years, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in Kyoto, Japan, working first in ceramics before switching to two dimensions. Her canvases and works on paper -- many objects here combine the two mediums -- draw upon centuries-old traditions in ceramics, as well as Japanese calligraphy and woodblock prints. They also sync up, however, with Western abstraction, monochrome painting and midcentury Minimalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIGASHI-MATSUSHIMA, Japan -- Outside the public gymnasium here, on a hillock about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, survivors of the tsunami came and went all day on Monday, searching for the dead. Two hundred and sixteen sheets of printer paper were stuck on a wall, one for every body brought to the gymnasium so far, some with names, most bearing only physical descriptions. Hands anxiously clutched to mouths, people pored over them until, finding nothing, most turned away in relief. Syunsuke Doi, 22, did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AFTER nearly four decades of work Toyo Ito has earned a cult following among architects around the world, although he is little known outside his home country, Japan. Through his strange and ethereal buildings, which range from modest houses for the urban recluse to a library whose arched forms have the delicacy of paper cutouts, he has created a body of work almost unmatched in its diverse originality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Bank of Japan should consider ways to influence longer-term interest rates and corporate debt products if more easing steps are needed, a policy board member, Hidetoshi Kamezaki, said. In one of the boldest comments yet by a Bank of Japan board member on unorthodox policy measures, Mr. Kamezaki also said the bank should study to what extent it could take on risk assets like corporate bonds and shares. Mr. Kamezaki also said he expected the world economy to stagnate more in months to come, adding that the central bank would use all possible means to ensure market stability. His comments came less than a week after the central bank cut interest rates to 0.10 percent and adopted measures like increasing its buying of Japanese government bonds and temporarily purchasing commercial paper outright. Unlike the Federal Reserve in the United States, which has taken unorthodox measures and more than doubled its balance sheet in just a few months, the Bank of Japan has been cautious about transcending its traditional role as provider of liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gallery 91's bento boxes can be used as they would be in Japan, to hold individual servings of each course of a meal, for a high-style box lunch. But the small cardboard bowls, which are decorated with traditional porcelain patterns, also make appealing organizers for paper clips, rubber bands or even jewelry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan's work force of 66.5 million people is set to shrink by more than one-third, to 42 million, by 2050 if the country fails to reverse a declining birthrate, the government said in a report. The white paper outlined potential measures to address the labor problem, including earmarking $15 billion to $23 billion to encourage women to resume working after having children by improving child-care centers and making maternity leave more flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the new line of furniture designed for the Japanese market by the lifestyle store, Cibone. It states that Cibone has launched "Non-design Design," a collection of 20 objects from eight international designers. Information on Dutch craftsman, Piet Hein Eek, using local woodworking techniques, and Israeli designer, Ron Gilad's, lamps of traditional rice paper shades, is also provided.

Profiles mementoes from a postwar prison in Japan for Japanese war criminals. Examples of some of the objects, included a picture frame fashioned from rice paste and pages from Life magazine, delicate pencil drawings, and a cigarette box woven from toilet paper; Dedication of New York artist Bill Barrette to piecing together a story about life at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo during the American occupation of Japan; Inspiration from items collected by a relative who was a guard in the prison; Signs of a tranquil relationship between prisoners and guards; Descriptions of some of the drawings depicting life in at Sugamo.

Presents several shops and museums in Kurashiki, a district in Japan. Prices of hand-crafted paper at Kaze No Yakata; Admission at the Chokin-bako Hakubutsukan; Exhibitions at the Ohara Bijutsukan.

Presents world business briefs as of April 27, 2001. Downgrade of the Japanese government's estimate for economic growth in the final 3 months of 2000; Investigation of hidden debts of Asia Pulp and Paper Company; Passage of a law in Turkey which grants autonomy to the Central Bank; Others.

Discusses American Trade negotiator Micky Cantor's plans to initiate talks with Japan to open its restricted markets in computers, wood paper and financial services. Details of agreement between United States and Japan; Excerpts of Cantor's interview; Editorial comment from Japanese daily Mainichi Shibum; Significance of failure in agreement to open Japanese market in automobiles, auto parts; Japanese indications; Details of accord; Critics views on accord.

States that the Japanese government has accepted the American government's request for talks about a dispute on photographic film and paper under the World Trade Organization.

Says that the Japanese government, under pressure from the US, has published new regulations prohibiting companies from fixing prices, driving competitors out of the market and blocking certain types of imports, in what could mark--on paper at least--a big change in the way Japan does business. Question of how strictly the rules will be enforced by Japan; The `keiretsu' system; Japanese companies prohibited from enforcing `suggested retail prices.'

Reports on an analysis of origami in nature by Dr. Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan of Harvard. Highlights of his report, which appeared in the journal "Science"; Reference to the Miura-ori pattern; Suggestion that the nature of the skin of a leaf and its supporting framework to lead to the same efficient folding developed by Japanese scientist Dr. Koryo Miura that allows a map to be unfolded all at once; Description of the pattern, which is found in wings, flower petals and leaves.

Reports on the outlook for the office equipment sector in Japan as of November 2003.

Reports on the financial performance of Fuji Photo Film, Japan's film materials manufacturer, for the July-September 2003 period.

Reports that The World Trade Organization vindicated Japan in a protracted dispute over whether the Japanese unfairly protect their photographic film market. How the organization sided with Japan and the Eastman Kodak Company rival, the Fuji Photo Film Company; How the ruling marked a failure for the Clinton administration.

Editorial. Discusses claims made by the Kodak film company that it was shut out of the Japanese market through a combination of government and private blocking actions. Who usually deals with tariffs and other specific trade barriers; Information on the World Trade Organization's embrace of protectionist behavior by the Japanese Government; Accusations made by the United States against Japan.

Looks at the troubles that Kodak Japan Ltd., a unit of Eastman Kodak Co., is having selling film in Japan. View of photo shop owner Isamu Yoshida that the film salesmen from Fuji Photo Film Co. offer better deals, and that Kodak does not try hard enough; Kodak's assertions that it has hit an invisible wall; Decades of government protection in the past as a reason for Fuji's success.