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Lightning satellite built by small businesses in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan - A lightning observation satellite built by a consortium of small businesses in Osaka on display in Higashi Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, on Aug. 25. The cube-shaped SOHLA-1 satellite, which measures 50 centimeters on each side, is scheduled to be launched aboard a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency rocket this fiscal year and will be used to study lightning phenomena on Earth. The consortium was set up in 2002 by nine small high-tech businesses mainly based in Higashi Osaka.

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Osaka engineers group completes small satellite

OSAKA, Japan - An engineers association in Osaka Prefecture has assembled a small satellite and showed it to the media on Nov. 16. The Astro Technology Space Oriented Higashiosaka Leading Association was founded by small companies in the city of Higashiosaka in 2002, with a catch phrase ''Let's launch a satellite with small companies' technology.'' The SOHLA-1 satellite, designed to observe the formation of thunder clouds, is a prototype commercial satellite able to be mass-produced. The association will install systems necessary for operation around next fall, and aims to launch it with an H-2A rocket in fiscal 2008.

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40 bil. yen in taxpayer money misused in FY 2002

TOKYO, Japan - Board of Audit of Japan President Tsutomu Sugiura (L) presents to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Nov. 28 a fiscal 2002 audit report stating government departments and affiliates wasted or improperly used about 40 billion yen in taxpayer money, the highest sum in 20 years.

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Daihatsu to double output of commodity engines

RYUO, Japan - Daihatsu Motor Co. said June 18 it plans to turn out some 30,000 commodity engines at its newly built plant (in photo) in Ryuo, Shiga Prefecture, in fiscal 2005, double the automaker's output in fiscal 2002. The plan reflects brisk sales of lawn mowers and multi-purpose four-wheeled vehicles equipped with the engines in the United States.

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Japan's big banks fall into red for 2nd yr on bad-loan disposal

TOKYO, Japan - Executives of Resona Holdings Inc., Japan's fifth largest banking group by assets, bow at the head office of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo on May 26 before they announce an earnings report for fiscal 2002 ended March 31. The government plans to provide public funds to Resona to beef up its capital base.

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UFJ Holdings stays in red on stock losses, bad-loan disposals

TOKYO, Japan - Takeshi Sugihara, president of UFJ Holdings Inc., speaks to reporters at the head office of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo on May 26 about UFJ's earnings report for fiscal 2002 through March 31.

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NTT DoCoMo's pretax profit tops 1 tril. yen on robust sales

TOKYO, Japan - NTT DoCoMo Inc. President Keiji Tachikawa speaks to reporters in Tokyo on May 8 about the company's earnings report for fiscal 2002 ended March 31.

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Toyota posts record profit, sales for 3rd straight year

NAGOYA, Japan - Toyota Motor Corp. President Fujio Cho briefs reporters at the Nagoya Stock Exchanges on May 8 on the company's earnings report for fiscal 2002 ended in March.

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Japan's jobless rate hits record high 5.4%

TOKYO, Japan - A man browses a computer screen to try to find a job at a placement center in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on April 25 as Japan's unemployment rate for fiscal 2002 rose 0.2 percentage point from the previous year to hit a record-high 5.4%, underscoring the drive by beleaguered companies to slash jobs.

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Nissan to report record group operating profit

TOKYO, Japan - Nissan Motor Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on April 23. He said the company expects to report a record consolidated operating profit of 737 billion yen for fiscal 2002 ended in March.

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Sumitomo Mitsui cuts earnings forecast

TOKYO, April 4 Kyodo - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. Managing Director Masayuki Oku tells a news conference April 4 that the group has cut its earnings forecast for fiscal 2002 as a result of much larger losses connected to securities holdings and bad-loan assets.

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Nikkei falls below 8,000 amid war worries

TOKYO, Japan - An electronic stock board in Tokyo's Yurakucho district on March 31 shows the key Nikkei index ending below 8,000. Tokyo stocks plunged on the final day of fiscal 2002 in Japan amid growing concerns over a possible prolonged U.S.-led war against Iraq and its effects on the global economy.

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Foreign Ministry to have NGO refrain from accepting subsidies

TOKYO, Japan - Masao Toyama, head of the Japan Association for Greening Deserts, a Japanese nongovernmental organization (NGO) helping China in reforestation projects, speaks at a news conference in Tottori, western Japan, on Feb. 24. The Japanese Foreign Ministry will demand that the NGO, found to have falsified documents to receive government subsidies last year, refrain from accepting the subsidies for fiscal 2002.

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Matsushita revises down profit forecasts for fiscal 2002

TOKYO, Japan - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Executive Director Tetsuya Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 20. The consumer electronics giant revised downward its group profit forecasts for the business year to March 31, 2003, citing latent losses on its stockholdings and expenses stemming from restructuring programs at overseas subsidiaries.

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Resona foresees group net loss of 185 bil. yen for FY 2002

TOKYO, Japan - Yasuhisa Katsuta, president of Resona Holdings Inc., the holding company for Daiwa Bank and Asahi Bank, speaks at a press conference at the Bank of Japan's head office in Tokyo on Feb. 12 about a forecast for its earnings for fiscal 2002.

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FY 2002 extra budget clears lower house

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (R) and Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa bow at the plenary session of the House of Representatives on Jan. 27 after the lower house passed a supplementary budget for fiscal 2002. The budget includes measures to ease negative effects of the accelerated banking-sector cleanup.

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Mizuho announces 1 tril. yen capital increase

TOKYO, Japan - Mizuho Holdings Inc. President Terunobu Maeda tells reporters in Tokyo on Jan. 21 that the Mizuho Financial Group will boost its capital by about 1 trillion yen by the March 31 end of fiscal 2002 because it will increase its loan-loss charges.

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Shiokawa makes pitch for extra budget

TOKYO, Japan - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa delivers a fiscal policy speech to the Diet at the start of its 150-day ordinary session Jan. 20. He made a pitch for a supplementary budget for fiscal 2002.

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Mizuho in black in 1st half, expects losses for full year

TOKYO, Japan - Mizuho Holdings Inc. President Akinobu Maeda (2nd from L, front), surrounded by reporters, announces in Tokyo on Nov. 25 that his banking group returned to the black in the fiscal first half to Sept. 30 but expects losses for the full fiscal 2002 through next March 31.

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MTFG net loss nearly doubles in fiscal 1st half

TOKYO, Japan - Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. (MTFG) President Shigemitsu Miki said in Tokyo on Nov. 25 that his banking group chalked up a consolidated net loss of 188.10 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2002, nearly double that of 96.83 billion yen a year earlier.

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SMBC midyear net profit jumps 61.3%

TOKYO, Japan - Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) President Yoshifumi Nishikawa announces in Tokyo on Nov. 25 that the bank's group net profit in the first half of fiscal 2002 rose 61.3% from a year earlier, improving sharply from a 68.1% drop the previous midyear and a 463.89 billion yen full-year loss posted in fiscal 2001.

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Gov't, ruling bloc reach compromise on extra budget

TOKYO, Japan - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa speaks at a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo on Nov. 21 about a supplementary budget for fiscal 2002. Earlier in the day, the government and the ruling coalition parties agreed on the amount of public works spending to be included in the budget.

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Softbank stays in red on start-up cost for broadband service

TOKYO, Japan - Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 15. The company incurred a group net loss of 55.80 billion yen in the April-September first half of fiscal 2002, up slightly from a loss of 54.32 billion yen a year earlier. The major Internet investor said it stayed in the red for the second consecutive first-half period largely because it continued up-front spending for its broadband service.

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Hitachi group returns to black in fiscal 1st half

TOKYO, Japan - Hitachi Ltd. Vice President Yoshiki Yagi (R) speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Oct. 31. The company said its group returned to the black in the April-September first half of fiscal 2002 with a net profit of 12.85 billion yen.

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Toyota posts record group profit, sales for 1st half

NAGOYA, Japan - Toyota Motor Corp. President Fujio Cho is all smiles at a news conference in Nagoya on Oct. 30 as he announced that the Toyota group posted a net profit of 553.80 billion yen and a pretax profit of 794.03 billion yen for the April-September first half of fiscal 2002, both a record high on a half-year basis.

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Nissan expects record operating profit in 1st half

TOKYO, Japan - Nissan Motor Co. Carlos Ghosn speaks at a press conference at a hotel in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Oct. 23 about the company's midterm earnings. Ghosn said Nissan expects to post a record 348 billion yen in group operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2002 ended Sept. 30.

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Koizumi meets press after budget passes Diet

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meets the press at his official residence in Tokyo on March 27 after the fiscal 2002 general-account budget passed the Diet earlier in the day.

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(2)FY 2002 budget becomes law with upper house approval

TOKYO, Japan - House of Councillors' lawmakers vote on an austere 81.23 trillion yen general-account budget for fiscal 2002 on March 27. The budget, which passed through the House of Representatives on March 6, was also approved by the upper house.

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(3)FY 2002 budget becomes law with upper house approval

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (R, front) and Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa (L, front) bow after the House of Councillors' lawmakers voted into law an 81.23 trillion yen general-account budget for fiscal 2002 on March 27.

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FY 2002 budget becomes law with upper house approval

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (R) shakes hands with House of Councillors Budget Committee Chairman Kenji Manabe after the committee approved an austere 81.23 trillion yen general-account budget for fiscal 2002 on March 27, as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda (C) watches.

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Lower house passes FY 2002 budget

TOKYO, Japan - Members of the House of Representatives cast their votes on the government's 81.23 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2002, which begins April 1, in a plenary session late March 6. The budget cleared the lower chamber as 286 voted for, 187 voted against and seven abstained.

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Lower house panel passes FY 2002 budget bill

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (R) and Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa (L) bow to members of the House of Representatives Budget Committee on March 6 after the committee cleared the 81.23 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2002, beginning April 1, ahead of the house's plenary session, which is to pass the bill later in the evening.

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Opposition demands Suzuki testify before vote on budget

TOKYO, Japan - Leaders of four opposition parties are in talks in the Diet building Feb. 27. Seated from L to R are Takako Doi of the Social Democratic Party, Ichiro Ozawa of the Liberal Party, Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party of Japan, and Kazuo Shii of the Japanese Communist Party. They said Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Muneo Suzuki should address questions about a series of scandals before legislators vote on the fiscal 2002 budget.

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Takenaka vows turnaround in 2002 for dull economy

TOKYO, Japan - Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka delivers his economic policy speech to the House of Representatives on Feb. 4. He said the government will do its utmost to make 2002 the turning point in the decade-long economic slump.

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Gov't expects zero growth in FY 2002: Shiokawa

TOKYO, Japan - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa speaks at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Jan. 18. He said he expects the pace of Japan's economic growth to stand at zero as targeted by the government in fiscal 2002, a slight improvement from the estimated 0.1% contraction for fiscal 2001.

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Cabinet approves 81.23 tril. yen FY 2002 budget

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (C) heads into a cabinet meeting at his official residence in Tokyo on Dec. 24 to adopt an 81.23 trillion yen general account budget for fiscal 2002. At left in the background is Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa.

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FY 2002 draft budget 81.23 tril. yen, smallest in 4 years

TOKYO, Japan - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa speaks at a press conference in the Finance Ministry in Tokyo on Dec. 20 after the cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi approves the ministry's 81.23 trillion yen budget plan for fiscal 2002.

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Japan to have another belt-tightening budget

TOKYO, Japan - Finance Ministry Masajuro Shiokawa speaks at a news conference Dec. 19 after his ministry drafted an 81.23 trillion yen general-account budget for fiscal 2002, 1.7% less than the initial fiscal 2001 budget and the smallest in four years. The draft budget is to be endorsed at a cabinet meeting Dec. 20.

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Toshiba to terminate commodity DRAM business

TOKYO, Japan - Toshiba Corp. President Tadashi Okamura announces at a press conference in Toshiba's head office in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Dec. 18 that the company will pull out of commodity dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips next year in a reorganization aimed at securing profitability in its semiconductor business in fiscal 2002.

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LDP tax panel scraps plans to raise cigarette tax

TOKYO, Japan - Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) Tax System Research Commission are in session at Tokyo's Nagatacho on Dec. 12. The panel decided to scrap plans to raise taxes on cigarettes and low-malt brews known as ''happoshu'' in fiscal 2002.

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Cabinet endorses FY 2002 budget framework

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi speaks to members of the media after his cabinet endorsed a budget framework for fiscal 2002 adopted by a government panel on economic and fiscal policy Dec. 4, 2001. ''The fiscal 2002 budget is aimed at thoroughly reviewing the spending structure and boldly improving the quality under the goal of limiting the new bond issuance to 30 trillion yen,'' Koizumi said.

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Tsubasa Securities, UFJ Capital Markets to merge

TOKYO, Japan - Hirokuni Munechika (L), president of Tsubasa Securities Co., and Kimisuke Fujimoto, president of UFJ Capital Markets Securities Co., announce at a news conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Nov. 22 that the two brokerage houses agreed to merge in the first half of fiscal 2002 to reinforce management by restructuring.

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Gov't holds 1st online public tender for state-run project

TOKYO, Japan - Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi operates a personal computer during the first government-sponsored online public tender for a public works project. The ministry plans to hold about 100 such online tenders in the current fiscal year and some 2,000 in fiscal 2002 to stem bid-rigging and cut construction costs.

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Sluggish demand for int'l flights may continue: JAL chief

TOKYO, Japan - Japan Airlines President Isao Kaneko speaks at a press conference at the company's head office in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Oct. 26. He said that the decrease in the number of people flying internationally since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States may continue into fiscal 2002.

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TEPCO develops safer device for checking power lines

TOKYO, Oct. 23 Kyodo - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Oct. 23 it has developed a device that can detect the presence of an electric current in power lines without requiring physical contact with the wires. A monitor screen image shows the presence of electric current (in yellow dots) in power lines detected with the device. TEPCO expects to develop a simplified version of the new device that will be about the size of a TV remote controller by the end of fiscal 2002.

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Koizumi calls for use of auto weight tax for general account

TOKYO, Japan - Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi speaks to journalists following her meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sept. 11. Ogi said Koizumi instructed her to consider transferring revenues from the automobile weight tax, mainly used for road construction, into the government's general account as a one-year step for fiscal 2002.

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Envoy urges Koizumi to spare UNICEF in ODA cut

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (L) and Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japan's goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), shake hands at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Aug. 29. Kuroyanagi, an actress, urged Koizumi not to reduce Japan's contributions to the organization in the fiscal 2002 state budget.

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Panel sets general expenditure ceiling at 47.8 tril. yen

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Kozumi (C) attends a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Aug. 9. The government panel agreed to set the ceiling on core general expenditure in the fiscal 2002 budget at 47.8 trillion yen, down from a record-high 48.7 trillion yen in discretionary policy spending in the initial budget for the current fiscal year.

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Takenaka talks to the press

TOKYO, Japan - Economics minister Heizo Takenaka speaks at a news conference Aug. 7 after the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy agreed on ceilings on budgetary requests by ministries and agencies for fiscal 2002, including 10% cuts in official development assistance (ODA) and public works projects.

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Gov't panel calls for IT training, high-speed Internet access

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (C) addresses a government panel on information technology (IT) at his official residence on June 26. The IT Strategy Council adopted a program for fiscal 2002 that calls for more IT skills training and the promotion of Internet access in areas that have yet to enjoy the benefits of IT.