Japan Computer Industry Scan articles from March 2002

Japan Computer Industry Scan archives from March 2002

IBM Japan's group sales up 3.9% to record high in 2001.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 25 Kyodo IBM Japan Ltd. said Monday its group sales for the business year to Dec. 31, 2001 rose 3.9% from the previous year to a record 1,707.5 billion yen, bolstered by brisk performance in information systems and other...

Thomson to launch automated English test service in March.
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 26 Kyodo Thomson Corp. said Tuesday it will launch an automated English language test service in March that measures a person's ability in spoken English just by talking on the telephone for five to 10 minutes. The test,...

Nihon Unisys closes attractive retirement program on 1st day.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 26 Kyodo Nihon Unisys Ltd. closed an early retirement program on Tuesday as applicant numbers exceeded its target on the first day in response to attractive retirement benefits, the information system company said. With...

Crimes linked to Internet dating services up 8.5 times: NPA.
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 28 Kyodo The number of nationwide crimes linked to Internet dating-service sites in 2001 increased 8.5-fold over the past year to 888 cases, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday. According to the NPA, the most...

METI revises down PC output data for 12 yrs due to error.
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 28 Kyodo The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said Thursday it has revised down output data on personal computers (PCs) for the past 12 years, including a 21.0% cut for the year 2001, due to a data error. A...

METI to submit bill to regulate junk e-mail.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, Feb. 28 Kyodo The government will decide at a cabinet meeting Friday to submit to the ongoing Diet session a bill to regulate unsolicited commercial e-mail, the vice industry minister said Thursday. The bill, devised by the...

Labor ministry to launch mobile phone job listing March 7.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, March 1 Kyodo The Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry said Friday it will expand its Internet-based job listing service and make the data bank available to mobile phone users beginning March 7. The ''Job-net.jp'' data bank,...

Yahoo Japan to charge fees for Internet auction service.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2002... TOKYO, March 1 Kyodo Yahoo Japan Corp., Japan's top Internet portal, said Friday it will introduce a new fee schedule for its online auction service starting April 15. Currently, users pay a monthly fee of 280 yen for the service. ...

Defective Microsoft Xbox consoles found in Japan.
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 5 Kyodo Microsoft Corp. has repaired or replaced defective parts in Xbox game consoles at customers' request after they were found to have damaged game disks, officials at the Japanese unit of the U.S. software giant said...

METI drafts legal guidelines on e-commerce.(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 5 Kyodo The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said Tuesday it has drafted guidelines on how the Commercial Code and other laws should be applied to the growing field of e-commerce. The move to draft the...

Sharp eyeing sales of 1 mil. Zaurus units by starting exports.(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... OSAKA, March 5 Kyodo Sharp Corp. will begin exporting its Zaurus personal digital assistant (PDA) in an effort boost sales to 1 million units in the coming year, a company spokesman said Tuesday. Currently, Sharp sells nearly 300,000...

Corporate capital spending marks 1st drop in 2 yrs.(Statistical Data Included)
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 6 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING DETAILS, COMMENTS) Capital spending by Japanese companies fell an unadjusted 14.5% in the October-December quarter from a year earlier on an all-industry basis, the first drop in two years, the...

Canon to close Mexico plant.(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 6 Kyodo Canon Inc. said Wednesday it will shut down and liquidate an k-jet printer factory in Mexico by the end of May in order to improve efficiency in the ink-jet printer business. The closure of the Mexican plant will...

2001 computer printer market shrinks for 1st time since '94.(Japan's computer printer market)(Statistical Data Included)
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 7 Kyodo Japan's computer printer market shrank in 2001 for the first time since 1994, with shipments down 5.8% from the year before to 7.73 million units and value down 11.1% to 405.1 billion yen, Gartner Japan Ltd., an...

Itochu raises stake in Internet portal Excite Japan to 80.66%.(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 7 Kyodo Trading house Itochu Corp. said Thursday it has raised its stake in Excite Japan Co., a leading Internet portal, from 19.98% to 80.66% to bolster its Internet strategy. Itochu said it bought the additional stake...

NHK allowed up to 1 bil. yen a year worth of Net services.
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 8 Kyodo The telecom ministry said Friday the budgetary scope of Internet operations by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) should be limited to around 1 billion yen a year. The policy is part of guidelines on NHK's Internet...

Retailers suspend sales of Microsoft Xbox consoles.
March 11, 2002... TOKYO, March 8 Kyodo Two major consumer electronics retailers based in Tokyo have suspended the sales of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox game consoles after receiving complaints from consumers that they damage game disks, officials of the two...

Laox, Sakuraya resume sales of Microsoft Xbox consoles.(Brief Article)
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 11 Kyodo Tokyo-based major consumer electronics retailers Laox Co. and Sakuraya Co. have resumed sales of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video game consoles after a brief suspension resulting from massive customer complaints that...

Int'l groups eyeing trust seal system for online shopping.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 12 Kyodo Online business-related organizations in seven nations and territories have begun preparations to create a system for issuing a seal to trustworthy business sites on the Internet, Japanese officials involved in the...

S&P raises ratings on Canon on solid financial performance.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo Standard & Poor's Corp. (S&P) said Wednesday it has raised its long-term ratings on Canon Inc. to AA-minus from A-plus with a stable outlook and its short-term ratings to A-1-plus from A-1. The move reflects...

20% of servers at Japan firms face hacking risk: group.(Brief Article)
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo About 20% of Internet servers in Japanese companies use deficient software that exposes them to hacker attacks, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization said Wednesday. The Network Risk-Management Association said...

Mitsui, Sun to help municipalities with 'e-Japan' plan.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute and a Japanese arm of Sun Microsystems Inc. of the United States said Wednesday they will soon begin offering local governments a service to help them create an...

Gov't panel recommends wider use of IC cards.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo An advisory panel to the telecom minister recommended Wednesday that the government facilitate the wider use of IC cards in Japanese society. The information and telecommunications council made the...

FOCUS: E-books becoming more popular with Japanese readers.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 15 Kyodo The market for electronic books, or e-books, is growing in Japan and opening up new opportunities for the nation's struggling publishing industry. A home page on Sharp Corp.'s personal digital assistant (PDA)...

Japan, U.S. fail to narrow gaps on steel tariff issue.
March 18, 2002... WASHINGTON, March 14 Kyodo Japan and the United States failed Thursday to narrow gaps on the issue of planned U.S. steel import tariffs, raising the possibility of Japan bringing the case to the World Trade Organization (WTO). At...

Ex-Microsoft exec accused of tax evasion.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 15 Kyodo The Kanto Shinetsu Regional Taxation Bureau has filed a criminal complaint of tax evasion against a former managing director of Microsoft Co., the Japanese subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. of the United States,...

KDDI eyes cutting interest-bearing debts to 1 tril. yen.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 15 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INFO) KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest telecom carrier, announced a fresh three-year business program Friday calling for a cut in its interest-bearing debts from the current 1.79...

10% of 2nd-year junior high students have seen Net porn sites.
March 18, 2002... TOKYO, March 15 Kyodo About 48% of second-year junior high school students know there are sexually explicit sites on the Internet and 10% have actually seen them, according to a survey by a Japanese parents and teachers association...

Gov't eyes simpler administrative works by IT.
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo The government decided Sunday to launch a structural reform program to streamline and integrate the administrative work of central and local governments using information technology (IT), government sources said....

Seiko confirms unloading part of stake in Seiko Epson.
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTING WITH SEIKO CONFIRMATION) Seiko Corp. said Monday it is considering selling part of its equity stake in Seiko Epson Corp. by the end of this month, confirming earlier news reports. ''We've...

Japan to host computer security forum for Asia-Pacific.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo Japan's computer virus response team will organize a three-day forum from Sunday to establish coordination in the Asia-Pacific region to counter computer security attacks, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and...

88% say E-learning's advantage is doing it any place, time.
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 19 Kyodo Nearly 90% of company employees responding to a survey released Tuesday by Gartner Japan Ltd. said the merit of E-learning is that it can be done anywhere at any time. The survey polled 1,300 company employees in...

Apple to up iMac desktop price by 20,000 yen in Japan.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 21 Kyodo Apple Computer Inc. is raising the price of its three new flat-panel iMac desktops by 20,000 yen in Japan, Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said Thursday. The price hike brought the suggested retail...

New computer virus disguised as virus-free message reported.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... TOKYO, March 22 Kyodo A new computer virus, which gives the impression that e-mail through which it is sent has been checked by anti-virus software, has been detected in Japan, computer software companies said Friday. According to...