Kuriko Miyake

NTT DoCoMo Inc. will start offering streaming video next week for its 3G (third-generation) mobile service, which was launched last month, the company announced Wednesday.

First it was a telephone that became smaller and mobile, allowing users to send e-mail and play games in addition to making phone calls. Now watch makers are getting into the game, adding technologies to their products that allow users to communicate while on the move, find directions while hiking, and log on to their PCs.

Fujitsu Ltd. announced Wednesday it would lay off 4,600 workers as the company reported its first-ever loss and said financial losses for its 2001 fiscal year would exceed forecasts. The layoffs come on top of 16,400 staff cuts announced by Fujitsu in August.

Hitachi Ltd., one of Japan's leading electric device makers, is to lay off 3,100 staff as it restructures its semiconductor division, aiming to bring it back into profit by the next fiscal year, the company announced Friday.

Sharp Corp., TDK Corp. and a Japanese government agency have developed a low-cost technology that, researchers say, allows a 12-centimetre optical disk to hold 25 times more data than a 4.7G-byte DVD disk.

Sharp Corp., TDK Corp. and a Japanese government agency have developed a low-cost technology that, researchers say, allows a 12-centimeter optical disk to hold 25 times more data than a 4.7G-byte DVD disk.

Sharp Corp., TDK Corp. and a Japanese government agency have developed a low-cost technology that, researchers say, allows a 12-centimetre optical disk to hold 25 times more data than a 4.7G-byte DVD disk.

The total number of mobile phone subscribers in Japan passed 70 million as of the end of August while the use of wireless Internet services grew to represent two-thirds of all users, according to the Telecommunications Carriers Association.