search

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

Corporate revitalization body rolls up its sleeves

The Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan, the government's latest attempt to deal with the nation's bad-loan mess and resuscitate ailing companies, launched full-blown operations Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 9, 2003

Le Jardin: The fine art of museum dining

What could be more cultured and civilized -- indeed more pleasurable -- than to spend the morning strolling around a good museum and then, with legs aching and aesthetic senses saturated, to adjourn from exhibition hall to adjoining restaurant for a leisurely lunch? Especially when the cuisine is sophisticated...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2003

Kokuyo swings back into black

Office supplies maker Kokuyo Co. said Thursday it swung back into the black in fiscal 2002, posting a group net profit of 231 million yen against a loss of 1.42 billion yen the previous year.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2003

Mr. Blair's vote of confidence

In his first political test after the Iraq war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has fared well. His Labour Party suffered larger than expected losses in local elections last week, but such votes are usually protests against the party in power. The prime minister benefits from a weak opposition. Mr....
MORE SPORTS
May 8, 2003

NFL plans Tokyo visit

The Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on the New York Jets on Aug. 2 at Tokyo Dome in the NFL Tokyo 2003, the game's organizers announced Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Yamaha Motor triples its net profit

Yamaha Motor Co. scored a record group net profit of 25.56 billion yen for the year through March, up roughly threefold from the previous year, the company said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Shell ink oil, gas deal

Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corp. and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of the Netherlands have agreed to invest $10 billion, or about 1.2 trillion yen, over five years in a joint oil and gas development project in Russia, company officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Shiseido shoots back to black, record earnings

Shiseido Co. not only returned to profitability for the first time in three years in fiscal 2002 but also logged record earnings thanks to strong overseas sales and cost-cutting efforts, the company said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

METI to open 10 youth job centers in '03

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to open 10 youth job-placement centers by the end of the current fiscal year, ministry officials said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2003

A clear answer is demanded

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pulled the plug on Northern Ireland's local elections in an atEtempt to preserve the province's battered peace process. His decision makes sense, but it is indicaEtive of the desperate straits into which supporters of the Good Friday accords have fallen. The fault...
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2003

Positioning for the next crisis

In my last column in late April, I treated critically the transformation of America's foreign policy between the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war against Iraq, focusing on the unilateralist policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. At the end of that column, I gave...
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Experts urge financial firms to publicize internal rules

A group of experts called on financial firms Wednesday to disclose their self-imposed business rules, saying they may serve as barriers to prospective financial-sector entrants.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 8, 2003

Watanabe his own man -- but honors father's role

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Yoshimi Watanabe is an exception to the rule when it comes to discussing his political roots.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Prudential sells securities subsidiary

Prudential Financial Inc. has withdrawn from Japan's retail securities business, selling its subsidiary, Prudential Financial Advisors Securities Co., company sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 8, 2003

More breathing space in the classroom

Last month, just before the new school year started in Japan, I ran into a neighbor at the supermarket. She's a bit high-strung and gets worked up over school matters, so I try to avoid her. But she collared me by the cabbages and dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. "Have you heard? The Suzukis...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 8, 2003

Ethicists bid to unscramble egg argument

It's often been said that philosophy lags behind science. Bertrand Russell's "The ABC of Relativity," for example, was published in 1926, 21 years after Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 8, 2003

O-soji: the way of the Japanese housewife

A lot of things baffled when I attended a Japanese school for the first time at the age of 14. Lot's of things baffled me, but the custom of soji -- or cleaning -- of the classroom and school buildings everyday after the last bell, seemed outrageous.
ENVIRONMENT
May 8, 2003

Emerging specialty puts focus on the 'green' way cities could be

Cities appeared relatively late in human history, and have gradually evolved over five millennia to support complex economic, political, religious, academic and military organizations and hierarchies. However, their concentration of wealth, talent and creativity that breeds cultural and scientific innovation...
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Power Rangers help boost Bandai's profit

Bandai Co., Japan's top toy maker, on Wednesday reported a 19 percent increase in group net profit for the year through March, with an army of characters such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Power Rangers beating the nation's deflationary trend.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
May 8, 2003

Sony's own silver lining

With all of the big games that have come out lately, it's hard to keep up.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 8, 2003

Shoppers' power coming to the aid of sustainable development

Few environmentalists or economists doubt that the G-7 must take an active role in promoting environmental protection and economic prosperity in the developing world. To date, however, though the G-7 nations -- the economic powers of the developed North -- have dispensed substantial aid to the developing...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 8, 2003

Japanese weasel

* Japanese name: Nihon itachi * Scientific name: Mustela itatsi * Description: Japanese weasels are fairly small mammals in the mustelid family (a large family of animals that includes otters, badgers, stoats, polecats, martens and skunks). Males are 29-37 cm long, females 20-26 cm. The fur is an orange-brown...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

Japan Post to create model offices in bid to reform

Japan Post will try to improve its operations by creating 12 model post offices around the country so employees at its 24,000 outlets can learn about cost-cutting measures and improving productivity, Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said in a recent interview.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

U.S. court dismisses Furukawa suit

A U.S. federal district court has dismissed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Furukawa Electric Co. because the case was outside its jurisdiction, the company said Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
May 7, 2003

Shimadzu enjoys fruits of research and development program

If he had been a researcher at a major Japanese university, Koichi Tanaka could not have won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers