Search - category

 
 
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2006

Unfinished business for women

Twenty years after the much heralded gender-equality law went into effect in Japan, women still face discrimination in the workplace -- in ways less apparent but just as effective in limiting their promotional opportunities and so also widening the wage gap with male colleagues.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Ministry fights court disclosure order

The Foreign Ministry filed an appeal Monday with the Tokyo High Court over a lower court ruling that rescinded a 2001 ministry rejection of a citizen group's request for the disclosure of documents on discretionary diplomatic funds, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2006

How will delisting impact Livedoor?

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will delist Livedoor Co. on April 14, depriving the Internet company of the ability to raise capital on the market. How will the move affect Livedoor? Here are some questions and answers that address the firm's possible fate:
MORE SPORTS
Mar 1, 2006

Injured Inoue to return to action in early April

Japanese heavyweight judoka Kosei Inoue said Tuesday he plans to return from an injury layoff at the national weight-class championships on April 2.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 25, 2006

Software aids communication in cultural context

Nils Plett, president and CEO of QE Tech, is tall. While angling my camera skyward to get his picture, walking alongside requires two steps to his every stride.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2006

Confidential MSDF info leaked on Internet via Winny

Confidential information from the Maritime Self-Defense Force has been leaked on the Internet via the peer-to-peer file-sharing program Winny, the MSDF said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2006

Tokyo department store sales inch up

Department store sales in Tokyo edged up 0.1 percent in January from a year before to E64.60 billion for the third consecutive monthly rise, thanks in part to a cold wave early in the month that helped move winter clothing, an industry group said Tuesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2006

Japan Times wins award for animal rights coverage

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) today announced that The Japan Times is this year's winner of its prestigious International Genesis Award, given in recognition of its Nov. 30, 2005 "breakthrough expose" headlined: " 'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests."
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

Asahi taps subsidiary head in bid to keep suds on top

Asahi Breweries Ltd. said Friday it had named Hitoshi Ogita, president of Asahi Soft Drinks Co., to replace President Koichi Ikeda, as the country's top brewer faces growing pressure from rival Kirin Brewery Co.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2006

Premium beers carve market niche

Breweries have watched beer drinkers defect to cheaper brews in recent years, but now they are beginning to see a small but growing group of consumers willing to pay more for premium beers.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 1, 2006

Asada accepts top athlete award from FSAJ

Figure skater Mao Asada smiles after accepting the 2005 Japanese sportsman of the year award, given by the Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan, from Japan Times sports editor and FSAJ president Jack Gallagher.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2006

Tokyo police raid firm importing inhalant drugs

The health ministry filed a criminal complaint Monday against a Tokyo importer for selling a drug that has similar effects to illegal ones, ministry officials said.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2006

A band that plays along with the joke

Test Icicles have been in Japan for less than 24 hours, and nearly a quarter of that has been spent talking to journalists. Rory Atwell, the band's eldest member at the ripe old age of 25, is still somewhat game, but his younger bandmates, both just 20 years old, have a different agenda. Devonte Hynes,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2006

Saving our environment one step at a time

Having ended 2005 with a rant (see below), let me begin 2006 on a more positive note by introducing some valuable environmental education resources.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2006

Cold weather cools beer shipments

Shipments of beer and beerlike alcoholic beverages by the top five breweries fell 3.1 percent in 2005 for the first decline in two years due to the colder than usual winter, industry figures showed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2006

Importer of 'illegal' drug faces sanction

The health ministry will file a criminal complaint against a Tokyo-based importer for allegedly selling a chemical whose effect is similar to that of illegal drugs, ministry officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2006

Deal harms Indian interests

NEW DELHI -- A real problem of an ever-shifting goal post has cast a cloud over America's current negotiations with India to implement a much-heralded nuclear deal that is supposed to showcase the emerging global partnership between the world's most powerful and most populous democracies. Seeking to...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2005

Is hiking taxes the solution to Japan's fiscal mess?

The nation has no choice but to make salaried workers pay more taxes to put its finances in order.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2005

Law eyed to govern sales of high-risk investment tools

A key advisory panel to the government has completed a report on legislative recommendations for clauses in an envisioned comprehensive law to govern sales methods for high-risk investment tools.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2005

Nissan woos women with curvy new sedans

In an effort to attract new female drivers, Nissan Motor Co. on Wednesday unveiled a revamped Bluebird Sylphy sedan aimed specifically at the needs of women in their 40s.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2005

Tax breaks may soon be pulled; hikes eyed

The ruling coalition Thursday recommended scrapping income, residential and corporate tax breaks and raising liquor and tobacco levies in its reform proposals for fiscal 2006, and agreed to discuss a possible consumption tax increase for fiscal 2007.
Features
Dec 11, 2005

The 'undigested other': Koreans in Japan

Few parents would voluntarily send a son to live in North Korea; Kongsun Yang sent all three of his. In the early 1970s, Yang waved goodbye to his young Osaka-born boys, who later married and started families in Pyongyang. Poor and unhappy, the sons survive today only thanks to support from their parents...
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2005

Panel eyes death of 1999 tax cuts

The Tax Commission plans to recommend in its fiscal 2006 tax reform proposals that the government abolish the 1999 income tax cuts at both national and local levels in January 2007, and some corporate tax cuts as scheduled in March, Commission Chairman Hiromitsu Ishi said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2005

Best of friends kick up a storm in the fun house

Nothing frustrates a music critic more than a band that refuses categorization. Lots of bands, intoxicated with their own creativity, might make the claim. Not many, after a few records, resist a formula or a style that isn't easily pigeonholed in a pithy phrase or two.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 13, 2005

Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche

Awarding this year's Nobel Prize in literature to British playwright Harold Pinter is giving the recipient an opportunity to mount a stage of enormous proportions, and his acceptance speech in Stockholm next month may be the most provocative, fiery and influential address ever given on this august occasion....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 12, 2005

Beckham's glamour image at heart of debate on his talent

LONDON -- David Beckham captains England for the 50th time against Argentina in a friendly in Geneva on Saturday with, in many respects, the jury still out on the Real Madrid midfielder.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2005

IT, R&D tax breaks may be eliminated in March

A Tax Commission subcommittee agreed Friday that some of the government's corporate tax breaks should be abolished as planned next March because the economy seems to be recovering.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2005

Beer, suds wannabe sales rise 2.5%

Shipments of beer and beerlike alcoholic beverages from the five major domestic brewers rose 2.5 percent in October from a year earlier for the third straight year-on-year increase as higher temperatures stimulated demand, industry groups said Friday.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami