Search - business

 
 
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 7, 2009

Prosecutors boast clout, success

Prosecutors are legal professionals who work for the state and represent the public interest. They have the authority to investigate any crime and indict and try alleged offenders.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 6, 2009

Demand-supply gap is driving Japan's precipitous slide

The Japanese economy is stuck in a tailspin. With industrial output sinking 10.2 percent in January and 9.4 percent in February, economic activity could drop to half in another six months.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2009

Two decades past Poland's 'compromise'

WARSAW — "Poland — ten years, Hungary — ten months, East Germany — ten weeks, Czechoslovakia — ten days."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 5, 2009

Gender-bender drama, 'Three Kingdoms' spinoff anime, little-known big biz

In Japan, the term "new half" usually refers to a man who becomes a woman through some sort of medical procedure, but on the new daytime drama series, "Mama wa New Half" ("Mom is a New Half") (TV Tokyo, Mon.-Fri., 1 p.m.) it simply describes a man who performs in drag at a special "new-half pub" in Tokyo....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 5, 2009

Dead ends, about turns abound in the politics of roads

About a year ago, the government was all in a lather about extending the gasoline tax. Local governments and the ruling coalition, not to mention interested bureaucracies, wanted to continue the tax because they said the revenues were necessary to build more roads. Opposition parties were against the...
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2009

NATO at 60 faces growing pains that could threaten its survival

LONDON — The questions that nobody will ask out loud about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: How much is enough?
Reader Mail
Apr 5, 2009

Root of immigration problem

The March 26 article "Immigration reforms spell Big Brother, JFBA warns" was an eye opener. The latest immigration bill before the Diet appears to criminalize the good while in pursuit of the bad. If a foreigner does not carry the new ID card, he or she might have to pay a ¥200,000 fine — which could...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 5, 2009

The hostess club with the mostest AV stars

The job of a typical club hostess is to jovially engage in simple chat, pour cocktails and attend to any unlit cigarettes for her male patron. Yet it will not be long before his topics of conversation drift from simple pleasantries to more intimate inquiries — an uncomfortable yet obligatory duty for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 5, 2009

Gates, gardens and . . . war

"Ohayoooo gozaimasu!" I greeted my 22-year-old nephew, Chris, using my foot to nudge him awake on the first morning of his 10-day visit to Japan. "What do you say we walk around Ginza?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2009

'The Bank'

"The Bank" is not only sleek and terrific to look at, it's an action film with a heart. It cares about things like the global economy, rages over the evil-doings of corrupt conglomerates and sheds tears over the collapse of Third World governments. No wonder the lead character, Interpol agent Louis Salinger...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2009

Winning 'doshusei' slogans unveiled

Slogans submitted by the public and designed to promote the proposed "doshusei" reorganization of the local administrative system were unveiled Thursday by the Keizai Koho Center, a public relations arm of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren).
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2009

Incentives help Toyota fare better than expected in U.S.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. sales fell less than analysts predicted last month, as the world's largest carmaker offered near-record incentives to spur demand.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2009

Nonbank giant Orix seeking state loans

Orix Corp., Japan's biggest nonbank lender, is borrowing from the government as more loans to real estate companies turn bad and the cost of selling bonds rises.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2009

Axed Brazilians, Peruvians to be paid to leave Japan

The government began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials say poses a serious unemployment problem.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2009

Will pay gap at Nomura go toxic?

Nomura Holdings Inc. is paying college graduates originally recruited by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. more than twice as much as those it hired on its own, two sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2009

Hubris paved way to crisis

PRINCETON, New Jersey — To understand how we got ourselves into our current economic mess, complicated explanations about derivatives, regulatory failure, and so on are beside the point. The best answer is both ancient and simple: hubris.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2009

Poor economy impacts land prices

A survey of land prices by the land and infrastructure ministry made public March 23 shows that the global recession has caused a general decline in demand for land throughout Japan. As of Jan. 1, commercial land prices fell by an average 4.7 percent and residential land prices by an average 3.2 percent...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SOUTH KOREAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Apr 1, 2009

Worldwide recession exposes cracks in South Korean society

The continuing decline of the middle class and increase in the ranks of the poor threaten to exacerbate South Korea's demographic woes, Kim Dong Seop, an editorial writer for the Chonsun Ilbo daily, told the March 13 symposium.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2009

Aso orders new stimulus, extra budget

Prime Minister Taro Aso ordered the government Tuesday to come up with a new set of economic measures, including the drafting of an extra budget, aimed at digging the economy out of recession.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past