Search - real_estate

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2008

Plugging U.S. equity leaks

MUNICH — With pain and misgiving, the U.S. Congress has bailed out Wall Street to prevent a meltdown of America's financial system. But the $700 billion to be used may flow into a leaky bucket, and so may the billions provided by governments throughout the world.
BUSINESS
Oct 15, 2008

AFLAC good match for Alico Japan: Amos

AFLAC Inc., the world's largest seller of supplemental health insurance, may bid for American International Group Inc.'s Alico Japan life insurance unit, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Amos said.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2008

'Pumping station' or bust

Last week I discussed two key points in dealing with the U.S. financial crisis: The first was that U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's plan to buy up bad assets is not the priority; a liquidity facility is. The second was that a "wolf-pack" psychology will prevail without a "pumping station" of liquidity...
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2008

The Japanese knack for choking in a slump

Japan used to be held up in the United States as a model example, both of efficient economic management and efficient enterprise management. That economic management image disappeared with the "bubble" burst of the early 1990s.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2008

Lehman in talks to sell off Japan equity, assets

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is in talks to sell some Japan assets to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. in an effort to save its 1,300-employee operation, three people familiar with the matter said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2008

Guide maker blazes trail to success

When Yasuyo Fukui decided to start her own company 11 years ago, she was an inventor, not an entrepreneur.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2008

Bank lending growth stalls as bankruptcies rise

Lending growth at banks failed to accelerate for the second straight month in August as the economy moved closer to a recession and rising bankruptcies among real-estate companies forced banks to cut earnings forecasts, Bank of Japan data showed Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2008

MUFG denies report of bid for controlling stake in Lehman

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest bank, denied a report it is considering entering the bidding for a stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2008

Rapidly aging Japan faces yet another shortage: crematoriums

Japan's rapidly aging society is forecast to lead to shortfalls in young people, workers and tax revenues. Add to that another shortage: crematoriums.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2008

METI plans to raise ¥100 billion from Middle East SWFs

Japan plans to raise as much as ¥100 billion from sovereign wealth funds in oil-producing nations to boost foreign investment that is less than a quarter that of the United States.
Reader Mail
Aug 31, 2008

What does the government mean?

The news that the Japanese government is making "every conceivable effort" to eliminate racial discrimination makes me wonder -- as a foreigner who has lived in Japan for more than six years -- what the word "conceivable" means.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2008

Housing starts rise at last but caution persists

Housing starts rose for the first time since June 2007, government data showed Friday in a sign that the world's second-largest economy is recovering from the building slump driven by a change in construction regulations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 29, 2008

Are young people today more disrespectful or rebellious than their parents were?

Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2008

Horie's 30-month prison term upheld

The Tokyo High Court rejected Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie's appeal Friday and upheld his 2 1/2-year prison term for falsifying financial statements and violating the Securities and Exchange Law, describing the defendant as "lacking dignity."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 19, 2008

A well-armed goddess

On July 2, at the lowest tide of the year, my neighbors and I prayed to the goddess of the sea. The islanders call her Benten (also known as Benzaiten), and she lives on her own special island, just off the coast of Shiraishi Island. Here she convenes with the sea and brings us luck, prosperity (well,...
LIFE / Language
Jul 15, 2008

Learn katakana properly or face full-frontal nudity

I have never understood why Japanese people generally assume that words in katakana, the angular syllabary, are easier for nonnative speakers to master than words in hiragana, the rounded syllabary.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Q&A
Jul 12, 2008

Steady now: quick tips on quake preparation

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan. Only one month ago, a 7.2-magnitude temblor and a number of aftershocks struck the Tohoku region, killing 13 in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures and leaving 10 still listed as missing in Miyagi and Akita prefectures.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2008

Cross-strait relations take off

The Taiwan Strait shrank last week as China and Taiwan began the first regularly scheduled nonstop flights between them. The flights will boost the Taiwanese economy and facilitate ties between the island and the mainland. Most important, however, they will give ordinary citizens on both sides of the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 5, 2008

Deja vu . . . or biting the bullet train

They say deja vu occurs when your brain burps and somehow interprets what is happening now as a memory.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan