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EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2009

Seizing opportunites to expand

The current global economic downturn is deepening as the twice-yearly World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund indicates. While it predicts that the world economy will grow by 0.5 percent in 2009, down from the 2.2 percent forecast earlier, the outlook for developed countries is bleaker....
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2009

Consumption amid constraints

During the period of Japan's rapid economic growth — from 1958 to 1973 — the three items that households yearned for most were a black-and-white TV set, washing machine and refrigerator. By 1965, when more than 80 percent of households had these items, the next targets for purchase were a color TV,...
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2009

Machinery orders off a third month

Orders for machinery fell for a third month in December as businesses scrapped investment plans amid a collapse in exports and deteriorating earnings.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 24, 2009

Poor beginnings help nurture get-up-and-go

Natalia Roschina feels frustrated. Frustrated at complaints about a bad economy and frustrated at people not taking the initiative to better their situation. Instead of dwelling on the dismal state of economic affairs, the entrepreneur wants to lead by example, improving herself, growing her business,...
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2009

Toyoda family scion got to the top fair and square

Akio Toyoda, 52, heir apparent to Japan's biggest automaker, may have the founding family's blood running through his veins but was not spoiled in any way as he steadily climbed the corporate ladder, a journalist said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2009

Temps in manufacturing: Safety valve, but no net

A day before Christmas, temporary worker Yoshinori Sato, 49, received his dismissal notice from Isuzu Motor Co.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 18, 2009

Dialing up the decider one last time before he leaves the Oval Office

With only days left in office for the 43rd president of the United States of America, George W. Bush, I decided, on a lark — or a duck, if you will — to Skype the soon to be ex-commander in chief to find out what preoccupies his thoughts as he bids us a solemn farewell. I want to share this very...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2009

Househusband not such a bad gig, one-third of men say

Nearly a third of married men would not mind being househusbands, according to a recent survey by the Housework Aptitude Test executive committee.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 13, 2009

Bloated bureaucracy exposed

A common joke among some foreigners here is that everything makes sense once you realize Japan is a communist country. However, the role of privileged ruling Communist Party (or, if you have a literary bent, the pigs in George Orwell's socialist parable "Animal Farm") is played not by the perpetual opposition...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2009

Lessons of the credit crunch

The credit crunch and the deepening recession have provided church leaders, politicians, economists, journalists and armchair philosophers with a good excuse for moralizing and for expounding their views on what happened, why it occurred and what to do to prevent a recurrence.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2009

Cars no longer coveted by young

To get around the city, Yutaka Makino hops on his skateboard or takes the trains. Does he dream of the day when he owns his own car? Not a chance.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2008

Record output fall raises alarms

The recession deepened in November as companies cut production at the fastest pace in 55 years and rising unemployment prompted households to pare spending.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2008

Fuji Heavy widens output cut plan

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., maker of Subaru cars, said it will expand domestic production cuts in February and March as the global economic downturn cools auto demand.
JAPAN / Q&A
Dec 25, 2008

Temps a threatened species as job cuts bite

Last of two parts
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2008

Isuzu grants a Christmas gift to 550 temps due for layoff

Major truck manufacturer Isuzu Motors Ltd. announced Wednesday it won't cancel the contracts for about 550 seasonal workers after all.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2008

Cabinet OKs monster '09 budget

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ¥88.55 trillion budget for fiscal 2009 that puts priority on sustaining the economy, but Japan's biggest spending plan in history drew tepid reactions from several economists.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2008

Scenic cliffs drawing suicidal idled part-timers

An increasing number of part-time workers thrown out of their jobs because of the recession and with nowhere else to go are heading to Tojinbo, a popular sightseeing destination — and suicide spot — in Fukui Prefecture, according to a local nonprofit organization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 7, 2008

Tadao Ando: Icon and iconoclast

One of the first houses built by Japan's most famous architect, Tadao Ando, is centered around an open atrium. That sounds nice until you realize that the atrium forms the only "corridor" between each of the rooms. Fancy a hot cup of tea before bed on a rainy winter's night? You'll need an umbrella and...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2008

Letting the Big Three fail risks a meltdown

WASHINGTON — The financial crisis that began in 2007 has been persistently marked by muddled thinking and haphazard policymaking. Now, the U.S. Treasury is headed for a mistake of historic and catastrophic proportions by refusing to bail out America's Big Three automakers.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2008

Sticky details of Obama's clean-energy plan

SINGAPORE — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is coming to power on a torrent of promises and high expectations. Yet as recession bites deeper into the world's biggest economy, investment slumps, jobs are lost, tax revenues fall, and the U.S. budget deficit grows ever larger. It is expected to more...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 14, 2008

Japanese women in the wine world

"A man's approach to drinking is totally different from a woman's: Men think about color, what grapes were used, compare the taste and consider its place of origin. Women think about what kind of food a wine will go well with, where we might like to drink it, the kind of company it'd be good to drink...

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building