Search - news

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2001

Birth of princess 'a delight' for the nation, Koizumi says

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a statement Saturday congratulating the Crown Prince and Princess on the birth of their first child, describing it as a delightful event for the Japanese people.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2001

Jobless rate hits 5.4%

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent in October, hitting a record high as more people lost jobs due to corporate restructuring, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2001

328 at Foreign Ministry penalized for fund misuse

A total of 328 Foreign Ministry officials were punished Friday for illicitly pooling more than 200 million yen in public funds, using about 160 million yen for mostly unofficial purposes over 6 1/2 years, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2001

Enron's fall would stifle liberalization: Hiranuma

The expected collapse of U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. will hinder Japan's efforts to liberalize its energy market, Takeo Hiranuma, the minister of economy, trade and industry, said Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2001

Ministry seeks early passage of consolidated tax

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday that his ministry will try to introduce a consolidated corporate tax system as early as possible in fiscal 2002 and make it retroactive to April 1.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 1, 2001

Uses for the Japanese Proficiency Test

Tomorrow, foreigners from all over the world, from China to Mars, will be sitting for the Japanese Proficiency Test.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2001

Dentsu's TSE debut makes a big splash

Dentsu Inc., the nation's largest advertising agency, registered on Friday the maximum daily allowable gain -- 50,000 yen -- to end the day at 470,000 yen on its first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2001

Elderly folks bond in makeshift cafes

Tokyo's Suginami Ward is making a name for itself as an area where senior citizens can meet at least once a month and chat over a cup of coffee, tea or cocoa at a private home or assembly hall converted into a makeshift cafe by volunteers.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2001

Justice Ministry reveals deportee's bank deposits

The Justice Ministry has revealed that about 100 million yen was deposited into a bank account of one of nine Afghan men who were denied refugee status in Japan on grounds that they lack credibility as refugees.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2001

Consolidated tax may debut after all

Facing pressure from within the government, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that the April deadline for introducing a consolidated taxation system can still be met.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2001

U.N. seeks ongoing assistance from Japan

The United Nations is seeking Japan's continued support for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and other countries, despite tight fiscal conditions, a top visiting U.N. official said Tuesday.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Nov 28, 2001

U.S. set to rebound, not Japan

Investors have taken heart from recent U.S. economic reports that show a 7.1 percent rise in retail sales in October, the strongest surge on record, and a continued fall in the number of weekly jobless claims.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 28, 2001

Indispensable designs

When you pull a foil bag of potato chips down from the shelf in the supermarket, you're usually thinking only about its contents. But when that same colorful bag is used as a cover for an art catalog, the disposable wrapping has suddenly turned into an ambiguous, sophisticated artifact.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2001

Second budget takes page from Nakasone's book

Only 10 days after the first supplementary budget was enacted, the government performed an almost acrobatic feat to finance a second extra budget for this fiscal year -- tapping the proceeds from government sales of shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2001

BOJ not mulling foreign bonds, Shiokawa reckons

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Monday he does not think the Bank of Japan is considering purchasing foreign bonds as a means of boosting liquidity in the money market.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2001

Beware quick fix for Japan

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania -- Beware of economists promising easy solutions for complex problems, in this case, Japan's painful and protracted slump following the collapse of inflated asset prices in 1989. Princeton economist Paul Krugman advises Japan's government to combat deflation by announcing official...
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2001

Koga says deal on public bodies was predictable

A leading conservative within the Liberal Democratic Party has given a public corporation reform deal reached last week between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and LDP elders a lukewarm reception.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 27, 2001

A divided isle's dramatic past

KYRENIA, Cyprus -- The wail of the muezzin drones from the high balcony of the minaret, down through the cobbled streets to the harbor and out across the water to the massive ramparts of the castle.
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2001

Japan set to jump the gun with SDF

Since the Diet enacted antiterrorism legislation enabling the Self-Defense Forces to provide logistic support to the U.S.-led war efforts in Afghanistan, there have been mounting calls in Japan for expansion of the SDF's activities abroad. These moves defy Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2001

Imperial family in readiness for arrival of baby

As the birth of the Crown Princess's baby approaches, preparations for its delivery as well as ceremonies following the birth were nearly complete as of Saturday, Imperial Household Agency sources said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 25, 2001

Only the garbage knows

One of the things all single-episode TV mysteries have in common besides being single-episode TV mysteries is ridiculous titles. The title of this week's "Monday Mystery Theatre" (TBS, 9 p.m.) is "Obasan Kaicho Murasaki no Hanzai Seiso Nikki: Gomi wa Koroshi wo Shitte Iru," which translates as "Middle-aged...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2001

Income disparity vs. growth

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded the world recently that the battle against terrorism might have displaced front-page news, but it has not solved pressing problems such as poverty and HIV/AIDS. The international community remains formally committed to the goal of reducing the level of poverty...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 25, 2001

Failed chemistry experiments in the media lab

Two weeks ago, a friend faxed me an article from the weekly news magazine Aera about a new advertising trend called "collaboration CF," which is the selling of two different companies' products in one TV commercial. I had already read about collaborations two days earlier in advertising critic Yukichi...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 25, 2001

Book Bites

TOKYO CONFIDENTIAL: Titillating Tales From Japan's Wild Weeklies, edited by Mark Schreiber. The East Publications, 2001, 257 pp., 1,400 yen (paper) Grown men in diapers? Couples going all the way in the back seats of Tokyo taxi cabs? Mothers stalking their daughters? Companies that rent out wedding guests?...
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2001

Macchinesti: the accidental Ferrari of coffee shops

After the Japanese "kissaten," where coffee was coffee and not a lot more, came Doutor. Then came that all-conquering import, Starbucks, and a stream of similar lifestyle-focused camp followers of both American and Japanese descent. Now, suddenly, we have Macchinesti.
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2001

BOJ urges banks to clarify outlooks

Banks should promptly clarify their business outlooks for the financial market to help them pull out of their bad-loan straits, a senior Bank of Japan official said during a recent interview with Kyodo News.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2001

Putin seizes the moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a very lucky man. Instead of running a Russian spy network in some sleepy Central European country, as his training and career once suggested he would, he skyrocketed to the top position in the Kremlin. There, inexperienced and vulnerable, he faced not the consolidated...

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