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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 19, 2012

Excuse me, but aren't you so-and-so's whatchamacallit?

According to a dispatch by the French news agency AFP, France on Feb. 21 officially banished use of the term Mademoiselle when referring to unmarried women. Henceforth, Madame will be used irrespective of marital status.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2012

Kyoto aiming to get some royals to return

When the Imperial family moved to Tokyo at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, after more than a millennium in Kyoto, many in the ancient capital were convinced the Emperor was just embarking on a long visit and would someday return.
JAPAN / QUEST FOR RECOVERY
Mar 7, 2012

Fisheries rebound at sporadic pace

On a late February afternoon, 66-year-old Masakazu Haga prepared mackerel at his new temporary fish processing compound, erected on elevated ground in the Akahama district facing Otsuchi Bay in Iwate Prefecture. The compound stands out because it's one of the few new structures in this town devastated...
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2012

ANA may boost Lufthansa venture

All Nippon Airways Co. may expand a venture with Germany's Lufthansa after greater cooperation with partners helped the Japanese carrier double transfer passengers at Narita airport.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2012

New Panasonic chief vows to chase profits

Kazuhiro Tsuga, the newly appointed president of Panasonic Corp., said Wednesday the electronics giant will pursue growth on multiple business fronts in a rational way to survive harsh global competition.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 28, 2012

Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize

The past year has been anything but business as usual for the financial industry. Faced with a frosty economic climate, financial service companies have been busy chopping dead wood. Last year, 200,000 financial service jobs ended up on the cutting block worldwide.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

Citigroup picks Bakhshi for top job

Citigroup Inc. has appointed a new head for its Japanese markets business as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit seeks to rebuild there after drawing a third bout of regulatory punishment in seven years in December.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2012

Mickey Curtis: from rocker to 'Robo-G'

The pioneers of the rock 'n' roll era on both sides of the Atlantic have now largely faded from the show-business scene — which is hardly surprising, given that those still strutting their stuff are in their 70s and 80s, and even "The King" himself, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, would be 77 today....
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2012

TV, cellphone, medical businesses key to revival: new chief

Sony Corp.'s next president and CEO, Kazuo Hirai, vowed Thursday to revive the struggling company, turn around its unprofitable TV business and focus on the mobile phone and medical equipment sectors.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2012

Like Stringer, Hirai's priority: Revive Sony TVs

Incoming Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai's biggest challenge will be to solve a puzzle that bedeviled Howard Stringer for eight years: how to make money selling televisions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2012

Warner's Ishizaka says 'exterminate' illegal downloads

Not many music-business executives compare themselves to Oda Nobunaga or Napoleon Bonaparte.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2012

Hirai Sony's new CEO; Stringer out

Sony Corp. has named Kazuo Hirai as president and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer, amid a projection for a fourth consecutive year of losses.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 31, 2012

International vs. Japanese school: Which is top of class for mixed kids?

Some readers' thoughts on the dueling Jan. 10 Zeit Gist columns by Charles Lewis ("Local Japanese school is the obvious choice if you want your child to fit in") and Lisa Jardine ("International education a triple-A investment in your child's — and Japan's — future"):
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 22, 2012

Can showbiz really sever yakuza ties?

Last August, comedian and TV emcee Shinsuke Shimada retired from show business following allegations that he'd been palling around with an underworld figure. His withdrawal came on the eve of the implementation of a well-publicized police crackdown on organizations that work with antisocial elements,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 17, 2012

Corporate Japan: woeful lack of outside directors

Japan Inc. is often criticized for its poor corporate governance, especially when it comes to monitoring how top management makes decisions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 15, 2012

Rigged online food reviews should come as no surprise

NHK has a regular travel series called "Quiz de Go," which sends TV personalities to far-flung corners of Japan and then asks them questions about the area's local qualities. Several weeks ago, three celebrities were exploring Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, and were turned on to a local delicacy called Curry-yaki....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2012

Execs' exit 'turning point' for Nomura

The resignation of two former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executives from Nomura Holdings Inc. may allow the nation's biggest brokerage to revamp a business that has stumbled since it bought assets of the failed U.S. firm in 2008.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2012

Russia's inevitable democratization

Twenty years ago, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, the Soviet Union ended, and Russia began an imperfect transition to democratic capitalism — a transition that has proven to be far more difficult than expected.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2011

SMFG eyes EU bank assets

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., the nation's second-biggest bank by market value, plans to buy "several hundred billion yen" of assets being sold by European lenders building capital to weather the region's debt crisis.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Dec 27, 2011

2011: a year of disaster in quotes

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 17, 2011

Tis the season to tell stories

The warmth of the holiday season often cooks up a nice story — a helping of good will to be served with turkey and plum pudding, osechi and omochi or whatever other delicacies might grace your international table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Nov 16, 2011

Social-gaming and traditional media no longer deadly foes

Japan's two social-game-networking giants, Gree and Mobage, have been spending enormous amounts on producing TV advertising recently, and as a result they have each attracted approximately 20 percent of the population to their services, selling vast number of virtual items. In the West it is unusual...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Nov 12, 2011

Dissent within DPJ ranks looks set to fester

Delaying the decision to take part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations by a day may have bought a little time, but experts said Friday there is no going back for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda now that he has announced Japan will participate in the free-trade talks.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2011

Age of low-cost flights

It appears that Japan is finally entering the age of low-cost flights. All Nippon Airways has set up a joint venture, Peach Aviation, with a Chinese investment fund and plans to set up another joint venture, AirAsia Japan, with AirAsia of Malaysia, a leading low-coast carrier (LCC) in Asia. Japan Airlines,...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?