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JAPAN
Jul 26, 2006

Life spans decrease for first time in six years; women still top world

ranking due to the special factor (of influenza), but the long-term trend of Japanese people's average life span has not changed," a ministry official said. In 2004, life expectancy was 85.59 years for Japanese women and 78.64 years for men -- both record highs.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2006

Four life insurers to raise dividends

Four major Japanese life insurers plan to raise dividends for individual policyholders for fiscal 2005 for the second straight year, sources at the firms said Wednesday.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 19, 2006

Take note of how to sort out your life

Despite working late every day, Yukihiro Misawa always felt he wasn't getting enough done.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006

Women writers opened window on Heian life

OBJECTS OF DISCOURSE: Memoirs of Women of Heian Japan, by John R. Wallace. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2005, 326 pp., with VII illustrations, $65 (cloth). The four major court memoirs written in the late 10th and early 11th century are the "Kagero nikki" (translated...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Crown Prince recalls his life at Oxford University

THE THAMES AND I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford, by the Crown Prince of Japan, translated by Hugh Cortazzi. Global Oriental, 150 pp., 2006, £30 (cloth). "Thames and I" by the Crown Prince is a detailed account of the two years he spent at the University of Oxford in Britain. It is marked by penetrating...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2006

Nippon Life plans first yield rise in two decades

Nippon Life Insurance Co. is planning its first increase in 21 years in the investment yield promised to policyholders of some products, which means that new policy buyers will be paying less in premiums, sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 19, 2005

Time to remove life support: Government should heed BOJ

To end or not to end. That is the question. The Bank of Japan says yes. The government says no. The BOJ feels the time is ripe to do away with the policy of "quantitative easing." The govern- ment feels it is premature to do so. Dueling time is here again over the conduct of monetary policy.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 4, 2005

Between life and death stands culture

FINAL DAYS: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life, by Susan Orpett Long. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 288 pp., $45 (cloth). This book asks how the final days might be different for Japanese patients and for those in the United States. Both Japanese and Americans state that they...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2005

FSA suspends Meiji Yasuda Life

The Financial Services Agency ordered Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. on Friday to suspend part of its life insurance solicitation business for two weeks due to illegal sales practices, FSA officials said.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2003

Taiyo latest life insurer to go public

Taiyo Life Insurance Co. converted itself Tuesday into a stock company from a mutual firm, becoming the second Japanese mutual life insurer to become a stock company, excluding ones that have since failed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 12, 2002

Life of the party

Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija has an original recipe for success: "I can't paint," he said, "but I can cook."
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2002

A completed life

Last Saturday saw the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, mother of the present monarch, Elizabeth II. The queen mother, or "queen mum," as she was affectionately known, was 101 years old and had been in poor health for several months. Although her role in public life -- like that of most members of...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

Sumitomo Life to raise 150 billion yen

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. said Friday it will raise 150 billion yen in perpetual subordinated loans from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and other concerns by the end of March in a bid to strengthen its financial standing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2002

Of life's mystery and joy

He lived through the best and worst of times. His life spanned a century of tremendous change, as Japan's focus shifted from rural to industrial, from East to West, from peace to war. He experienced poverty and success, respect and recrimination. He was Taikan Yokoyama (1868-1958), one of Japan's most...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 31, 2001

Pulp: 'We Love Life'

Surely Pulp vocalist Jarvis Cocker hasn't turned into a hippie? Note the title of the new album, "We Love Life." Note that it's produced by '60s maverick Scott Walker. And, above all, note that it's all about . . . nature. A Pulp album not about sex? Well, there's bits of sex in it, of course, but basically...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 6, 2001

Quitting the wandering life to settle down

Where waves crash across rocky shores there is a narrow region between the uppermost level covered at high tide and the lowest level exposed at low tide, the intertidal zone, that is prolific of life. Living there are seaweeds, shellfish, fish that prefer shallow water and can survive the varying temperatures...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2001

Life through the lens in Seoul, Paris and Tokyo

It is hard to imagine Mi-Yeon producing art prints of such emotion and refinement amid the familial clutter of her apartment, but maybe this is the mark of the true artist: beauty can be created against all odds. "My daughter's at kindergarten," she offers as explanation.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2001

Reorganization of Kyoei Life now complete

The Tokyo District Court on Monday ended reorganization proceedings for failed mid-tier life insurer Kyoei Life Insurance Co., renamed Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. at the beginning of this month.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2001

Affiliate of Asahi Mutual Life liquidates due to sour loans

Asahi Jitsugyo, a real estate affiliate of Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co., is in the process of liquidation after racking up liabilities of 18.3 billion yen, Teikoku Databank said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2001

More refugees finding life difficult off Miyake

Nearly 70 percent of Miyake Island's evacuees said they felt life away from the volcanic island is "difficult," according to the results of a Kyodo News poll released Sunday.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2000

Ordinary life made transcendent

EVENING CLOUDS: A Novel, by Junzo Shono, translated by Wayne P. Lammers. Stone Bridge Press, 2000, 222 pp., $12.95. I remember being startled when I read Wayne Lammers' translation for the first time. That was when, back in 1985, I was reading for review the two-volume "Showa Anthology," a collection...
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2000

A taste of life on the Mongolian steppe

We didn't speak a word of Mongolian, we knew no one in the country and we made no prebookings, but we befriended a family of nomadic Mongols living traditionally on the steppe as herders and discovered an idyllic way of life.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2000

Long life spans attributed to Okinawa diet

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Legend holds that an ancient Chinese emperor dispatched a mission of explorers to find Horai, a heavenly island believed to exist in the ocean, with orders to find the elixir of life and bring it to him.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2000

Salute to a life of honesty, humanity and hard work

A SUMMER FOR A LIFETIME: The Life and Times of George I. Purdy, as told to Thomas Caldwell. Foreword by Michael J. Mansfield. Lost Coast Press, 2000, 144 pp., $24.95. When I was a librarian I was assigned to inventory a business biography collection. I didn't expect to find much excitement in the stacks,...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Meiji Life policy sales take 20% dive

Meiji Life Insurance Co. logged a 20.2 percent year-on-year decline in sales of new personal insurance and annuity policies during the April-September period, the firm announced Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Life Space guru denies suggesting man leave hospital

The founder of the Life Space self-enlightenment group on Monday denied responsibility for moving a member of the group from a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture to a hotel in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, where the man's mummified corpse was found earlier this month.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Toho Mutual Life told to suspend operations

The Financial Supervisory Agency ordered Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co. to suspend operations Friday, after the ailing life insurer failed to obtain approval from auditors on a fiscal 1998 earnings report, agency officials announced.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 1999

Daihyaku, Manulife join forces on life insurance

Midsize life insurer Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Manulife Financial of Canada have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint life insurance company with a future merger in mind, company officials announced Tuesday.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes