Search - 2003

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2005

IPods to remain freeof royalty payments

A government panel Thursday decided against expanding the range of products subject to royalty payments on digital music recording devices to include iPods and other new gadgets that use flash memory and hard disks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 2, 2005

Have music, will travel

Shugo Tokumaru is one of those unfairly talented types who seem to be able to turn their hand to anything. He wrote, played and sang every note on his two albums of "bedroom music" and produced them both too. The 25-year-old also finds time to play guitar and occasionally sing in lo-fi indie pop band...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 2, 2005

Junior Senior

Since 1995, Danish dance-rockers Junior Senior have been shaking up Scandinavia with their humorous blend of Prince-like funk and indie garage rock, and for the last five years they've taken Britain and the rest of Europe by storm. The effective working relationship between Jesper Mortensen and Jeppe...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2005

China juggles growth, stability

SINGAPORE -- As China's annual Central Economic Conference gets under-way in Beijing early this month, Beijing looks set to sustain the new social-economic shift that was laid out by the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCP) in mid-October. The plenum signaled the...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 30, 2005

Guts and glory the key elements to the Takahashi story

Is there anything more compelling in sports than a once great champion, who has been written off by just about everybody, recapturing their former glory in dramatic fashion?
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2005

Charity swim event to aid Thai tsunami orphans

Two foreign athletes who survived the South Asian tsunamis last year will hold a charity swimming event in Thailand on Dec. 24 to raise funds for Thai children who lost parents in the disaster.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2005

Industrial output rises 0.6% as outlook improves

Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent in October, capping three straight months of gains for the first time in two years and spurring the government Tuesday to hike its basic assessment of output.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2005

Lawmaker often dogged by controversy

Hawkish Lower House member Shingo Nishimura, who was arrested Monday for violating the Attorneys Law, is no stranger to controversy, having drawn flak as a Defense Agency vice minister when he called for Japan to develop nuclear weapons and for remarking that punishment is the only reason why people...
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2005

Students boast second satellite success

, a professor at the University of Tokyo, and Ryu Funahashi, leader of a group of graduate students who made a tiny cubical satellite, shown in bottom photo provided by Nakasuka, weep with joy Oct. 27 after the first signal from the craft was received as it passed over Japan.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2005

Mitsubishi Fuso to slim operations

Scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Monday it will streamline its domestic sales network and group firms to slash costs and increase efficiency as it struggles to cope with dwindling domestic sales.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 28, 2005

Giants sign Toyoda to two-year deal

The Yomiuri Giants signed free agent right-hander Kiyoshi Toyoda to a two-year contract Sunday in an attempt to bolster their bullpen.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2005

Seki returns as mayor of Osaka

OSAKA -- Junichi Seki was returned to office in Sunday's Osaka mayoral election after he resigned amid clashes with the city assembly and bureaucrats over reform.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2005

Thanks for a thankless job

Most of the time, let's face it, journalists just do not get good press. The very word "reporter" is often used or interpreted as a smear. Newspaper readers and television viewers alike regularly complain to news organizations about their employees' bias, incompetence and bad grammar. And for all their...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 27, 2005

Too much of a good thing

Humans are wholly dependent on nature's cornucopia for food, clothing, shelter, many medicines, beer and wine -- to name just a few of life's essentials and pleasures.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 26, 2005

Lions grant Mori's majors request

The Seibu Lions have given the green light for right-hander Shinji Mori to make a switch to the major leagues via the posting system, the Pacific League club said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2005

Asahara still has pull: agency

The Public Security Intelligence Agency filed a request Friday with the Public Security Examination Commission to keep Aum Shinrikyo under surveillance for another three years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 25, 2005

Can you keep up with Autechre?

It's pretty much a character-defining kind of thing: Either you think the seminal U.K. electronic act Autechre are taking the ball and running with it to places you didn't know existed, or you're convinced that they've gone bleak, technical and chaotic, and you just want them to write some damn melodies...
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2005

Hayabusa landed on asteroid but didn't leave probe

The Japanese space probe Hayabusa successfully landed on the asteroid Itokawa, located about 290 million km away from the Earth, during its landing attempt Sunday, but did not drop the equipment for collecting surface samples, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 24, 2005

Stand-outs at TDW

With TDW taking over the city, there were plenty of chances to get lost among the abundant design goodies while exploring some of Tokyo's most noteworthy design addresses. From the massive lineup of concepts and products, here are a few that stood out:
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2005

Iraqi minister in Tokyo for talks

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari arrived Wednesday in Tokyo for a four-day visit during which he will meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other top officials to discuss Japan's support for Iraq's reconstruction.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2005

Tackling juvenile crime

In 2004, adults committed 3.42 million criminal offenses, a decline for the second year in a row from the postwar record set in 2002. Still, the number of criminal incidents remains disturbingly high. The situation is similar for juvenile delinquency, as shown by the National Police Agency's white paper...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 23, 2005

Big Money warms to socially responsible investing

Environmentalists have been preaching for decades that true societal change will only happen when the really big-money players, such as multinational corporations and banks, begin to balance profit-making with social responsibility.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2005

The 'IC you' card

People are still reeling from September's LDP landslide election, realizing that Koizumi can essentially legislate whatever he wants.

Longform

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