Search - 2002

 
 
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 5, 2005

Who's who (and where) among '05 foreign players

Happy New Year. Five days into 2005, and the 12 Japan pro baseball teams have spent the offseason wheeling and dealing, acquiring and firing foreign players. Confused about who left and who is left? Following is a team-by-team rundown of who's gone and who's on at this point.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2005

Koizumi pledges robust reconstruction aid in disaster area

Japan will do its best to provide aid and help reconstruction efforts in the Asian countries hit by last month's killer tsunamis, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday.
JAPAN / BY THE NUMBERS
Jan 5, 2005

Vending machines turn new tricks to make a buck

Japan is a vending machine paradise. They're ubiquitous -- on streets, train platforms, even at the top of Mount Fuji -- and sell about everything.
JAPAN / DEMOGRAPHIC DILEMMAS
Jan 4, 2005

Marital expectations help ensure singles ranks soar

She's a 38-year-old Tokyo working woman, enjoys single life, drives a sports car and dines at gourmet restaurants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2004

Lightning strike alters teen's life in a flash

It was summer 1996: A typhoon was approaching Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, and a thunderstorm advisory was in effect.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2004

Zoos grope to captivate visitors

Gone are the days when a new panda or elephant guaranteed a boost in zoo visitors.
Japan Times
Dec 31, 2004

Lightning strike alters teen's life in a flash

It was summer 1996: A typhoon was approaching Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, and a thunderstorm advisory was in effect.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 30, 2004

Controversies cloud a breakthrough find on 'once-luxuriant bush'

This year has been a vintage one for biologists interested in human evolution. In a cave on an Indonesian island, the remains of a new species of human were found, a species that lived only 18,000 years ago and hence overlapped with modern Homo sapiens.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 30, 2004

Rockets' trade of journeyman Jackson is hard to figure

NEW YORK -- Jimmy Jackson got the call yesterday he didn't want to hear, and had no idea was coming.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 29, 2004

Eagles hope to soar in first year with acquisition of Iwakuma

Here is my final column of 2004, the most tumultuous year in the history of Japanese pro baseball.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2004

Cabinet OKs Foreign Ministry staff shuffle

The Cabinet endorsed Tuesday a major reshuffle of key Foreign Ministry officials, including the vice foreign minister and chiefs of bureaus handling issues related to North Korea and the United States, effective Jan. 4, the Foreign Ministry said.
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2004

Tokyo consumer prices fall for sixth consecutive year

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo dropped 0.2 percent in 2004 from the previous year for the sixth straight year of decline, due mainly to falls in prices of personal computers and durable home appliances, the government said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2004

Turkey's long march to an EU wedding

PARIS -- Although a wedding date has yet to be set between the European Union and Turkey, the two parties managed to conclude what several participants at the Dec. 17 European summit have called a formal "engagement."
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2004

Government panel to debate letting woman ascend throne

The government said Monday it will set up an advisory panel next month to discuss revising the Imperial Household Law with an eye to allowing a female ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2004

Trading house Mitsui probed over fake diesel filter data, subsidy scam

Tokyo police launched a criminal investigation Monday into Mitsui & Co. and one of its subsidiaries, suspecting that the giant trading house fabricated test data to obtain official approval for a diesel particulate filter.
Dec 28, 2004

Government panel to debate letting woman ascend throne

The government said Monday it will set up an advisory panel next month to discuss revising the Imperial Household Law with an eye to allowing a female ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2004

Nonperforming loans down 7.6%

Nonperforming loans at 130 banks at the end of September were down 7.6 percent from the end of March to 22.56 trillion yen on a parent-only basis, the Japanese Bankers Association said Monday.
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2004

Tax return raises Mizuho profit

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. on Monday raised its group net profit estimate to 720 billion yen for the current fiscal year from 440 billion yen following a Supreme Court ruling last week.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2004

Dalai Lama planning to come to Japan in April

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, is planning to come to Japan in April and the government is expected to allow the visit, sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2004

Fukuoka by-election seen as test for party leaders Koizumi, Okada

A House of Representatives by-election this April in the Fukuoka No. 2 district will be a bellwether, not only for the future of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government but also the Democratic Party of Japan, the biggest opposition force.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2004

State to push for child-care leave at all companies

In the latest effort to arrest the nation's falling birthrate, a government task force Friday approved a new five-year plan that includes numerical targets and the introduction of child-care leave at all companies.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2004

Court nixes IBJ back-taxes ruling over bad-loan writeoffs to lender

The Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a decision to impose back taxes on the former Industrial Bank of Japan for writing off nonperforming loans it made to an insolvent "jusen" mortgage lender.
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2004

Shades of capella, Yale sabbatical and key-lime pie

Peter Hasegawa is on the Tokyo run . . . conducting postgraduate research, studying at Keio University, tutoring Japanese students at international schools in English, and trying to organize a visit by the Yale capella group, Shades. But only until Dec. 23, when he flies home to Connecticut for the Christmas...
Dec 25, 2004

State to push for child-care leave at all companies

In the latest effort to arrest the nation's falling birthrate, a government task force Friday approved a new five-year plan that includes numerical targets and the introduction of child-care leave at all companies.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan