Search - 2003

 
 
Rugby
Sep 17, 2004

Rugby's top stars hoping to help Top League live up to its name

Toutai Kefu, Matt Cockbain, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Tony Brown, Leon MacDonald. Besides being a who's who of some of the biggest names to have played in the Super 12 in recent years they are also just a few of the world-class players who will be turning out this year in Japan's Top League.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2004

Ministry issues wake-up call on food self-sufficiency target

The government target of raising Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio to 45 percent by fiscal 2010 is a pipe dream, the farm ministry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2004

SESC targets Citibank over bond misdeeds

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said Tuesday it has urged the Financial Services Agency to take punitive administrative action against the Tokyo branch of Citibank over violations of Japanese security law.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2004

'Historic' Japan-Mexico FTA said beneficial for both sides

The free-trade agreement between Japan and Mexico due to be signed this week in Mexico City will be a landmark treaty benefiting both sides, according to the Mexican ambassador.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 12, 2004

Heights of cleanliness

What must it be like to stand on top of the world's highest mountain? To battle through driving snow and across deadly glaciers, to scale icy rock walls and risk falling thousands of meters while being hit full-on by raging, freezing winds -- aware that an avalanche could, at any moment, swat you into...
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2004

Latest economy data show growth slowing

Japan's economy grew 0.3 percent in real terms in the April-June period from the previous quarter, the government said Friday, marking a surprise downward revision from the initially reported expansion of 0.4 percent.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 11, 2004

Will Souness be able to make a difference for Newcastle?

LONDON -- There is a famous line by Groucho Marxo where he says he would never be a member of a club that would have him as a member.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 10, 2004

Eagles counting on Owens to put them over top

NFC East Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells have five Super Bowl wins between them. Tom Coughlin took an expansion franchise in Jacksonville and had it in the AFC championship game in its second year.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2004

Sojitz to receive 370 billion yen capital injection from financial institutions

Struggling trading house Sojitz Holdings Corp. officially announced Wednesday it will get a 370 billion yen capital injection from financial institutions, including UFJ Holdings Inc. and UBS AG, to clean up its balance sheet.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2004

North Korea's ticking time bomb

Many North Koreans continue to escape from their impoverished and repressive country. Last week, 29 escapees took refuge at a Japanese school in Beijing. Shortly afterward, they were taken to the Japanese Embassy for identification and questioning before being transferred to a third country. The South...
BASKETBALL
Sep 7, 2004

Tabuse signs agreement with Suns

Japanese point guard Yuta Tabuse reached a contract agreement with the Phoenix Suns for the upcoming season, NBA Japan said Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

U.S. visa cut pushing translation firm to Asia

A recent cut in the number of U.S. visas given to foreign technical experts has convinced a U.S. translation-services company to expand its business in Japan and other parts of Asia, MultiLing Corp. President Michael Sneddon said in Tokyo this week.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

Shinsei Bank to buy Showa Leasing

Shinsei Bank might buy Showa Leasing Co. possibly this year, sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2004

Labour seeks a constituency

LONDON -- A ruler can obtain power only with the help of his own people. He uses them to fight against those who revolt against his party. They fill his administrative offices and he appoints them to prestigious and lucrative positions. They help him to achieve his ascendancy. This is true so long as...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2004

Unavoidable as death, beer taxes

Since ancient times, alcohol has been an important source of tax revenue for rulers.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2004

UFJ told to explain data disparities

Britain's Financial Services Authority has ordered UFJ Holdings Inc., which is listed in London, to report by mid-September on the huge gap between its earnings projection and actual results for fiscal 2003, UFJ officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2004

Toothless SESC rues failure to protect investors

Teruko Noda, a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, has a cabinet full of letters, mostly telling the same story: brokers who allegedly lied and individual investors who lost their life savings.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2004

GOP throws a party in New York

The United States takes the next big step toward elections in November with the convening this week of the Republican National Convention in New York City. The GOP convention promises to be a spectacular: Republicans have always demonstrated an innate understanding of the pomp and pageantry required...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2004

Unionization now option for part-timers

Working conditions have been declining at many firms in recent years as the economic slump drags on, and especially hard-hit have been those with "temporary" status, as they face falling wages and shortened contracts.
COMMENTARY
Aug 30, 2004

Cooler summer for French intramurals

PARIS -- "Chaotic all over the territory," warned a French weather forecast recently. This was not, however, the remake, feared by so many, of the August 2003 heat wave, which contributed to 15,000 extra deaths that month.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 30, 2004

Fear of cultural decline: the next chapter

NEW YORK -- Every August my wife Nancy and I leave New York to go south to spend two weeks at a friend's summer house at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Driving leisurely, mainly so we can ride ferries on Delaware Bay and on Pamlico Sound, we stop for two nights on the way, usually lodging in Onley, Virginia,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 29, 2004

Prospects for altering the status quo in Japan

THE STATE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN JAPAN, edited by Frank J. Schwarz and Susan J. Pharr. Cambridge University Press, 2003, 392 pp., $25 (paper). This impressive and wide-ranging collection of essays explores the problems and potential of Japan's increasingly robust civil society. In analyzing institutional...
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2004

Refighting the Medicare budget battle

WASHINGTON -- Medicare, which offers health-care coverage for America's elderly, faces trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities. Unfortunately, legislators are constantly tempted to increase benefits and thus spending. They should resist their inner darkness as the Bush administration attempts to...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

NGO fostering Afghan female literacy

Studying was the last thing most women in Afghanistan spent time on until a couple years ago, after the Taliban regime was ousted. But now they have a chance to become literate, and a Japanese nongovernmental organization is helping.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2004

Japan Post chief rebuts Yamato flak over Lawson deal

Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta on Friday countered Yamato Transport Co.'s criticism that his firm is unfairly expanding its parcel delivery services through a tieup with a convenience store chain.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Sudanese foreign minister to visit over Darfur crisis

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail will arrive in Japan on Sept. 5 for a five-day visit to discuss the conflict in the African nation's Darfur region, the government said Friday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji