Search - 2002

 
 
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2004

Middle-aged are filling temp agency labor niche

Although the employment situation remains severe for older job seekers in search of full-time work, temporary employment services for the middle-aged are attracting increasing attention.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2004

Store sales slide for seventh straight year

Sales at supermarkets dropped 3.2 percent in 2003 from the previous year, and sales at department stores fell 2.8 percent, according to industry figures released Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2004

Rengo facing crisis over 'shunto'

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) faces a crisis this spring. Management has suggested that there may be decreases in basic wages and that annual spring labor campaigns for higher wages are dead.
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2004

Changing the Constitution

Constitutional revision looms as a major political issue in Japan. It was a key agenda item at the January conventions of the two largest political parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. The LDP decided to draw up a revision plan in 2005, the 50th anniversary of the...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 26, 2004

Okabe becomes oldest to win JRA race

Yukio Okabe became the oldest jockey, at the age of 55 years and two months, to ride and win a Japan Racing Association (JRA) race when he made his comeback after a 13-month absence and won the ninth race at Nakayama Racecourse on Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2004

Avoid the road to isolation

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi once again showed insensitivity to the feelings of fellow Asians by going to Yasukuni Shrine on New Year's Day to honor Japan's war dead. Convicted Class-A war criminals are among those whose memories are enshrined there.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2004

FSA eyes 'rebuilding' of borrowers

The Financial Services Agency will strictly assess banks' ongoing plans to reconstruct struggling large-lot borrowers and may order remedial measures if little improvement is found in the borrowers' earnings conditions, informed sources said Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 25, 2004

Japan trio doubtful

Japan coach Zico, who is gearing his side up for a match against Oman in the preliminary round of the World Cup Asian qualifiers, cast doubt on the readiness of injured Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono and other top players for the Feb. 18 fixture at Saitama Stadium 2002.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2004

Mizuho eyes ATM card gambit

Mizuho Bank will start issuing automated teller machine cards with credit card functions in July, becoming the first major Japanese bank to provide cards of this kind to every depositor, bank officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 25, 2004

To give proves easier said than done

JAPAN'S "CULTURE OF GIVING" AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, by Akira Matsubara and Hiroko Todoroki, translated by Richard Forrest. Tokyo: Coalition for Legislation to Support Citizen's Organizations, 2003, 45 pp., free (paper). Japan's transformation is proceeding quietly, slipping beneath media radar screens...
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

China relays Pyongyang overture

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told a senior Chinese official that there are "positive movements" in the relationship between Pyongyang and Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Rokkasho in dark, or wary, about ITER

OSAKA -- Just weeks before a decision is made on whether Japan or France gets to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, Japanese officials are conducting a last-ditch international campaign to secure support.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Students' academic ability below ministry's expectations

The academic ability of high school seniors in mathematics and science is significantly below the education ministry's expectations.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Doctors paid to 'lend' names to other hospitals

Doctors paid to 'lend' names to other hospitals
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Ratings firm sues former TV producer

The nation's only TV ratings firm filed a damages suit Thursday against a former Nippon Television Network Corp. producer over his manipulation of ratings through the use of illicit funds.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Group urges landlords to accept foreign tenants

Finding a place to live is one of the biggest difficulties foreign residents of Japan face, and one of the main reasons is that landlords are reluctant to accept them as tenants.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Japan halts Thai poultry imports over human avian flu case

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Thursday it has halted poultry meat imports from Thailand following reports that a human has come down with bird flu there.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2004

JAL raises Japan Asia Airways stake

Japan Airlines System Corp. said Thursday it will raise its stake in Japan Asia Airways to 100 percent from the current 90.5 percent on April 1 through an equity swap deal.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2004

Kan tells Koizumi to resign over Iraq

Democratic Party of Japan leader Naoto Kan urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday to step down, claiming he has violated the Constitution by dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2004

Yakuza numbers up again in 2003

Crime syndicates saw their membership increase at the end of 2003, marking an eighth consecutive annual rise, the National Police Agency said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2004

Online matchmakers hand ailing truckers a lifeline

Yasunori Fujikura knows the nuts and bolts of the trucking business -- as well as the pain of being behind the wheel in these tough times.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 21, 2004

J. League set for changes in 2005

The J. League on Tuesday finalized a plan to increase the number of first-division teams from 16 to 18 and approved a switch to a one-stage format from the current two-stage system, beginning in the 2005 season.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2004

Typical wife beater: 40-year-old boozer

The typical perpetrator of domestic violence in Japan is a 40-year-old male who drinks regularly and has a six-year history of assaulting family members, according to a recent Justice Ministry study.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2004

Fiction made real

I met with Kazuo Kuroki following the premiere of "Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima (Kirishima 1945)" at the Fukuoka International Film Festival in 2002. A native of Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, where the film was shot, Kuroki looked content with the warm response he had received from the Kyushu audience. Smartly...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Pay pension premiums or else, agency warns

The Social Insurance Agency will mail letters Tuesday to some 500 people, demanding they pay their national pension premiums or face measures such as the confiscation of their bank deposits, agency officials said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2004

A place for 'judicial positivism'

In a representative democracy, the value of one vote is supposed to be more or less equal. In the 2001 Upper House election, however, one vote in rural districts carried much greater weight than it did in urban districts; in an extreme case, one ballot in Tottori Prefecture was worth 5.06 ballots in...

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building