Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2005

Heads roll at Meiji Yasuda as severity of scandal sinks in

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. said Friday that 11 executives, including President Ryotaro Kaneko, will step down Nov. 30 to take responsibility for the company's repeated failure to pay legitimate insurance claims.
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2005

Toward a police-controlled media

There is a strong social trend toward protecting privacy. A milestone will be the enforcement of the Private Information Protection Law beginning in April. But the government is apparently taking advantage of this trend and people's distrust of the media -- due to often sensationalistic crime coverage...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

Make English mandatory for elementary pupils, Kosaka says

The new education minister believes English education should be made mandatory for elementary school students.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

Aso planning to run for LDP president

Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a potential successor to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said he will run for president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party next September if he can get the required 20 party members to nominate him.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 2, 2005

Matsuzaka shelves big league plans

Seibu Lions ace right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka has given up on his plan to pursue a career in the major leagues and will remain with Seibu next season, baseball sources said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2005

No changing colors in China

HONG KONG -- Two weeks ago, China issued a 23,000-word white paper on democracy, the first time the Communist government had ever done so. However, instead of being a blueprint for the development of representative government, the white paper turned out to be a defense of the perpetuation of the monopoly...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

Takebe reappointed secretary general of LDP; Nakagawa gets policy affairs

Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi reappointed Tsutomu Takebe, 64, to the party's No. 2 post of secretary general, while switching LDP Diet affairs chief Hidenao Nakagawa to the post of policy affairs chief.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

Loyalty rewarded with prime portfolios

is a set of personnel appointments based on merit and reward," said Norihiko Narita, a professor of political science at Surugadai University. "The criteria (for being selected) was loyalty." For example, Seiken Sugiura, who was deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the previous Cabinet, was given the post...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2005

People power

After nearly a decade of stalling and prevarication over the replacement of Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, a solution has finally emerged from the dusty halls of power in Kasumigaseki and Washington.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2005

Caution needed in defense relations

Japan and the United States agreed last week to a new plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station from urban Ginowan in the central part of Okinawa Island to Camp Schwab, located in Nago in the northern part of the island.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 31, 2005

Heavenly Romance pulls off upset win of Emperor's Cup

Heavenly Romance turned the tables on a formidable field of Group 1 winners in Sunday's Emperor's Cup at Tokyo Racecourse, as the longshot mare snatched her first top-level win from race favorite and 2004 winner Zenno Rob Roy.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2005

Bureaucrat gets suspended term for insider trading

An official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for engaging in insider trading.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2005

Hijackers' kin in N. Korea plan to come to Japan

A group of Japanese airplane hijackers now living in North Korea have decided to return their wives and children to Japan in the light of deteriorating ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang, informed sources said Saturday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 29, 2005

Contrast in Liverpool's performance an ongoing mystery

LONDON -- There are many unanswered questions in the world.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Physician in line for Order of Culture honor

Noted terminal-care physician Shigeaki Hinohara is among the five people who will be awarded the Order of Culture next week, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Hot springs no longer limited to rural relaxation

The number of hot spring bathhouses is rising rapidly in Tokyo and Osaka, allowing more people to enjoy the relaxing baths that were once limited to the countryside.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Japan may warm 3 degrees by 2100

Japan's average temperature is expected to rise 2 to 3 degrees by 2100, while the average global temperature will rise by about 2.5 degrees, the Meteorological Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Lawmakers, bureaucrats get wage cuts

The Diet on Friday enacted a ruling bloc-proposed 1.7 percent wage cut for lawmakers and a government-proposed 0.1 percent wage reduction for central government employees.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2005

Seibu shuns Matsuzaka's request

Seibu Lions ace right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka made a fresh request to his team Thursday to let him pursue a career in the major leagues next year, but the answer was "no" again.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2005

Learning from devastating quakes

On Oct. 23, 2004, a series of powerful earthquakes, including one with a magnitude of 6.8, devastated the Chuetsu region in Niigata Prefecture. Of the 51 deaths, 16 were directly caused by the devastation. Most of the remaining deaths were caused by "economy-class syndrome," in which survivors who tried...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2005

Ryan Adams and The Cardinals: "Jacksonville City Nights"

Ryan Adams has got to be the busiest man in show business -- nearly 12 albums in since his debut with Whiskeytown in 1996, here comes "Jacksonville City Nights," the second of three planned releases for 2005. Earlier this year he released his first album with The Cardinals, the excellent "Cold Roses,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Oct 28, 2005

Psychedelic radar 10.28

Saturday, Oct. 29

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past