Search - 2004

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2005

Talking about the modern Japanese woman

Meeting last Monday, Barbara Hamill Sato is not sure how many women won seats in the previous day's general election, but suspects it may be the most ever.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2005

Kanebo to offload resin-making unit

Kanebo Ltd. said Thursday it will quit the polyester resin business by selling its resin manufacturing subsidiary to Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. at the end of September.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2005

Consumer confidence rises again

Consumer confidence across Japan improved in August for the second straight month, spurred by improving employment conditions, the government said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2005

Foreign fashion brands making hay

The total declared income of 45 Japanese units of famous overseas fashion brands marked a record high of 125.9 billion yen in fiscal 2004, up 3 percent from the previous year, credit research agency Teikoku Databank said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2005

Trespassing case is political, activists tell court

Three peace activists on trial for trespassing at a Self-Defense Forces housing compound where they had been distributing antiwar leaflets told the Tokyo High Court on Wednesday their arrest and indictment is a form of political suppression and their case should be dropped.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2005

CPAs implicated in another Kanebo scam

Four ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants arrested this week falsified a report in 1998 on a troubled Kanebo Ltd. trading partner, leading Kanebo to agree to a massive bailout of the firm, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Doc sentenced for indecent behavior

A former doctor at a Tokyo metropolitan hospital was sentenced Tuesday to 46 months in prison for tricking women patients into disrobing for medical examinations and taking photographs of them.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2005

Competition heats up in household energy market

Fierce competition is heating up among electric, gas and oil companies to win more household customers and increase sales.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 11, 2005

CL may hold playoffs sooner than you think

The Central League has decided to consider instituting a playoff system beginning in 2007, but we may be seeing postseason play between two CL teams a lot sooner.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Pyongyang palliative is Bush's bitter pill

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- Although buried by headlines from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina-devastated U.S. Gulf Coast region, the fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, about to resume in Beijing, presents the best chance yet to resolve diplomatically the simmering crisis on the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 11, 2005

The curious Mr. Longfellow

LONGFELLOW'S TATTOOS: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan, by Christine M.E. Guth. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004, 256 pp., 123 illustrations, $29.95 (paper). After the new Japanese government was officially installed in 1868, only a decade or so after the country had been, more or less, forcibly...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 11, 2005

Views from Asia suggest that 'Team Bush' is playing poorly for all sides

CONFRONTING THE BUSH DOCTRINE: Critical Views From the Asia-Pacific, edited by Mel Gurtov and Peter Van Ness. London: Routledge Curzon, 2004, 277 pp., £20.99 (cloth). Characterizing the Bush administration's foreign policy of zigzagging, dysfunctional initiatives and self-inflicted wounds a "doctrine"...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

National Stadium to get asbestos cleanup next summer

Plans are being made to remove asbestos insulation from the ceilings in the National Stadium complex in Tokyo starting next summer, it was learned Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

MHI begins production of gas turbine parts in China

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Friday it has started producing core components for gas turbines in China in a joint venture with a major Chinese turbine manufacturer in a bid to meet surging demand.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

Japanese firms stronger, S&P says

Japanese companies are now in a much better position than in 2001, although some have shown slowing profit growth, Standard & Poor's Ratings Service said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2005

Just 14 more mountains to climb for jackpot 100

Some long-term visitors to Japan choose to count the days. Others make the decision to suck every drop of juice out of the opportunity. Take Ginger Vaughn, for example. She falls most definitely into the latter category -- and all power to her facial and calf muscles!
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Man found guilty in 'koban' scrap

The Tokyo District Court gave a 53-year-old man a suspended seven-month prison term Thursday for obstructing police in Tokyo in February 2004.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Key bid-rigging figure makes bail

The Tokyo High Court said Thursday it will release Michio Uchida, a former vice president of Japan Highway Public Corp. suspected of being involved in bid-rigging, on bail of 15 million yen.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Claims from Kanto quake would outdo Katrina: S&P

If a huge temblor like the one in 1923 hits the Kanto region, insurance claims will rocket to nearly 7 trillion, yen topping the cost of any past natural disaster to date, U.S. credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Downsizing government sounds great

Downsizing the public sector has been high on the agenda of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, and both his Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan are promising this campaign season to reduce the number of people on the government payroll.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Asbestos in Bridgestone bike brakes

Bridgestone Cycle Co. said Wednesday it has discovered about 19,500 children's bicycles sold between October 2004 and last month have asbestos in their brakes and is offering to change the components for free.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Train crash report lays main blame on speeding

An interim report on the deadly April 25 crash of a speeding commuter train on West Japan Railway Co.'s Fukuchiyama Line touches on the driver's apparent erratic behavior but leaves many questions unanswered.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2005

Rakuten to buy ad firm LinkShare

Rakuten Inc. said Tuesday it will acquire major U.S. Internet advertising agency LinkShare Corp. for about $425 million (about 46.5 billion yen), a deal that will enable the Japanese online shopping mall operator to expand into the U.S. market.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Plutonium from spent fuel at 43 tons

Japan's stockpile of plutonium extracted and separated from spent nuclear fuel increased to 43.1 tons as of the end of 2004, up 2.5 tons from the previous year, the government reported to the Atomic Energy Commission on Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2005

Postal plan no cure for spiraling debt, critic says

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the giant postal system will not resolve Japan's ballooning fiscal debt, which is hampering plans to create a smaller government, according to outspoken critic Yasuyo Yamazaki.
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2005

A child-rearing environment

Policy proposals for creating an economic and social environment conducive to childbearing and child-rearing should be an important issue for voters to consider in next Sunday's Lower House election. An accelerating decline in the birthrate, followed eventually by a smaller labor force, will have a great...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2005

Rich-poor divide poses unrelenting threat

NEW YORK -- According to the just released U.N. report "The Inequality Predicament," increasing poverty and the growing gap between the rich and poor will be major threats to developing coun- tries' peace and stability. The report, prepared by the United Nations' Economic and Social Affairs Department,...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2005

LDP leading in polls with a week to go

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is likely to win a majority Sept. 11, while the Democratic Party of Japan may not end up with the 175 seats it held when the House of Representatives was dissolved, a Kyodo News survey shows.

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