Search - 2004

 
 
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Toshiba lowers profit ratio goal despite expected sales growth

Acknowledging Toshiba Corp. has not met its targets in the last five years, the firm's new president lowered profit ratio forecasts Tuesday, indicating that while it expects sales to grow, profits will likely decline -- or will not grow as fast.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2005

House dissolution may delay critical diplomacy

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision Monday to call a general election may end up stalling Japan's diplomatic agenda, including talks on realigning the U.S. forces in Japan.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 9, 2005

Japan's veterans bemoan lack of U.S.-style respect

OSAKA -- Every Aug. 15, all manner of people gather at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. But often lost among the parade of rightwing loudspeaker trucks, leftwing protesters and formally attired senior political figures swarmed by the press are the veterans themselves.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 7, 2005

Falcons fly past Colts

Atlanta backup quarterback Matt Schaub completed 11 of 13 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Atlanta Falcons to a 27-21 comeback victory over the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night in the NFL Tokyo 2005.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 6, 2005

Koreans here inclined to assimilate to dodge racism

It was a big leap for Takae Hayama to switch from her Japanese name to her real name when she went to college.
EDITORIALS
Aug 5, 2005

Safeguards for a DNA database

The National Police Agency has been implementing a phased plan to construct a database of DNA patterns of suspects and convicted criminals to facilitate criminal investigations. DNA patterns, also called DNA fingerprints, can identify individuals almost as accurately as real fingerprints. A 2002 Interpol...
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 5, 2005

Postwar labor scene still grim for working women

Choice has been a long time coming for Japan's working women.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2005

Money-transfer fraud up but total crimes down

The number of reported money-transfer frauds and the losses from them increased in the first half of 2005 from the same period last year, but total crimes, including those committed by minors, decreased for a third straight year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2005

McDonald's to pay millions in unpaid overtime

The decision earlier this week by McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) to make up for inadequate overtime wages and nonscheduled cash earnings owed to nearly 130,000 part-time and regular-payroll workers has sent a shock wave through industries heavily dependent on employees paid by the hour.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2005

Nonpaid benefit cases top 10,000

Property and casualty insurance companies, including the nation's top six firms, failed to make payouts to policyholders in more than 10,000 cases -- worth several hundred million yen -- over the past three years due to computer glitches and human error, industry sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2005

Mazda reports sharp drop in profit

Mazda Motor Corp.'s profit shrank sharply in the April-June quarter despite improved sales because of a change in accounting standards, the affiliate of U.S. automaker Ford said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Defense Agency punished 1,200 in '04

The Defense Agency punished 1,286 officials in fiscal 2004, and 1,229, or 95 percent of them, were Self-Defense Forces officials, the agency said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Ex-teachers denied jobs sue Tokyo

Five former high school teachers filed a damages lawsuit Tuesday claiming they were denied part-time teaching jobs after retirement because they refused to stand and sing the national anthem during a school ceremony.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 3, 2005

New dimensions in dance

Noism is a veritable supernova in the rapidly expanding universe of Japanese contemporary dance. It burst on the scene in 2004 as the residential company of the Niigata Ryutopia Theater, two years after its founder, 30-year-old Jo Kanamori, returned from Europe.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2005

Another Japan Highway exec arrested over bids

Prosecutors on Monday arrested an executive at Japan Highway Public Corp. and indicted his former colleague and officials from four companies, stepping up their probe into one of the country's largest public works bid-rigging scandals.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2005

Bound by a common cause

LONDON -- When Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Moscow in early July, he sought to strengthen the "strategic partnership" between China and Russia that his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed in Moscow four years ago.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 31, 2005

Hirayama goes Dutch

Japan Under-20 striker Sota Hirayama flew out of Tokyo on Friday hoping to impress Feyenoord as he joins the Dutch League side on trial.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 31, 2005

Will Hanshin still be in swing after 'road trip of death'?

The Hanshin Tigers are in a position to win their second Central League pennant in three seasons, but they will have to get by a jinx that has plagued Tigers teams in the past: the "shi-no-rodo" or "road trip of death."
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2005

Rescue from property sharks

Fraudulent and malicious sales methods victimizing innocent people have become a social issue. In a typical case, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested four former salesmen last month on suspicion of having cajoled or pressured some 5,400 people in 34 prefectures into signing contracts for...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2005

Thousands gather in support of retaining pacifist Article 9

Thousands of people attended a rally Saturday in Tokyo to protest against changing the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

What six reasonable men can do

REASONABLE MEN, POWERFUL WORDS: Political Culture and Expertise in 20th Century Japan, by Laura Hein. Berkeley, Calif.; University of California Press, 2004, 328 pp., $45 (cloth). This is the compelling story of how six prominent intellectuals shaped the conventional wisdom that came to characterize...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 31, 2005

Nature never tries to be nice

MOSCOW -- Planet Earth, aka Mother Nature, is a sturdy killer. Preachers, environmentalists and sunset lovers keep trying to persuade us that it is as benevolent and fragile as a loving aging parent. Not at all. The environment we live in is hard-nosed and violent -- hardly a mother figure but rather...

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