Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

Kanebo trio arrested over window-dressing

Prosecutors arrested former Kanebo President Takashi Hoashi and two other former executives of the firm Friday on suspicion of submitting falsified financial statements to authorities.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

KDDI set to acquire PoweredCom

KDDI Corp. is engaged in final negotiations with Tokyo Electric Power Co. over its possible absorption of Tepco's telecom subsidiary, PoweredCom Inc., in January, sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2005

End run around civilian control

The Diet last week passed a revision of the Self- Defense Forces Law to identify actions Japan would take if faced with an imminent ballistic missile attack. This simplification of the command procedure for firing interceptor missiles, however, poses several questions, especially regarding the issue...
LIFE / Language
Jul 28, 2005

Cram schools cash in on failure of public schools

With Japan's economic bubble long since burst and job security fast becoming no more than a fond memory, there has been a surge in applications to private schools from primary grades up to college.
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

Comedienne Tomochika is quite a character

Along with comedy duos who do manzai (two-man standup) or short skits, a rise in "pin geinin (solo comedians)" is another dimension to the current owarai boom.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2005

All insurers told to probe payouts

The Financial Services Agency on Tuesday ordered all 39 life insurance companies operating in Japan to investigate and report by the end of September whether they failed to make due payouts to policyholders over the past five years.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2005

Preferred enters hotel fray in Japan

Despite the ongoing hotel war in Tokyo with many international hotels debuting, the chief of the Preferred Hotel Group in Chicago is optimistic about its expansion here.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2005

Japan may give energy aid to N. Korea

Japan will provide energy aid to North Korea in cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea if substantial progress is made in getting Pyongyang to abandon its alleged nuclear program in upcoming multilateral talks, according to government sources.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2005

Threshold of a lower threat

The fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear-arms programs opens Tuesday in Beijing. The question is whether the talks will succeed in convincing the North to halt its nuclear-arms development, which poses a serious security threat to Northeast Asia. For Japan, the United States, South...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 25, 2005

Right for the wrong reasons: deflation dilemma at the BOJ

What do you do when things turn out right for all the wrong reasons? Do you laugh? Do you cry? Do you do a bit of both, or none of either? This must be the kind of mental acrobatics that observers of consumer price developments at the Bank of Japan are going through at this particular moment.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 24, 2005

Weaving together tales of exotic trade

THE SILK ROAD: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, by Frances Wood. University of California Press, 2004, 270 pp., $19.95 (paper). "The Silk Road, or Roads," begins Frances Wood in this fascinating book, have only been known this way since the late 19th century, when a German explorer came up with...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2005

End of the 'calm' for Israel, Palestinians

LONDON -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for a "period of calm" when he took over the late Yasser Arafat's job in January, and for a while some people allowed themselves to believe that peace was within reach. But that delusion depended on the belief that Arafat had been the main obstacle to...
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2005

Unpegged yuan to impact firms

From electronics makers to fishing companies, China's decision Thursday to abandon the yuan's peg to the dollar will affect a wide range of Japanese businesses over the long term, observers say.
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2005

NEET figure remains high at 640,000: report

The number of young people not studying, working or looking for work remained at a record-high level of about 640,000 in 2004 -- a trend since 2002 -- according to a government white paper released Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2005

METI uncovers more abuses

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday two more cases of public fund misuse involving its officials have been confirmed and he will thus cut his own salary for another month in August.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 23, 2005

Groping for answers on gropers

Beginning May 9, nine commuter lines in the greater Tokyo area began offering women-only train cars in response to the growing number of women being groped by men in the trains. The number of incidents reached 2,201 in 2004, up from 778 in 1996. Each line has designated one car from each train during...
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Traffic death drop laid to penalties, safety push

The number of deaths in traffic accidents declined 8.8 percent in Japan in the first half of 2005 from a year earlier to 3,124, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Asbestos deaths just tip of the iceberg

Recent revelations that hundreds of workers at firms across Japan have died from asbestos-linked diseases over the past few decades have raised questions about whether the health risks of the unburnable mineral were duly recognized by the government and businesses.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

State admits inaction on threat it knew since '70s

The government offered vows of action and a denial Thursday after revelations the previous day that officials knew nearly 30 years ago of the serious health hazards of asbestos.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2005

Emigrants await ruling in breach of promise suit

Some 1,300 Japanese citizens left for "a promised land" in the Caribbean almost 50 years ago, encouraged by a government-sponsored emigration program.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2005

Foreign acquisitions here on rising trend

The number of foreign investors acquiring Japanese businesses with ownership of at least one-third of their shares rose 13.1 percentage points in fiscal 2003 to 26.0 percent, underlining increasing foreign mergers and acquisitions here, according to a survey released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2005

Emigrants await ruling in breach of promise suit

Some 1,300 Japanese citizens left for "a promised land" in the Caribbean almost 50 years ago, encouraged by a government-sponsored emigration program.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2005

Shinsei Bank sues DIC for 13 billion yen

Shinsei Bank said Tuesday it filed a damages suit against Deposit Insurance Corp. of Japan seeking 13.4 billion yen for losses incurred as a result of a long-standing dispute with a bankrupt real estate developer.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2005

JAL to take hard, quick look at routes to resorts

Japan Airlines Corp. will accelerate a drastic rethink of its international-flight operations to cut costs on the back of higher crude oil prices, according to President Toshiyuki Shinmachi.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

Supreme Court throws out Tokyo election suit

The Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday by a group of lawyers seeking to invalidate the outcome of the November 2003 general election in Tokyo's No. 4 district.

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