Search - 2004

 
 
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 17, 2005

Alcohol continues to fuel Best's free fall toward tragic ending

LONDON -- When George Best was having problems with his first wife, Angie, I shared a flight back to England with him from Miami -- he was playing for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League at the time.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2005

Japan seeks to fatten ODA budget

The government wants to hike the official development assistance budget to 0.7 percent of gross national income but ignore swelling social security costs, according to the final draft of its 2005 economic and fiscal policy guideline.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Suspended sentence of racy comics publisher switched to fine

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday reduced the sentence imposed by a lower court on a comic book publisher who was convicted of distributing obscene comic books featuring graphic sex scenes.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2005

Two nabbed for Ginza jewel heist

Two citizens of Serbia and Montenegro have been arrested in the country by Serbian police in connection with a 3.5 billion yen jewelry heist at a store in Tokyo's Ginza district in March 2004, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2005

Huge Fuso recall involves defects found months ago

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Wednesday it is recalling a total of about 42,000 trucks and buses due to five defects, two of which were found much earlier.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2005

Bridge bid-rigging rings charged

Prosecutors indicted 26 companies and eight senior employees Wednesday on suspicion of rigging bids for steel bridge projects.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2005

Shantytown outrage in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe continues its slide toward destruction. In the most recent outrage, President Robert Mugabe has evicted tens of thousands of traders from their shacks and razed their houses. It is hardly a coincidence that this "cleanup campaign" targets supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2005

Solution to bank-card crimes eludes legislators

The ruling coalition's bill on bank-card crimes offers a quick and effective solution to what has become society's largest problem in recent years, according to Yoichiro Esaki, head of the Liberal Democratic Party subcommittee dealing with the issue.
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2005

The G8 agrees on debt relief

Group of Eight finance ministers agreed last weekend to write off more than $40 billion in debt owed by the world's poorest countries. The agreement is a critical first step in efforts to help lift these nations out of grinding and enduring poverty. The deal is only a beginning, however. Success will...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2005

Japan's beneficent potential

During my 7 1/2 years of service in the 1990s as deputy secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, I initiated a research project that produced, in 1997, a report titled "The World in 2020: Toward a New Global Age." In the course of this research I assumed that the...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 14, 2005

Cyber war grips Asia

If comments on bulletin boards were bullets and hacking attacks real skirmishes then East Asia would probably be a war zone now.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2005

War-dead families ask Koizumi to consider Asia

An association of families of the war dead on Saturday asked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to show more consideration for Japan's Asian neighbors over his contentious visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 12, 2005

Thanks to the efforts of many, baseball remains intact despite merger

You may be reading this column between 7 a.m and 8 a.m. on Sunday morning.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2005

Gaps dog history study with South Korea

Japan and South Korea released a full-scale report on their joint history research Friday, detailing huge gaps in perception on key events that have repeatedly caused friction between the two nations.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2005

End of an era as TSE bell tolls for disgraced Kanebo

Kanebo Ltd., one of the oldest listed companies in Japan, traded for the last time Friday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2005

The real state of the economy

Japanese corporations, by and large, chalked up their biggest profit gains ever in the financial year ended March 31, breaking previous records for the third straight year. But numbers can be misleading. Earnings statistics indicate economic movements and trends but do not necessarily tell what these...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2005

TM bolsters notion of a Japanese mind-set over mortality

As we heard in a government white paper on the elderly last week, the number of people aged 90 or over topped 1 million in Japan for the first time in 2004. Japan has long held the record for its citizens having the longest life expectancy in the world. And the government is only too aware of the graying...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2005

Japan Kennel Club bitten for evading income taxes

Tax authorities have found that the Japan Kennel Club failed to declare 350 million yen in taxable income in the four fiscal years through March 2004, sources said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2005

Wisdom for an aging world

In the 21st century, the world faces a dual demographic problem. First, the world population will continue to grow, increasing from about 6 billion in 2005 to more than 9 billion in 2050. Second, by around that time, the waves of an aging society now enveloping the developed countries as a result of...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2005

Embezzler's prison stint upheld

The Tokyo High Court upheld on Tuesday a five-year prison term for a former chairman of the failed credit union Tokyo Shogin who caused financial damage to the firm by repeatedly extending illegal loans to a Tokyo business group.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2005

China showing a knack for taking risks

SINGAPORE -- A China that is willing to take ideological and political risks is emerging not only in affairs involving Hong Kong and Taiwan but also in the increasingly troubled relations with Tokyo and Washington.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2005

JT Readers' Fund shares 1.19 million yen

The 2004 Japan Times Readers' Fund has distributed 1,194,919 yen to five organizations to help finance projects for Asian people in need.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 5, 2005

MLB Japan tries to reassure NPB on World Baseball Classic

Disturbed by repeated media reports saying Nippon Professional Baseball is dissatisfied with the organization and conditions of next year's proposed World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball's Managing Director in Japan Jim Small invited the media to a coffee session in his Tokyo office on May 30...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2005

Amnesty challenges Japan to do more on rights

Japan can and should do more to improve its record on human rights as it seeks a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, according to the secretary general of Amnesty International.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2005

Separation of war criminals 'will never happen': Yasukuni

Yasukuni Shrine will not separate Class-A war criminals from the ranks of Japan's war dead honored there, because the outcome of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that convicted them remains controversial, officials from the Shinto shrine have said in a written statement.
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2005

New blood sought to fill worker void

The country needs to foster young workers in the manufacturing sector as a large number of baby boomers will retire in the near future, the government said in a report submitted Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2005

'Dead Man Walking' author seeks to end control of the noose

The death penalty is part of the same societal paradigm as war, as both are used by the state to impose control through violence, according to Sister Helen Prejean.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji