Search - 2004

 
 
Rugby
May 9, 2005

Japan steamrolls Hong Kong 91-3 in Rugby WC qualifier

Japan opened its qualifying campaign for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in emphatic style on Sunday with a 91-3 drubbing of Hong Kong at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Rugby Field.
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2005

Grim outlook sways voters

PARIS -- On May 13, Jacques Chirac will celebrate the 13th anniversary of his first election to the presidency of the French Republic. Will he run for office again in 2007?
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2005

Losing the war on terror?

The U.S. government has just released its annual report on terrorism, and it makes for grim reading. Equally troubling is the report's omissions: This year it does not give the specific number of terrorist attacks last year. Yet serious terrorist incidents are increasing, a finding that is even more...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005

Coating the truth to make fiction

THE COAT THAT COVERS HIM AND OTHER STORIES, by Michael Hoffman. Authorhouse, 2004, 632 pp., 2,940 yen (paper). Japan, having contrived the image of itself as a manifestly gentle society, the spiritual home of garden gnomes and all that is cute and cuddly, is now awakening to a manifestly dysfunctional...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005

Memoirs of an activist

RESTLESS WAVE: My Life in Two Worlds, by Ayako Ishigaki. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2004, 286 pp., $16.95 (paper). Those who know something about Ayako Ishigaki (or who have cheated and read the afterword to "Restless Wave" before the text proper) will find the first...
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2005

Police launch major probe into Amagasaki train crash

Driver training -- Page 2
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2005

Mazda posts 35% jump in net profit

Mazda Motor Corp. saw group net profit jump 35 percent from a year earlier to a record 45.8 billion yen, while operating profit rose 18 percent to an all-time high of 82.9 billion yen in fiscal 2004, company officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2005

Dismay for MHI; joy for Kawasaki

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. released contrasting profit results for fiscal 2004 on Thursday, with the former suffering a dive in group net profit and the latter posting a sizable increase.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 28, 2005

Angry Tuffy lashes out at 'lousy' Giants teammates

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Tuffy Rhodes is tired of losing, and has some harsh words for his teammates.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2005

Shiseido posts a net loss of 8.86 billion yen

Shiseido Co. said Wednesday it posted an 8.86 billion yen net loss for the year that ended in March, after booking hefty restructuring costs including an early retirement package.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2005

Nippon Steel profit jumped five-fold in '04

Nippon Steel Corp. said Wednesday its group net profit totaled 220.60 billion yen for fiscal 2004, a 5.3-fold jump from the year before, thanks to brisk steel sales amid strong demand at home and abroad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 27, 2005

Soft-focus images to unsettle us

The first Yokohama Triennale, held back in 2001, was a critical success, and so I was delighted to hear that the second incarnation of the contemporary art extravaganza has been set for September.
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2005

Household spending saw first rise in eight years in '04

Monthly spending by wage-earning households rose for the first time in eight years in fiscal 2004, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2005

Honda hits record profit on brisk overseas sales

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday its group net profit increased 4.7 percent from the previous year to a record 486.1 billion yen in fiscal 2004, mainly due to brisk overseas sales and a rise in profits from affiliates.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2005

Tokyo court rejects Yasukuni-visit suit

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a damages suit by about 1,000 people, including South Koreans, who said visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara were unconstitutional.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Ex-UFJ execs in scandal avoid prison

Former UFJ Bank Vice President Kazuyoshi Okazaki, 57, was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, for masterminding efforts to thwart government inspections in 2003.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

Index, KDDI move to boost mobile content

Index Corp., the leading distributor of content for mobile phones, said Monday it has formed a capital alliance with and will become the largest shareholder of toy maker Takara Co.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Is the economy better off under Koizumi?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday enters the fifth year of his administration.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

DoCoMo to end pager service in 2007

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday it will stop offering pager services at the end of March 2007, pulling the plug on the nearly 40-year-old business due to decreasing subscribers.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

Nissan reports record profit for fifth year

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it posted a record group net profit of 512.3 billion yen for fiscal 2004, up 1.7 percent from the previous year, and the fifth consecutive record annual profit.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2005

Better India-Pakistan relations

Last week Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on various new confidence-building measures between the two nations. Their talks, held during Mr. Musharraf's unofficial visit to India on April 17, produced agreement, for example, on the passage of trucks...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2005

N.Y. Times bureau chief honored

Internationally recognized journalist and author Howard W. French was awarded an honorary doctorate Saturday in Tokyo in recognition of his years reporting on Asia as chief of The New York Times' Tokyo and Shanghai bureaus.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 24, 2005

Time for some Showa trivia and Heisei melodrama

GEISHA -- HARLOT -- STRANGLER -- STAR: A Woman, Sex & Morality in Modern Japan, by William Johnston. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 245 pp., $29.50, (cloth). ISOLATION, by Christopher Belton. New York: Leisure Fiction, 2003, $6.99, 372 pp., (paper). To be honest, I've never really understood...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2005

Former teacher can't understand indictment over 'Kimigayo' protest

A former teacher pleaded not guilty in a court hearing Thursday to a charge of disrupting a graduation ceremony at a public high school in Tokyo last year by opposing the singing of "Kimigayo," the national anthem.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2005

Agency inspects 39 Aum facilities

The Public Security Investigation Agency inspected 39 Aum Shinrikyo-related facilities in 2004, later sharing pertinent data with 49 municipal governments, according to a government report released Friday.

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