Search - 2003

 
 
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

Bandai logs 4 billion yen profit in first quarter

Bandai Co. said Tuesday it posted a group net profit of 4.01 billion yen in the April-June quarter on sales of 58.12 billion yen.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 6, 2003

Hanshin's magical season brings back memories of 1985

Sometimes history repeats itself. Eighteen years ago, in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers entered the month of August with a healthy lead in the Central League standings. The weather was as scorching as the Tigers who then, as now, played their home games at historic Koshien Stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2003

War notes for the leaders in Pyongyang

WASHINGTON -- In recent weeks, as the heavy global workload and overcommitment of the U.S. armed forces has become apparent, some have asked if the United States could handle a major crisis or a war in Korea these days.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 3, 2003

Visitors to stay -- for the time being

GLOBAL JAPAN: The experience of Japan's new immigrant and overseas communities, edited by Roger Goodman, Ceri Peach, Ayumi Takenaka and Paul White. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 241 pp., £65, (cloth). Many in Japan have been slow to accept the fact that international labor migration does...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2003

What will succeed the Korean armistice?

SEOUL -- One of the ironies of the Korean War, whose legacy was commemorated last Sunday, is that one cannot be sure that it is finally over. While the armistice has held for 50 years, the parties to it are still engaged in controversy, with the Korean Peninsula drifting deeper into crisis and the prospect...
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

Main street land values fall again

The average price of land on main streets in Japan stood at 121,000 yen per sq. meter as of Jan. 1, down 6.2 percent, or 8,000 yen, from 12 months earlier, the National Tax Agency said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

Economy, deficit least served by budget caps

Although the government faces two important goals -- shoring up the fragile economy and cutting its enormous budget deficit -- the cap on core fiscal 2004 budget outlays the Cabinet endorsed Friday only increases concern that neither can be achieved anytime soon.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2003

EBook market hit 1 billion yen in '02

The Japanese market for eBooks soared to 1 billion yen in 2002, according to a recent market survey conducted by publishing house Impress Corp.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 1, 2003

New Korean films to debut in Japan

Several new Korean films will be shown Aug. 30-31 at Cinema Korea 2003 at Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo, with three of them being screened for the first time in Japan.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

ANA now anticipating bigger SARS hit

All Nippon Airways Co. said Thursday that it now expects annual group revenue from international passenger flights to fall 42 billion yen below the amount forecast in its original fiscal 2003 business plan.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

Bank execs face FSA ultimatum to lift earnings

The Financial Services Agency on Friday will order the management of five domestic banking groups to either improve their earnings by the end of the year or step down, FSA sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

Full-year record for yen-bashing set in first half

Japan used more than 9 trillion yen to intervene in the foreign-exchange market between January and July, breaking its record for a full year, according to data released Thursday by the Finance Ministry.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

Honda saw net profit fall 5.4% in first quarter

Honda Motor Co. reported a consolidated net profit of 101.82 billion yen in the April-June quarter, down 5.4 percent from the same period last year, company officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

GDP growth could exceed forecast

The nation's gross domestic product growth in fiscal 2003 may exceed the government forecast of 0.6 percent, with stronger economic activity coming in the latter half of the year, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2003

Carmakers see rise in global output

Japan's five major carmakers all increased global production in the January-June period, supported by strong overseas demand, according to reports released Monday by the firms.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

Fabrics for summer fun

MATSURI: Japanese Festival Arts, by Gloria Granz Gonick. University of Washington Press, 2003, 256 pp., $40 (paper). The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has published eight books on Asian textiles in the past 14 years, and it seems particularly proud of this latest addition "Matsuri," which focuses...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2003

Brands vie for your thirst

"Advertising," as it's often defined, "is the creation of wants."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

The art of redemption

YOSHIMASA AND THE SILVER PAVILION: The Creation of the Soul of Japan, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 10 illustrations, 224 pp., $29.95 (paper). In the appropriate volume of his monumental history of Japanese literature, Donald Keene only once mentions the eighth Ashikaga...
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2003

Quakes of last 20 years

The following is a chronology of major earthquakes in Japan since May 1983. As well as a magnitude reading, Japan operates a seismic intensity scale that ranges from 1 to 7. Levels 5 and 6 have had "lower" and "upper" categories since 1996.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2003

A laconic energy from days gone by

TALES OF DAYS GONE BY: Woodcuts by Naoko Matsubara, English translation and annotation by Charles De Wolf, design by Yoshiki Waterhouse. ALIS, 2003, 64 pp., 3,900 yen (cloth). ALIS (Arts & Literature International Service) is a small Japanese publisher that specializes in illustrated books and acts as...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

300 billion yen sought for rice reforms

The Liberal Democratic Party will request a budget of about 300 billion yen for rice policy reforms for fiscal 2004, LDP officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Foreign bond sales drive up Nikko Cordial group net profit

Nikko Cordial Corp., Japan's third-largest securities firm, said Friday its group net profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2003 soared more than three-fold, thanks to a jump in sales of foreign bonds.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2003

Can Ms. Doi restore trust in SDP?

The Metropolitan Police Department last week arrested Ms. Kiyomi Tsujimoto, a former Lower House member of the Social Democratic Party, on suspicion of misappropriating salaries paid by the government to her two public secretaries in charge of policy affairs. The MPD also arrested those former secretaries...
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2003

New traffic law a red light for 'bosozoku'

Police across the nation reported fewer cases of illegal driving by "bosozoku" motoring gangs in the first six months of the year, as well as a decline in reckless gang driving, according to the National Police Agency said.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 22, 2003

Make space, shock value and J-culture

Family line Karen writes in response to Linda Croissant's question in Lifelines (June 10) about how to get rid of stuff she doesn't want.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Need to leave Japan?

YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN IN JAPAN TOO LONG . . . , by Bill Mutranowski. Tuttle Publishing, 2003, 120 pp., $14.95 (paper). Many foreigners will tell you that if you plan to stay in Japan long term then "for sanity's sake, get out of the country at least six times a year!" It is one of those warnings that...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Taking readers to the edge

RUNNERS IN THE MARGINS: Poems by Akira Tatehata, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: P.S A Press, 2003, 103 pp., $12.95 (paper) The poet Akira Tatehata has a wide-ranging imagination as rich, and yet as controlled, as the brush of the most delicate artist. His poems are sometimes playful, sometimes...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 19, 2003

Kawaguchi hopes to make 49ers roster

Former Japan linebacker Masafumi Kawaguchi confidently vowed to make the San Francisco 49ers final roster and become the first Japanese player in the NFL as the 30-year-old Ritsumeikan University alumni heads to the Niners' training camp.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2003

'Kenpo' deficit widens

Japan's health insurance system for private-sector employees (Kenpo) is sinking deeper into deficit. It is estimated that eight of 10 health insurance associations booked losses in fiscal 2002. At this rate, an increase in insurance premiums seems inevitable.
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2003

Hong Kong's democratic hopes vs. authoritarian fears

HONG KONG -- July 1, 2003 -- when at least 500,000 Hong Kongers marched in nonviolent protest -- will live long in memory, provided that Hong Kong remains an oasis of freedom set in China's authoritarian sea. But it was also a day that will almost certainly be expunged from the Chinese collective memory...

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