Search - 2004

 
 
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 3, 2004

Stocking of new Sendai team just part of busy NPB offseason

Get ready, fans, for what promises to be a whirlwind, action-packed offseason with an extra-hot hot stove league or, as they say here in Japan, the "hot hibachi" league. Going to be a heckuva offseason.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2004

Ishihara tries to counter city's birthrate-unfriendly nature

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara would probably be happy to learn that when Mayumi Ozaki's 2-year-old daughter caught a cold, her minder went to the girl's home and looked after her for two days.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2004

The world holds its breath

A mericans go to the polls on Tuesday, with President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry running neck in neck down to the wire. Once again it is an election too close to call -- a reminder of the 2000 race, whose final outcome hung in the balance for 36 days because of disputes over vote counting. One...
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2004

Builders hot on TSE in wake of disasters

Construction-related shares drew active buying Monday from investors betting such firms will see sharply higher demand due to the recent string of natural disasters hitting the nation.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 31, 2004

Sweeping view of socio-economic change and continuity in China for a half-century

HUMANISM IN CHINA: A Contemporary Record of Photography, edited by Wang Huangsheng and Hu Wugong. Guandong: Lingnan Meishu Chubanche, 2003, 488 pp., $40 (paper). China is a society in the midst of sweeping socio-economic convulsions that are rapidly and drastically altering the lives of its citizens....
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2004

Initial quote for Xinhua Finance falls below IPO

Xinhua Finance Ltd. fetched an initial quote of 163,000 yen in its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market Thursday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2004

Dragons' ace Kawakami snares Central League MVP award

Chunichi Dragons right-hander Kenshin Kawakami and Fukuoka Daiei Hawks infielder Nobuhiko Matsunaka were named the Most Valuable Players of the 2004 season on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2004

Typhoons trigger slide in rice harvest index

Japan's rice harvest index for 2004 worsened to a "slightly poor" rating as of Oct. 15 from "average" as of Sept. 10 due to typhoons in the one-month period that disrupted rice harvests in Kyushu and other areas, the farm ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2004

Honda, Toyota, Mazda sales up; MMC, Nissan fall

Three of the nation's five top automakers increased domestic sales in the first half of fiscal 2004, but scandal-hit Mitsubishi Motors Corp. suffered a record decline, according to data released by the five companies Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 26, 2004

MMC hopes remodeled Colt will win back drivers

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Monday unveiled a remodeled compact wagon, the firm's first new model since a series of defect coverups began surfacing in March.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 24, 2004

Japanese postcards on the edge

ART OF THE JAPANESE POSTCARD, essays by Anne Nishimura Morse, J. Thomas Rimer and Kendall H. Brown, foreword by Malcolm Rogers, preface by Leonard A. Lauder, printing notes by Joan Wright, biographies by Tomoko Okamura. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, MFA Publications, 2004, 288 pp., 300 color illustrations,...
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2004

Japan OKs imports of Chinese nori

Japan will allow imports of Chinese nori beginning next fiscal year, Yoshinobu Shimamura, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2004

Import, export trade reaches record highs

Japan's exports and imports hit record highs in value terms in the first half of fiscal 2004, spurred by brisk trade with China and other Asian economies, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2004

JAL hijacker's wife appeals ruling

The wife of one of the radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane to North Korea in 1970 appealed Wednesday the suspended sentence she received from the Tokyo District Court for violating the Passport Law.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2004

Osaka eyes putting its homeless to work

OSAKA -- Facing central government cutbacks in financial aid to the homeless, Osaka officials are teaming up with the local business community to create a new program that will put some of Osaka Prefecture's estimated 7,700 homeless to work.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2004

Income tax cuts may be scaled back: Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Tuesday the government will consider scaling back income tax cuts that have been in place since 1999 because economic recovery has taken root.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2004

Japan will pay if ODA slides

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Japan's official development assistance. Since October 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan and provided technical assistance, ODA has been an important element of Japan's diplomacy. According to the Foreign Ministry's white paper on ODA, Japan...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Oct 17, 2004

Why Deos Tihs Haedilne Mkae Snsee?

The following article appeared in the Oct. 17, 2004 issue of The Japan Times with most of the text scrambled. For that original version, visit www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20041017x2.htm.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 17, 2004

Five years in Japan, a lifetime of influences

ONE HUNDRED SENTENCES WRITTEN ON FANS, by Paul Claudel, translated by Robin Magowan. Blair Atholl: Fras Publications, 2004, 28 pp., £6.50 (paper). Although the Catholic diplomat, poet and dramatist Paul Claudel (1868-1955) lived in Japan for only five years, from 1921-1925, when he was the French ambassador,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 17, 2004

Revealing true colors of Chinese justice

WHEN RED IS BLACK, by Qiu Xiaolong. Soho Press Inc., 2004, 309 pp., $25 (cloth). Like so many other inventions and contraptions that have filtered down throughout history, fictionalized stories of crime and detection are believed to have originated in China. Whodunits set in the Middle Kingdom have been...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 16, 2004

Karen Sieg

"What I find most impressive about Tokyo International Players is that the organization has been active for 108 years, and is run completely by volunteers," said Karen Sieg. "When the international community is so transient, it is amazing to me that a small group of people with love of theater has continually...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 14, 2004

Arias, Petagine, Woods may play musical chairs in offseason

Three foreign players, all first basemen on Central League teams this past season, may be about to embark on a National Football League quarterback-style game of musical chairs.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2004

Violence in Iraq holding back foreign aid

When Mohammad Ali-Hassan, the governor of Al-Muthanna Province in southern Iraq, visited Tokyo last week, he thanked Japan for the aid it has given to his province, where Ground Self-Defense Force troops have been deployed.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2004

An aviation milestone

I f it didn't cross your mind while watching video footage of SpaceShipOne streaking into space over California's Mojave Desert on Monday, there were plenty of commentators on hand to jog your sense of history. One was Gregg Maryniak, executive director of the foundation that offered a $10 million prize...
Japan Times
Features
Oct 10, 2004

Altogether now for the business of peace

LAYTONVILLE, Calif. -- Running a nonprofit organization with a global mission of promoting peace activities and sustainability might seem noble but naive to the skeptical, but Chris Deckker takes his role seriously as the founder of Earthdance.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 10, 2004

Nothing fishy going on here

TSUKIJI: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore C. Bestor. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004. 411 pp., $24.95 (cloth). A superb study about the people, pandemonium and relationships that define the Tsukiji fish marketplace, Theodore C. Bestor's "Tsukiji" is enriched by more than...
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2004

Sales of imported vehicles climbed 1% in September

Sales of new imported vehicles in Japan, including those produced overseas by Japanese makers, rose 1.0 percent in September from a year earlier for the second straight monthly increase.

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