Search - 2005

 
 
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2005

China and Russia: brothers in arms?

Last week, China and Russia began their first ever joint military exercises. The drills have some armchair strategists warning of a new entente between Beijing and Moscow that could pose a threat to the existing regional security order. The truth about the exercises is considerably less exciting. For...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2005

Population may begin decline in '05

2005 may see Japan's population shrink for the first time, according to health ministry figures released Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2005

Vote on Koizumi's record, not postal reform, scholar says

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may want to make his postal privatization quest the focal point of the Sept. 11 election, but economics professor Masaru Kaneko argues voters should instead cast their ballots based on how he has steered the economy and society.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2005

National universities generate 110 billion yen profit

All of Japan's 89 national universities except one posted a combined gross profit of about 110 billion yen in fiscal 2004, with Osaka University at the top pf the heap with 7.1 billion yen in earnings, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2005

Mizuho outlines public funds repayment

The Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said Tuesday it will return 616.4 billion yen of the 1.466 trillion yen in public funds it received to replenish its capital by the end of this month, and that it planned to pay back the remaining 850 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2006.
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Aug 23, 2005

DVD gives lesser players chance to shake up camcorder market

A major shift in recording media from tape to disc is taking place in the camcorder market, with manufacturers rapidly expanding their DVD-compatible model lineups.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2005

For safer travel over 65

The National Police Agency chose "Striving for the World's Safest Road Traffic" as the main theme of its 2005 white paper made public recently. This is the first time in about a quarter-century that traffic safety has been the main feature of the annual report, thus denoting the agency's enthusiasm for...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

End of an era in Shibuya style

Where did all the gyaru (trashy girls) go? With their carroty tans, shoveled-on makeup and bleached hair, the kogaru (high gals), ganguro (black faces) and yamamba (ogresses) were a style phenomenon the likes of which may never be seen again.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 21, 2005

A new kind of film history

A NEW HISTORY OF JAPANESE FILM: A Century of Narrative Film, by Isolde Standish. New York/London: Continuum, 2005, 414 pp., 18 illustrations, $39.95 (cloth). Early in this account of Japanese film, the author says that prior histories have tended to follow one of two trajectories. One, which she calls...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 21, 2005

All together now, as yesterday's no-no becomes the status quo

When I first arrived in Japan in the 1960s, I was friends with a Western sociologist who was genuinely frustrated. When he went around surveying public opinion, he said that he found Japanese people to be stubbornly reserved and conservative. Apparently, those who responded to his questions about social...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 20, 2005

Sindhura Gadde

When jewelry designer Kazuo Ogawa conceptualized "Wings of Love," he said, "In all cultures and civilizations, birds have always been significant in mythology and philosophy, literature and poetry, dance and music, art and crafts, fashion and jewelry." The third annual "Wings of Love" charity event,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 19, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 08.19

Full Moon parties on Saturday, Aug. 20:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 17, 2005

Artists' works join the EU

In the last 30 years, the central eastern European nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have experienced tumultuous times. Under communism, state control and censorship forced artists to be regional and nationalistic, but since the soft slides into capitalism and democracy epitomized...
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2005

0.1% salary cut sought for government workers

The National Personnel Authority asked the government Monday to cut the basic annual salary for central government workers by 0.1 percent, or 4,000 yen, for this fiscal year through next March.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

In the face of Samurai spirit

BLOSSOMS IN THE WIND: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze, by M.G. Sheftall. NAL Caliber, 2005, 480 pp., $24.95 (cloth). For American sailors who served in the Pacific theater during the final two years of World War II, nothing was more terrifying than a kamikaze attack. Grainy black-and-white footage of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Serving the best slice of modern Japanese literature

THE COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE, Volume I: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel, with poetry selections by Amy Vladeck Heinrich and Leith Morton, introduction by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005, 864 pp.,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Art of survival born from desperation, fear and hope

SURVIVING THE SWORD: Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45, by Brian MacArthur. London: Time Warner Books, 2005, 512 pp., £20 (cloth). Of the 132,142 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) taken by Japan in World War II, 27 percent died compared to 4 percent of Germany's. The brutal treatment of the POWs is well...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 12, 2005

Chelsea leads three-horse race in quest for Premiership title

LONDON -- According to Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon the 2005-06 Premiership title will be won by "a small bunch of one" with manager Jose Mourinho predicting the Blues will confirm their second successive English crown in the last fixture on May 7 at Newcastle. So that's this season then. Roll...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2005

Livedoor sales post three-fold rise

Internet business operator Livedoor Co. said Thursday its group sales in the first nine months of its 2005 business year saw a threefold jump from a year before to 52.28 billion yen due mainly to a 3.5-fold sales leap at its Net-based financing segment.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Softbank forecasting first operating profit since 2000

Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it is projecting a full-year operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2000 thanks to subscriber growth in its high-speed Internet connection services.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Police launch traffic safety campaign

The National Police Agency said Wednesday it would try to achieve the world's best traffic safety by introducing comprehensive safety education and reviewing licensing requirements for elderly drivers.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Government seeks to keep 3% cost cut target in budget

The government hopes to trim public-works spending by at least 3 percent in the fiscal 2006 budget, the same modest cost cuts made for this fiscal year, according to budget compilation guidelines submitted Wednesday to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

JR West reports 4% increase in net profit

West Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday its group net profit in the April-June quarter rose 4.0 percent from a year ago to 13.87 billion yen despite the fatal April 25 train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Economy seen moving out of soft patch

Economic policymakers on Tuesday showed their strongest confidence yet that the nation has emerged from the lull that started in autumn and upgraded their economic assessments accordingly.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 7, 2005

Will Giants turn to foreign manager after Horiuchi departs?

The Yomiuri Giants are not going to win the 2005 Central League pennant and most likely will finish in the "B Class" (bottom three) for the first time since 1997.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 5, 2005

Colts lose Stokley to shoulder injury

With the sound of hard hits, blazing speed and dynamic super plays, the NFL is back in Tokyo for the first time in two years.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 5, 2005

Top soccer figures confound with contradictory words

LONDON -- England was gearing up to the start of the Ashes series against Australia, the cricket season building into its much-awaited climax.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami