Search - (2006-01-27)

 
 
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2005

Time to allow a female emperor

A government panel on imperial succession has issued a final proposal to revise the Imperial Household Law. It contains two main points. One is that females and their descendants should be allowed to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. The second is that the emperor's firstborn child, regardless of gender,...
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2005

Seibu to shut anemic Shizuoka, Toyama outlets by end of '06

Seibu Department Stores Ltd. plans to close its outlets in the cities of Toyama and Shizuoka by the end of 2006, it was learned Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2005

OECD expecting steady 2% growth in economy

Japan could grow steadily by 2.0 percent in both 2006 and 2007 because the world's second-largest economy is now less dependent on exports and its expansion is spreading to domestically oriented activity, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 29, 2005

Ai, Sakura to play in World Cup

Ai Miyazato and Sakura Yokomine will represent Japan at the 2006 Women's World Cup of Golf to be held in South Africa in January, Japan LPGA officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2005

Internet, animation grad schools get a thumbs down

An education ministry panel came out Monday against the establishment of two graduate schools, one aiming to provide courses over the Internet and the other for training animation experts.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2005

Yasukuni impasse cracking

Since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001, Japan has faced diplomatic spats with China and South Korea over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine. On Oct. 17, Koizumi made his fifth Yasukuni visit as prime minister, as Japan's relations with the two neighbors soured.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 28, 2005

Tax reforms must sustain positive economic cycle

The Japanese economy is on the path toward a full-scale recovery driven by the private sector. The next major challenge for the nation is to its rebuildfiscal health, which is now the worst among the key industrialized countries.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2005

Digital players killing off MDs

Global sales of recordable MiniDiscs are expected to total 144 million units in 2005, down 25 percent from the previous year, due to the widespread use of portable digital music players, an industry association said Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 25, 2005

Swallows 'no' to Ishii

Yakult Swallows closer Hirotoshi Ishii wants to pitch in the major leagues but the team has refused to give him the green light to move to North America under the so-called posting system.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2005

Zebari urges extension of GSDF deployment

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Thursday urged his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, to keep the Self-Defense Forces troops deployed to Samawah, a Foreign Ministry official said.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2005

EBC frets corporate law amendment

The European Business Council in Japan issued an annual white paper on the nation's business environment Thursday that recommends changing an article in the revised corporation law it fears could make the structure of some European companies here illegal.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

Developers wed something old, new

Central Tokyo is undergoing an office redevelopment boom that in part includes restoring structures from the Meiji to Showa eras and sometimes incorporating them into new high rises, and making replicas of historic buildings, including famous Western-style ones.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2005

SMFG posts record net in first half

The Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group said Tuesday it posted a 392.3 billion yen net profit in the first half of the 2005 business year -- more than seven times the 53.4 billion yen profit it recorded a year earlier.
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2005

Tax diversion poses challenges

This fiscal year the government is expected to collect about 5.78 trillion yen in revenues from six different taxes paid by automobile and road users. Because these revenues are legally earmarked for road improvement, however, the government cannot use the money for other purposes. This rigidity has...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2005

China far way from becoming global technology powerhouse

China has come a long way to show "pockets of excellence" in some fields of science and technology, but it still has a long way to go before it can become a full-blown innovative power, a China expert at a U.S. think tank told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 20, 2005

Words of war, peace and the future

THE THOUGHT WAR: Japanese Imperial Propaganda, by Barak Kushner. Honolulu: The University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 244 pp., $45.00 (cloth). This completely individual and very interesting account of the uses of propaganda in Japan concludes with the observation that it would be historically naive to pretend...
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2005

An emerging picture of growth

Japan's economy in the July-September quarter expanded 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, or 1.7 at the annualized rate, in price-adjusted real terms, according to a preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) report from the Cabinet Office. That was the fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2005

A chance to clean up terror

NEW DELHI -- The Oct. 8 South Asian earthquake struck at the epicenter of a principal recruiting ground and logistic center for global terrorists, leveling a number of terrorist nurseries and training camps in an area that serves as the last main refuge of al-Qaida. Much of the quake's destruction occurred...
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 17, 2005

Sub fires in winner as Japan tops Angola

It was the late, late show from Japan once again on Wednesday night as substitute Daisuke Matsui powered in a last-minute header to give Japan a 1-0 win over fellow World Cup qualifier Angola in a friendly at Tokyo's National Stadium.
BUSINESS
Nov 16, 2005

Yosano downplays criticism of BOJ

Economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano downplayed criticism Tuesday within the government over the Bank of Japan's plan to explore an end to its ultra-loose monetary policy.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2005

Braking illicit drug use

Police statistics show that the number of people taken into police custody on narcotics-related charges is on the decrease. Still, optimism about drug use in Japan is not warranted, as recent arrests or indictments have involved a former lawmaker and members of the Self-Defense Forces.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2005

Japan to build own Patriot missiles for defense shield

The Defense Agency is planning to procure 124 Patriot surface-to-air missiles by the end of fiscal 2010 and to have a domestic defense contractor build them to replace imports, which will meet initial demand, informed sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
Features / JAPAN FASHION WEEK IN TOKYO 2005
Nov 13, 2005

'Overcome' scion shines in her own quirky way

She may be Yohji's daughter, but Limi Yamamoto wasn't exactly born clutching a silver spoon. Her parents got divorced when she turned 2 years old, and the next 15 years were spent in a small town in Kyushu, where she saw her father once every three years or so.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 12, 2005

Beckham's glamour image at heart of debate on his talent

LONDON -- David Beckham captains England for the 50th time against Argentina in a friendly in Geneva on Saturday with, in many respects, the jury still out on the Real Madrid midfielder.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2005

BOJ chief ties end of ultraloose policy to steady CPI rise

The country's core consumer prices are likely to rise steadily as fiscal 2006 draws closer, which will give the Bank of Japan the green light to end its ultraloose monetary policy, BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2005

Ministry to hike Tamiflu stockpile

The health ministry plans to expand the nation's stockpile of influenza-fighting Tamiflu and come up with measures to deal with any shortages, including prioritizing drug recipients, ministry sources said Thursday.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan