Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Consumers help GDP edge up just 0.1%

Slumping corporate spending and exports caused the economy to slow to a crawl in the July-September period, with real gross domestic product expanding just 0.1 percent from the previous quarter, Cabinet Office data showed Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2004

Doyukai pushes government to clean up nation's finances

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) urged the government Thursday to come up with specific plans to sort out the nation's finances, association officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2004

Community service required curricula

Students at all Tokyo Metropolitan Government-run high schools will be forced to engage in community service beginning in the 2007 academic year, metro board of education officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2004

State urged to pare, eventually end yen loans to aid-donor China

Japan should reduce its yen loans to China with an eye to eventually abolishing them because such official developmental assistance is no longer needed, says a report released Wednesday by the House of Councilors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2004

Manga animates new millennium

Manga took a giant leap into its future on New Year's Day 1963, when space-age cartoon images from Osamu Tezuka's famed comic book "Tetsuwa Atomu (Astro Boy)" came to life in Japan's first original animated TV series. This was the birth of anime, which has now mushroomed into a multi-billion-dollar global...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2004

Dealing with the nuclear-threat hydra

LONDON -- The U.S. government has named Iran and North Korea as rogue states. Iran is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and breaching the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). North Korea may already have a few nuclear devices and has announced its withdrawal from the NPT. The two states...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2004

Government plans stricter rules on disposal of CFC substitutes

Regulations on disposal of chlorofluorocarbon substitutes that cause global warming will be tightened, government sources said Tuesday.
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 3, 2004

Final Toyota Cup

The 25th and final edition of the Toyota Cup between Portugal's FC Porto and Colombian side Once Caldas will be held at International Stadium Yokohama on Dec. 12, the Japan Football Association said Tuesday.
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.
COMMENTARY
Nov 1, 2004

Withdrawal is the only honorable way out

WASHINGTON -- Iraq has become the central issue in America's presidential campaign, but neither candidate has a solution for a conflict that has cost more than 1,100 American lives. Unfortunately, the killing will continue until the United States and its allies withdraw their forces, leaving Iraq to...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 29, 2004

Mystery solved: Ferguson hit by orange juice during brawl

LONDON -- There is nothing this column likes more than an exclusive though it would normally be a player moving to another club or a manager quitting than a culinary scoop.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 27, 2004

Foreign heavy hitters show some 'appeal' during Japan Series

Congratulations to the Seibu Lions on winning their first Japan Series in 12 years.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2004

British pension crisis looms

LONDON -- An important report on the pension crisis facing Britain was published Oct. 12. The report by the Pensions Commission, chaired by Adair Turner, a former director of the Confederation of British Industry, warned that, because of increased longevity and a shortfall in pension funds, British pensioners...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Tentative accord reached on U.S. beef

Japan and the United States on Saturday agreed in principle to resume U.S. beef imports as early as next spring, although a final accord on specific conditions for lifting the ban was left to further negotiations.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2004

Jobless hurting nation's growth rate

An increase in the number of young people who do not attend schools, get jobs or receive job training will probably pull down Japan's potential growth rate during the 2000-2005 period, according to a think tank report.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2004

Households could be hit with 5,000 yen green tax

Households might have to pay an average 4,950 yen per year if a planned environment tax is introduced in fiscal 2005, according to a government draft released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2004

Aichi's futuristic expo to spotlight the past with 10,000-year-old mammoth

Shuttle buses without drivers, trains floating on magnetic fields and other visions of the future will be on display at the Aichi world fair next year. But Expo 2005's centerpiece will be rooted deep in the past -- the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth.
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2004

JAL, ANA meet different needs

In February, Japan Airlines Corp. surprised the industry by announcing it would replace its super-seat luxury class, which had been in place for 18 years, with a new, cheaper class on domestic flights.
Features
Oct 17, 2004

In another language of crime and detection

Qiu Xiaolong, 51, says his first encounter with mystery fiction occurred around age 14 or 15, when he read Sherlock Holmes stories during the Cultural Revolution. "Of course I read the book by stealth at the time," he recalls. Japanese mystery films shown in China years later provided another source...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 16, 2004

Livedoor president grilled over Web site

Livedoor president Takafumi Horie faced a battery of questions from Japanese baseball officials regarding the adult content of his company's Web site.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2004

Cash for Iraq in short supply at confab

Donor countries on Thursday renewed their vow to support Iraq's reconstruction and the political process for a parliamentary election in January, but few offered fresh contributions to the war-torn country as they wrapped up a conference in Tokyo.
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.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2004

Koizumi opens Diet session with pledge to stick to reforms

A 53-day extraordinary Diet session began Tuesday, with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterating his determination to stick to his administrative reform initiatives, including the privatization of Japan's postal services.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2004

Tourists get cheaper shinkansen tours

Budget-minded travelers from overseas wanting to ride Japan's famous but pricey bullet trains can now get a break from Tokaido Shinkansen Line operator Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and leading travel agency JTB Corp.

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