Search - 2017

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2007

New postal giant raises competition fears as birth approaches

The planned privatization of the postal system, which doubles as the world's biggest savings bank, was hailed around the globe as a watershed free-market reform that would streamline the world's No. 2 economy.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 19, 2006

End of the Lion

The mythmaker Jim Frederick TIME Magazine The most difficult aspect of reporting on Koizumi was confronting the fixed, immutable and monolithic "Koizumi Myth." What started as a campaign plank -- "Koizumi is a reformer and a rebel who is destroying the LDP and reinvigorating Japan" -- somehow became...
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2006

Japan Post mulls '11 listing of bank, insurer

Japan Post Corp. is considering listing in fiscal 2011 two of the four units that will be created during the organization's privatization, starting next year, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2006

Japan Post net profit at 1.9 trillion yen, up 56%

Japan Post announced Wednesday it brought in a whopping net profit of 1.93 trillion yen in the fiscal year that ended March 31, up 56 percent from the year before, thanks to the robust performance of its postal savings business.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2006

Inequalities of pensions

In 1984, the government decided to rectify inequalities between the pension plan for company employees (kosei nenkin) and the one mainly for public servants (kyosai nenkin). Public servants are entitled to receive more benefits by paying smaller amounts of contributions than company employees.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2006

The future of local post offices

Japan Post has announced a "master plan to reform postal offices" as the process of privatizing the mammoth state-run entity of 260,000 employees is set to begin in October 2007. The focus of the plan is the reform of the specially designated tokutei post offices, which account for three-fourths of the...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2006

A way past Kyoto's 'hot air'

In a Jan. 7 symposium at Dalian University of Technology, I delivered a keynote speech on the possibility of Japan's implementing the clean development mechanism in China.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2006

No place for pension evasion

At a time when people's trust in the nation's pension systems is declining, some enterprises, especially small ones, are behaving in a manner that will weaken the reliability of social security. They deliberately choose not to join the corporate employees' pension system (kosei nenkin) while the number...
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2006

Japan Post stock firm starts business

A new joint stock company set up by Japan Post began operations Monday in the leadup to privatization, which is scheduled to begin in October 2007.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2005

INEPT LEADERSHIP CONTINUES

HONG KONG -- A controversial plan to extend democracy in Hong Kong died Dec. 21 when the legislature failed to pass it by a big enough majority. Hopes of true democracy in the special region of China have thus been put into deep freeze, with recriminations reverberating from Hong Kong to Beijing and...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 5, 2005

Privatization hurdles: Japan Post should compete with banks on level playing field

The government bills drafted to privatize the state-run postal services were finally enacted into laws in mid-October, but there will be two major challenges ahead as privatization is carried out.
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2005

Postal reform just the start

With the Diet's Oct. 14 passage of the postal-services privatization bills, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has reaped a reward for his daring decision to dissolve the Lower House. But the postal privatization is only the first of many issues that the government has to address to streamline its operations...
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2005

Toward the final frontier

China's successful launching last week of its second manned spacecraft, the Shenzhou 6, coming just two years after its historic first flight, demonstrates that the country's space program is making steady progress. China's goal, obviously, is to become a "space power."
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Postal bills fly through Lower House

got what he wanted by fair means or foul," Kamei said after the vote. "It seems as if the 'age of civil wars' has been revived in modern society and I fear that democratized Japan will disappear."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2005

LDP OKs postal reform; dissent a notable no-show

The Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday unanimously endorsed the hotly contested postal privatization bills that triggered the Sept. 11 general election.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2005

It's now a case of what clicks with voters

As campaigning officially kicked off Tuesday for the Sept. 11 election, attention is focused on voters and their priorities.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2005

The meaning behind Koizumi's moves

On the surface, most elections are about personalities, false promises and special interests. But Japan's general election Sept. 11 is about a deeper historical reconciliation -- the effort to resolve differences between the country's cultural and behavioral preferences, and the organizational practices...
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2005

LDP again at the crossroads

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi views the forthcoming general election, set for Sept. 11, as a national referendum on his top-priority plan to privatize the postal system. "I would like to ask the people whether they are for or against postal privatization," he told a nationally televised press conference,...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2005

Mail to be a privatized priority?

If the postal reform bills clear the House of Councilors by the Aug. 13 end of the current Diet session, the privatization process will begin in April 2007 and end 10 years later.
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2005

A bittersweet victory for Mr. Koizumi

With the Lower House's passage of the postal privatization bills Tuesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi overcame an important hurdle in pushing the "centerpiece" of his reform agenda. The victory was bittersweet for Mr. Koizumi, however, as many members of his Liberal Democratic Party -- including...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2005

Cabinet OKs postal reform package amid chaos in LDP

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi finalized a package of postal privatization bills Wednesday night after executives of his Liberal Democratic Party rammed the bills through a series of internal meetings.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Postal reform plan is watered down but moves forward

The government Monday accepted a set of demands from top executives of the Liberal Democratic Party to further water down Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's contentious postal privatization plan.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2005

Postal issue keeps LDP at loggerheads

The Liberal Democratic Party continued late Monday night trying to put together a set of requests for modifying the government's plan to privatize postal services by 2017 by splitting Japan Post into four units.
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2005

Postal reforms get nod only from LDP execs

Liberal Democratic Party executives reacted positively Tuesday to the government's postal privatization scheme unveiled the previous day, while rank-and-file members continued to voice opposition.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2005

Bitter medicine to build trust

Political parties are bracing for a new round of joint parliamentary panel talks on social security reform. The biggest issue is how to integrate disparate and unequal parts of the public pension system. Prospects for final agreement look uncertain at best, given the wide differences that exist between...
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2005

BioCarbon Fund gets new buyer

Sumitomo Chemical Co. said Wednesday it will invest $2.5 million in the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund by 2017 to obtain some 400,000 carbon credits, which count against greenhouse gas emissions.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years