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JAPAN
Jan 29, 2011

Kan defends being S&P-blindsided

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday defended his remarks on the downgrade of Japan's sovereign credit rating by Standard & Poor's, saying he had yet to be informed of the news when he said he was "not familiar with the matter."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

Greed is good again in 'Wall Street' sequel

BEVERLY HILLS, California — After having announced a week earlier that he had beaten cancer, Michael Douglas took the stage at the Golden Globes awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 16 and was greeted with a warm round of applause.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2010

Diet takes up stimulus package; kingpin stays mum

As the Diet began a plenary session on a ¥5.1 trillion emergency stimulus package Thursday, Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Katsuya Okada said his efforts to persuade Ichiro Ozawa to appear before an ethics panel to explain his involvement in a political money scandal did not bear fruit....
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2010

BOJ cuts its key rate to zero

The Bank of Japan cut its key interest rate effectively to zero Tuesday, pledging to hold that line until the end of deflation is in sight.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2010

Exec pay corporate matter, Jimi says

Financial services minister Shozaburo Jimi said Friday that companies in general should decide their executives' pay, responding to a newspaper report that the government wants Shinsei Bank Ltd. to cap salaries.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 29, 2010

Tightened credit rules threaten to spawn 'loan refugees'

Japan may be in the midst of a silent epidemic of kinketsu-byo ("lack of money disease"). The source of the infection is a new statute that bans many borrowers from obtaining unsecured loans.
BASKETBALL
May 16, 2010

Five Arrows face uncertain future after bankruptcy

The Takamatsu Five Arrows may become the first bj-league team to go out of business.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2010

Sense of complacency links Japan to Greek crisis

There's nothing like a good financial meltdown to straighten out your priorities. When it happened in Greece more than a month ago, the Japanese press went over to see whether or not the country's situation had anything to teach Japan. After all, Japan's public debt is much worse than Greece's. In fact,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 9, 2010

TV Tokyo's soft approach toughens consumer savvy

Each of Japan's key commercial TV stations has distinctive traits, though in terms of programming these distinctions are probably insignificant to the average viewer, especially when you often have the boy band Arashi appearing on two or three different stations in the same evening.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2010

The IMF to Greece's rescue?

WASHINGTON — Traditionally "you should go to the IMF" was not something you would say to friendly neighbors and close allies. Over the past few decades, the International Monetary Fund became associated with excessive fiscal austerity, extreme political insensitivity, and — since the Asian financial...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 12, 2010

JBA sketches out plans for bj-league, JBL merger

The Japan Basketball Association has come up with a 10-step outline for the creation of a new professional men's league in 2013.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2010

Students want jobs at ANA, traders, Shiseido

As student job seekers struggle amid the worst employment situation in years, All Nippon Airways topped their list of sought-after employers for a second year, while troubled Japan Airlines fell to 52nd place, according to a recent survey conducted by a major job-hunting Web site.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2009

Wresting the press from pampered hacks

HONG KONG — Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was adamant that a free press is the most precious of all freedoms because it opens up or expands other freedoms. He famously wrote that given the choice of a government without a free press or a free press without a government,...
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Japan under fire for laying low in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN — Japan needs to step up and take a more prominent and visible leadership role at the U.N. climate talks or the conference could end in failure, Japanese and foreign nongovernmental organizations said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2009

Some progress from the G20

The global recession may have found its floor, but efforts to ensure that the crisis does not repeat itself continue to be frustrated. That was the message from last weekend's meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers. There is consensus on the need to stop the obscene payments to...
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2009

Need for emergency credit diminishing: Suda

An improvement in corporate financing has reduced the need for the Bank of Japan's emergency credit programs, BOJ Policy Board member Miyako Suda said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 5, 2009

Time for Apache to do right thing with Joe Bryant

It's been 2 1/2 months since the Ryukyu Golden Kings defeated the Tokyo Apache in the bj-league championship game.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2009

Pope's dream of heaven on Earth

HONG KONG — Of all the criticisms and critiques of the state of the world since the financial crisis that triggered global recession, the most devastating and yet the most profound and constructive came this month from such an unusual and unlikely source that many media ignored them. Yet the comments...
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2009

Forget the suicide stereotype

Now that spring has dissolved into the sticky humidity of rainy season, now that go gatsu byo — "May sickness" — has melted away along with the memory of the cherry blossoms, perhaps it is time to wash away one of the most pervasive stereotypes of Japan, its dubious status as a "suicide nation."...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2009

Geithner bets U.S. banks can avert 'lost decade'

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is betting that U.S. banks can do something their Japanese counterparts were unable to accomplish in Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s: earn their way out of trouble.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 14, 2009

Job firing launched labor activist on career

You may have seen him on TV, commenting on Nova teachers who lost their income and housing when the language school went bankrupt in November 2007. Or you may have seen him marching through Shibuya, leading a chant of "Tatakau zo! (We'll fight!)" and calling for solidarity and action among workers. Or...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2009

Tokyo relieved no drama in Obama's Japan policy

Prime Minister Taro Aso's political situation may be tenuous when he meets Tuesday in Washington with President Barack Obama, but so far the new administration's rhetoric and policies toward Japan appear mainly to be firmly rooted in that of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2009

Lender SFCG folds; debts at ¥338 billion

SFCG Co., a Tokyo-based lender whose creditors include Citigroup Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, triggering a slump in financial stocks on concern the recession will cause more corporate failures.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?