Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2010

Kingpin win would delay charges

Now that Ichiro Ozawa has made it official and will run for president of the Democratic Party of Japan, a key question is whether he can be indicted over his alleged financial illegalities should he win and become prime minister.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 24, 2010

Girl idol group about mass exposure, fans

AKB48 has taken the pop singing idol phenom and multiplied it into a mass-production, mass-marketing, mass presence affair.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 20, 2010

Time for bj-league to slow down on expansion

In a mad rush to expand, the bj-league is ignoring a number of real concerns, including the pressing need to aggressively market itself in Tokyo, this nation's entertainment, government, financial and media capital.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2010

Apple to report Nano glitch fix

Apple Inc. has until the end of this month to report to the Consumer Affairs Agency on its efforts to warn users that some iPod Nano music players may overheat and catch fire.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2010

Japan's experience highlights perils for China

Until the global financial crisis hit, China had achieved export-led high economic growth by keeping its currency at an undervalued level. It is now abundantly clear that the growth model is not sustainable. The People's Bank of China reinstated the "managed floating exchange rate regime with reference...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2010

Kan apologizes for colonial rule of Korea

Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued a statement Tuesday apologizing to South Korea for Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2010

Corgan hails Summer Sonic's '90s vibe

"The positive reaction to what we're doing right now musically and the emotion coming off the stage has just lit a fire back up," says Billy Corgan — guitarist, vocalist and sole remaining original member of alternative titans The Smashing Pumpkins. "I haven't seen a reaction to the band like this...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jul 24, 2010

Tigers slugger Brazell praises team's fans

FUKUOKA — Craig Brazell didn't care that he was almost left off the All-Star roster.
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2010

Tax ripoff gets thumbs down

The Supreme Court has decided that a 1968 tax notice imposing inheritance as well as income taxes on the beneficiaries of life-insurance money paid in the form of a pension is illegal. The ruling was the culmination of a lawsuit filed against tax authorities in 2005 by a Nagasaki housewife. She deserves...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 18, 2010

Bikes starlet of Bangkok rides high

"Instead of staying home, I like to meet many people — I like my freedom," says Chiemi Svensson. It's a feeling this 57-year-old Japanese resident of Bangkok surely has in common with most of her Harley customers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2010

Trippple Nippples serve up a hot mess

Trippple Nippples deal in terminally infectious party music, electropop infused with punk attitude and new-wave frivolity. They also do a nice line in chaos.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 14, 2010

Summer: the season of 'fire flowers'

Summer is fireworks season. For centuries, Japanese have been fascinated by this spectacle of lights called "hanabi," which literally means "fire flowers."
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 6, 2010

Japan's hostile hosteling industry

As you may know, Japan has no national civil or criminal legislation outlawing and punishing racial discrimination, meaning businesses with "Japanese only" signs aren't doing anything illegal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 29, 2010

Elementary schools to get English

Starting next fiscal year, all elementary schools will be required to introduce compulsory English lessons for fifth- and sixth-graders.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2010

Maradona casts spell at world's crossroads

NEW YORK — I can still hear the Mexican sportscaster shouting in the radio for more than a minute — "Dieguitooooo, Dieguitoooooo, Diego Armando Maradonaaaaaaa!" — after the Argentine soccer player scored his second goal against the British during the 1986 World Cup that Argentina would go on to...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2010

Indonesia moving to reduce forest loss, warming emissions

SINGAPORE — Recent developments in curbing high levels of forest loss around the world, particularly in the tropics, are promising. They are significant because deforestation, including the clearing of trees from peat swamps in Southeast Asia, is the biggest source of global warming emissions from...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 10, 2010

Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani, 55, is the designer of Pac-Man, the classic video game that virtually kick-started the world market for the video-gaming industry. Released by Namco in Tokyo on May 22, 1980, Pac-Man made history as the first video game that appealed to both genders and to all age groups. Idea-man Iwatani,...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2010

Responsibility for asbestos ills

The Osaka District Court on May 19 ordered the government to pay ¥435 million in compensation to 23 people who worked in asbestos-spinning factories in the Sennan area of Osaka Prefecture from 1939 to 2005. It did not offer compensation to three other plaintiffs, including a resident who lived near...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 25, 2010

Looking East as British system goes south

In the months preceding the Lower House election last year, an ambitious Ichiro Ozawa, destined to become Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) secretary general, headed to Britain to study the "Westminster system." His aim was to bring Japan's politics closer to that of Britain, to weaken the power of the...
JAPAN / CUSTODY OR ABDUCTION
May 14, 2010

Hague pact no answer to in-country custody fights

Applicable only in cases where children are wrongfully taken from their country of "habitual residence," the Hague Convention offers no recourse to foreigners in Japan trying to gain access to their children following a death or divorce if they are not granted custody.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2010

Rare finding of negligence

The Tokyo District Court on May 11 found Mr. Toshihiro Kobayashi, former president of gas water heater maker Paloma Industries Ltd., and Mr. Wataru Kamatsuka, former chief quality control officer of the company, guilty of causing the death of an 18-year-old university student and the injury of his brother...

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