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BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2011

Tsunami repair work may surpass Kobe quake's: Toyo Construction

Toyo Construction Co., the Tokyo-based port builder, said that work following the March 11 tsunami may surpass the ¥60 billion it earned after the 1995 Kobe quake as local governments bolster sea defenses.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2011

Tepco debt swaps facing 53% chance of defaulting

The cost of protecting Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s debt shows the likelihood of a default increased to 53 percent after the utility's credit rating was cut to junk status by Standard & Poor's.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2011

Toshiba expects slower reactor sales

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday its current business plan for nuclear power plant construction is likely to be delayed by a few years due to growing global caution against nuclear power plants.
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2011

Suspension without a vision

Chubu Electric Power Co., which serves central Japan around Nagoya, decided Monday to suspend all operations at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture in response to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's call Friday for the suspension for safety reasons.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2011

Hot money pelting the bystanders

Take a taxi in São Paulo nowadays and you will experience the maddening traffic and untidy streets of an emerging-country metropolis. But when the time comes to pay for the ride, you may feel like you are in Boston, Luxemburg, or Zurich: the value of the Brazilian real, like the currencies of many emerging-market...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2011

Market investors loath to weigh real challenges to U.S. economy

HONG KONG — Sometimes I find it hard to understand "Mr. Market" — if I may presume to call and poke fun at the combined wisdom of investors in stock and other markets. Immediately after announcement of a modest rise in U.S. employment numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose, triggering a general...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2011

Kansai region wonders: Could it happen here?

TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. — On a hillside overlooking Tsuruga, about a dozen children and their mothers are enjoying the day at At Home, the Fukui Atomic Energy Science Museum. Inside, kids rush to play free arcade-style games spread across the two-floor facility. Some feature the latest computer graphics...
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2011

Promoting tourism

Can tourism become a force for economic growth? The Japanese government hopes so, making tourism, including medical tourism, one pillar of its new growth strategy adopted last summer.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Challenges await next Tokyo leader

While many familiar faces, among them Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa, former Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru and businessman Miki Watanabe, are likely to be seen in the April 10 Tokyo gubernatorial election, the capital's most prominent is expected to stand down.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2011

More trade, less hunger

GENEVA — The recent sharp spike in food prices and growing concerns about food security have sparked anxiety worldwide. The possibility of being unable to put food on the table fills parents with a deep sense of foreboding. And because the world's poorest people spend a higher proportion of their income...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2011

JBIC mulls funding Inpex, Toshiba

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation is considering helping fund overseas projects led by Inpex Corp. and Toshiba Corp. worth $40 billion as the government aims to boost exports of equipment and technology.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2011

Sapporo to go on spending spree

Seeking to expand in North America, brewer Sapporo Holdings Ltd. plans to spend as much as ¥125 billion on acquisitions and partnerships over a four-year period.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2011

Inpex has debt-cost advantage over China

Japan, surpassed by China as the world's second-largest economy, has one advantage in competing with its neighbor for natural resources: lower borrowing costs.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2011

Remembering Kobe

Sixteen years have passed since a devastating earthquake hit Kobe on Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,434 people and injuring some 44,000 others. In 2010, the Hyogo prefectural government and the Kobe city government for the first time designated 328 people as having become disabled due to the quake. But 121...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2010

Host-nation support to stand at ¥188 billion until 2016

Japan agreed Tuesday to maintain its level of host-nation support for U.S. forces at an annual ¥188.1 billion for the next five years starting in fiscal 2011.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2010

Dark side of a Western defense of freedom

BRUSSELS — The price of freedom, it is said, is eternal vigilance. But that price can take the form of morally squalid decisions in which innocent people bear the brunt of the cost of freedom's defense.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 8, 2010

Brazil film fest to tour Japan

Brazil has been on a roll lately. The world's fifth largest country has been awarded the FIFA World Cup for 2014 and South America's first Olympics in 2016. Brazilians can't help but feel jubilant as the world's gaze turns south.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2010

Fiscally, Obama has had a rough summer

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Has the Obama administration learned anything from the string of fiscal setbacks it has suffered this summer?
OLYMPICS
Sep 12, 2010

Old thinking and alliances endanger G20

MADRID — The world financial crisis has served as a quick and efficient catalyst for the Group of 20 economies. The first three G20 summits of chiefs of state — in Washington, London and Pittsburgh — will be remembered for advancing multilateralism and coordinated global action.

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