Search - 2004

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2005

'Manga' publishers see cell phones as the future

Cartoon-strip publishers, whose printed-matter sales have been losing steam, are actively embracing mobile media because cell phones are what young people are spending their time and money on.
Sep 22, 2005

Firms betting on Russia amid political poker

A screen up front read "Welcome to St. Petersburg!" as top officials of Russia's second-largest city gave a presentation in Tokyo to lure Japanese investment.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2005

FTC to scold Japan Highway

The Fair Trade Commission will order Japan Highway Public Corp. to come up with measures to prevent bid-rigging, sources said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2005

Disaster defense that works

Typhoons land on Japan every year, and many people often die or go missing. Indeed, typhoons are more vicious than earthquakes, except for really large-scale quakes like the one that struck Kobe in 1995 and killed some 6,000 people.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 19, 2005

Postelection policy management and the Japanese economy

The Sept. 11 House of Representatives election ended in a landslide victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which secured 296 out of the 480 seats in the lower chamber of the Diet.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2005

G8 to shoulder 70% of debt relief costs; Japan's share at 13%

The Group of Eight nations plan to shoulder 70.19 percent of debt cancellation costs for the world's poorest nations, with the share for Japan set at 13.17 percent, international financial sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2005

20% of Japanese aged 65 or older

Twenty percent of the population, or 25.56 million people, were aged 65 or older as of Thursday, up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier, government statistics showed Sunday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2005

Narita to pare landing fees but add offsetting charges

Narita International Airport Corp. said Friday it has agreed with the International Air Transport Association to cut its notoriously high landing fees for the first time by an average of 21 percent.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2005

Consumers reaping benefits of farm deregulation

Fresh tomatoes, sweet oranges and bright green lettuce grown organically and tracked by computer may soon arrive on consumers' tables directly from farms, thanks to agricultural deregulation.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 13, 2005

Scales of justice

Spare a thought for Hiroyuki Cho. The 39-year-old purported "mastermind" behind the theft of large fiber-glass Peko-chan dolls in broad daylight from outside one of Japan's most famous confectionery chains was last week handed a 7-year prison sentence for his crimes.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

Komura to be Meiji Yasuda president

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. is finalizing a decision for the company to promote Senior Managing Director Masato Komura to the presidency, succeeding Ryotaro Kaneko, sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2005

Anatomy of a train disaster

The April 25 tragic train crash on the West Japan Railway Co.'s Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, was the worst rail accident since Japanese National Railways was privatized in April 1987. It killed 106 passengers plus the driver, Ryujiro Takami, 23, and injured 555 others. Many bereaved...
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2005

'Third World' chaos hits home

HONOLULU -- The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the United States is proving difficult for Americans to comprehend. Casualties currently number in the scores, but the body count is expected to swell in the days and weeks ahead -- when the survivors can stop merely trying to survive and can...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2005

Koizumi's bare-knuckle power play may soon haunt him

Sunday's election for the Lower House stands out as abnormal, but not because of its abruptness. Many surprise elections have been held before. On March 14, 1953, for instance, then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who was president of the Liberal Party, dissolved the Lower House following the passage...
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2005

Global warming ups downpours, draughts

The number of days when it either rains heavily or not at all in Japan has increased during the past 100 years, while the number of moderately rainy days has decreased, according to the Meteorological Research Institute.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2005

Budget overallocated 10 billion yen; Finance Ministry tops wasteful list

Government ministries and agencies reported more than 10 billion yen in overallocated or unused funds in fiscal 2004, suggesting that loose budget management is aggravating the nation's huge budget deficits, according to official reports made public by Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2005

Koizumi gets some high marks but must do more: Doyukai

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration should be given high marks for having addressed issues untouched by its predecessors, but there is still more to do, according to the chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2005

Japan Post to bag Daimaru trucking unit

Japan Post announced Thursday it has agreed with Daimaru Inc. to acquire a controlling stake in Asocia Corp., the department store chain's wholly owned distribution services subsidiary.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 28, 2005

Privacy of sperm donors leaves lives in limbo

Emi Nishimura's identity quest began the hard way.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2005

Toyota hopes to steal BMW's thunder via Lexus

The Japan launch of Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus luxury brand next week is likely to mark the beginning of a period of intense competition in the premium car sector.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2005

Toyota top income earner in Japan for a sixth year

Toyota Motor Corp. was Japan's biggest corporate income earner in fiscal 2004 for the sixth straight year, credit research agency Teikoku Databank said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2005

Medical expenses rose to all-time high in 2003

Medical expenses paid to medical institutions hit an all-time high of 31.538 trillion yen in the fiscal year ended in March 2004, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2005

National universities generate 110 billion yen profit

All of Japan's 89 national universities except one posted a combined gross profit of about 110 billion yen in fiscal 2004, with Osaka University at the top pf the heap with 7.1 billion yen in earnings, the government said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2005

Home renovation scams causing alarm

Reports of home renovation fraud have been coming out of the woodwork ever since the media reported that two elderly sisters with dementia were duped for 50 million yen in unnecessary repair work and almost lost their home in an auction to pay for the scam.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Japan Highway exec indicted over bids

Prosecutors filed charges Monday against Michio Uchida, vice president of the Japan Highway Public Corp., for his involvement in rigging bids for bridge projects, resulting in inflated costs.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2005

Revlon, Morgan Stanley to enter bids for Kanebo

U.S. cosmetics maker Revlon Inc. and U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley & Co. are expected to enter a tender for Kanebo Ltd. and Kanebo Cosmetics Inc., according to industry sources.

Longform

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