Search - 2004

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2003

Tanigaki wants bond issues to stay below tax revenues

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki told a meeting of business leaders Thursday he wants to keep the issuance of fresh government bonds below the amount of tax revenues in the fiscal 2004 budget, a participant said.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2003

Panel advises pension benefit cuts for wealthy

An advisory panel to the finance minister is set to call for a cut in pension payouts to the wealthy in a bid to slash ballooning welfare expenses.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2003

Debate needed on pension reform

Japan's underfunded public pension system -- which was a major issue in the Nov. 9 general election -- is in need of urgent reform. As expected, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's plan for 2004, unveiled Monday, calls for drastic changes that would impose a greater burden on both the younger and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2003

Mizuho Financial to sell off head offices

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to sell the three former headquarters of the banks it was merged from, Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan, according to sources close to the company.
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2003

Europe rues decline amid shift to Asia

PARIS -- Officially, we were discussing Russia's place in Asia. It was hard to tell whether the French senator/historian on the panel was warning of Moscow's return to great-power status or urging it on. He was no crypto-communist, however: For him, Russia's resurgence would signal the return of multipolarity...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 28, 2003

This year's Japan Series best since 1989

FUKUOKA -- It doesn't get any better than this. Seventh game of the Japan Series with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and the Hanshin Tigers.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2003

Sony, DoCoMo team up for e-money cell phones

Sony Corp. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday they will jointly develop integrated circuit chip technology that will allow mobile phone users to pay for groceries and train fares using their handsets.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2003

The reality of pension reform

With a general election around the corner, major political parties in Japan are playing up pension reform as a top campaign promise. That is only to be expected as the average age of the Japanese population rises at an accelerated pace. The question is what should and can be done to build a sustainable...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2003

Taiwan power rivals must win or perish

TAIPEI -- With five months to go before Taiwan's presidential election, the campaign is heating up between the incumbent, President Chen Shui-bian, leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and the opposition Kuomintang's (KMT) Lien Chan.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Database eyed to counter rising tide of drug mixups

In an effort to curb the growing number of hazardous drug mixups, the health ministry plans to compile an online database in which medicines will be classified according to their names and packaging, ministry sources said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 23, 2003

Mavs got best of Walker-LaFrentz swap

NEW YORK -- At first aghast, I figured Danny Ainge must be using Rick Pitino as his consigliere.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Koizumi's Iraq pledge wins thanks from Bush

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday thanked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for Japan's $1.5 billion pledge to help reconstruct Iraq.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 10, 2003

English football's problems make mockery of 'beautiful game'

LONDON -- Had the Turkish Football Federation hatched a plan to severely disrupt England's preparations for Saturday's decisive Euro 2004 qualifying tie they could not have done a better -- or worse, depending on your viewpoint -- job than the visitors have done themselves.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Sep 30, 2003

Drugmakers use jargon to market Chinese herbal remedies

Like the Japanese language, herbal medicines originating in China have been adapted into something peculiarly Japanese.
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2003

I don't like cricket, oh no . . . I love it

It is often said that the future of a nation lies with its youth. If that is also true of sport, then Gunma could soon end up being the Barbados of Asia, producing cricketers on a par with the great Caribbean production line.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2003

Looming specter of tax hikes

The government's budget deficit continues to swell at an ominous pace. According to an estimate by the Finance Ministry, the total amount of bond issues in fiscal 2004 may exceed 41 trillion yen -- a sum roughly half the size of the budget. The figure could be revised downward, possibly to less than...
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2003

Hino, Isuzu to delay merger of bus units

Hino Motors Ltd. and Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Friday they will delay the full merger of their bus-manufacturing operations until October 2004.
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2003

Nissan Diesel plans 'green' truck

Nissan Diesel Motor Co. said Wednesday it will launch a 16-ton environmentally friendly truck in fall 2004.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 3, 2003

Will Valentine return to manage Marines?

The Nikkan Sports, on the front page of its Aug. 23 edition, ran a speculative but spectacular story with a headline saying Bobby Valentine would return to Japan in 2004 for a second tenure as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2003

Yen sought for 'green' businesses

The Environment Ministry said Thursday it will seek 26.6 billion yen to promote environmentally friendly business practices in its budgetary request for fiscal 2004.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2003

Environment panel calls for carbon tax in 2005

A government advisory panel tasked with studying environmental taxes adopted a proposal Wednesday for the introduction of a carbon levy by as early as 2005.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 20, 2003

Hawks looking good for one last pennant under Daiei banner

Hanshin. Hanshin. Hanshin. That's all we've been hearing during most of the 2003 Japan pro baseball season.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 3, 2003

Becoming down to earth

ISAMU NOGUCHI AND MODERN JAPANESE CERAMICS: A Close Embrace of the Earth, by Louise Allison Cort and Bert Winther-Tamaki, with contributions by Bruce J. Altshuler and Niimi Ryu. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2003; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. 240 pp., 81 color photographs, 78...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 23, 2003

Dodgers fan scores in 'Hideki Matsui Sweepstakes'

Former Tokyo attorney Russ Roten has won the Baseball Bullet-In "Hideki Matsui Sweepstakes" by coming the closest to guessing Matsui's home run, runs batted in and batting average statistics at the Major League All-Star break on July 14.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2003

Longer home-loan tax breaks sought

The land ministry plans to seek an extension of tax breaks for housing loans in light of weak economic activity, a senior ministry official said.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2003

Economic reform package unveiled to mixed reviews

The nation's key policy-setting panel on Thursday released an economic reform package for 2003, featuring local finance changes and deregulation in some sectors.
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2003

Ministry aiming to submit pensions reform plan early

Welfare minister Chikara Sakaguchi on Tuesday announced plans to speed up the drafting of public-pension reforms and reveal the scheme this summer, a few months ahead of schedule.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2003

The pension system in peril

Japan's protracted economic slump, combined with the accelerated aging of the population, is putting increasing strains on the public pension system. The government-managed corporate-sector pension program, which now has 30 million subscribers, registered a large deficit in fiscal 2001. For the first...

Longform

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