Search - 2005

 
 
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2006

Brokerage business helps lift Rakuten's profit 2.3-fold

Online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. reported Thursday 2.3-fold growth in its operating profit for calendar 2005 to 34.89 billion yen, buoyed by its stock brokerage business.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2006

Wakayama gets whale meat put in more school lunches

An increasing number of elementary and junior high schools have resumed putting whale meat in lunches, according to Wakayama Prefecture's board of education, which is promoting its use.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2006

Official tally: 115 women trafficked here in '05

The Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau said Tuesday 115 women from six countries were trafficked into Japan in 2005, the first number it has officially tallied.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2006

Top chip makers' capital spending nears 1 trillion yen

The country's seven major semiconductor makers are expected to spend a total of 984 billion yen on capital investment in the current fiscal year ending in March, according to data released by the companies Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2006

Foreign income exceeds trade

Japan's income account surplus exceeded its trade surplus in 2005 for the first time since records started being taken in 1985, which means the country earned more from sales of assets than it did from sales of goods to the rest of the world, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

McDonald's net profit slides 98%

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Friday its group net profit in 2005 plunged 98.3 percent from the previous year to 60 million yen, despite higher sales, due to an extraordinary loss arising from the cost of correcting insufficient payments to its employees.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2006

Premium beers carve market niche

Breweries have watched beer drinkers defect to cheaper brews in recent years, but now they are beginning to see a small but growing group of consumers willing to pay more for premium beers.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 10, 2006

Youthful dramatics

Oriza Hirata, founder of the cutting-edge, Tokyo-based Seinendan Theater Company that has been at the forefront of Japanese contemporary drama for over a decade, is one of Japan's leading scriptwriters and directors. But as owner of the Komaba Agora Theater, two stops down the Keio Inokashira Line from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Feb 10, 2006

Psychedelic radar 02.10

Saturday, Feb. 11
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2006

Toyota eyes more capacity in Canada

Toyota Motor Corp., which could surpass General Motors Corp. as the world's No. 1 automaker as soon as this year, said Wednesday it will increase capacity at a new assembly plant it is building in Canada.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2006

Berlin/Tokyo : Invitation to a car wreck

See related story: Berlin/Tokyo : Your pick of the isms
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

JAL shareholder calls for president's ouster

Former lawmaker Eitaro Itoyama, the biggest individual shareholder in Japan Airlines Corp., is calling for the resignation of JAL President Toshiyuki Shinmachi, given the carrier's poor business performance, it was learned Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 7, 2006

"Firebird," "Thor's Wedding Day"

"Firebird," Susan Gates, Puffin; 2005; 212pp.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Frightening, yet beautiful: ghosts, ghouls and monsters

YOSHITOSHI'S STRANGE TALES by John Stevenson. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005, 160 pp., 71 full-page prints and 25 illustrations, 2005, $95 (cloth). Another beautiful edition de luxe from Hotei Publishing, this volume presents two series by Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), a late print artist often remembered...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Crime falling but not for old

The number of criminal cases in Japan fell 11.5 percent in 2005 from the previous year to 2,269,293 for the third consecutive annual drop and the largest rate of decline since 1946, the National Police Agency reported Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Full-time workers up 0.5% in '05

The number of full-time workers rose 0.5 percent in 2005 from the previous year to 32.18 million for the first increase in eight years, the government said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2006

U.S. Navy puts maritime pirates on notice

HONOLULU -- In ordering a U.S. Navy destroyer to capture and board a suspected pirate ship on the high seas in the Indian Ocean, the United States has fired a warning shot across the bow of would-be terrorists who might lash up with pirates in the Asia-Pacific region.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

Understanding, visiting and living in North Korea

NORTH KOREA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: An interpretative Guide, by J.E. Hoare and Susan Pares. Global Oriental, 2005, 253 pp., including index, references/bibliography, b/w illustrations, £14.95 (paper). Jim Hoare opened the British Embassy in Pyongyang in 2001 and was the first British diplomat and charge...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

Livedoor's takeovers took investment union route

The Livedoor Co. group used investment unions in corporate takeovers done through stock swaps, having them transfer the stock-sale gains made in the deals to it in the form of dividends, and cleared the actions with a consultant and a lawyer beforehand, prosecution and other sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

Fewer visiting blood banks to receive HIV tests

Fewer blood donors tested positive for HIV in 2005 as the number of people who gave blood mainly to check if they were infected with the virus fell, a health ministry survey indicated Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2006

Toyota No. 2 in sales for third year

The Toyota Motor Corp. group increased its combined global vehicle sales by 8.0 percent in 2005 to a record high of 8.11 million units, the automaker said Thursday as the industry released its sales, production and export numbers for last year.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2006

Yokohama: model city for the nation?

'Change Japan -- from Yokohama."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 22, 2006

When notoriety helps sell books

TOPPAMONO: Outlaw. Radical. Suspect. My Life in Japan's Underworld, by Manabu Miyazaki. Tokyo: Kotan Publishing, 2005, 460 pp., $26.95 (cloth). THE APPRENTICE by Lewis Libby. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, St. Martin edition, 2005, 265 pp., $12.95 (paper). Japan's student movement ended with a whimper...
SUMO
Jan 21, 2006

Asa suffers another setback

Tochiazuma dismantled Bulgarian fellow ozeki Kotooshu to take sole possession of the lead at 12-1 on Friday while Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu was slammed to a third defeat by countryman Ama with two days remaining at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2006

Failures below 13,000 for first time since '92

The number of corporate bankruptcies fell below 13,000 in 2005 for the first time in 14 years, helped partly by a recovery in major companies' business sentiment, a credit research agency said Thursday.

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