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EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2014

A glut of unoccupied houses

Roughly one in every seven houses throughout Japan is unoccupied, and the number keeps growing. Blame the graying of society, the depopulation of rural areas and the 'fixed-property' tax break.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2014

The Queen of Versailles

Pride comes before a fall, and proving that old proverb correct is "The Queen of Versailles," a documentary tracking one obscenely wealthy couple's attempt to build the largest mansion in America, modeled on the Palace of Versailles, no less, but with a bowling alley.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Aug 9, 2014

Shanghai court sentences GSK-linked investigators to prison

A Chinese court on Friday sentenced a British corporate investigator to 2½ years in prison for illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information on to clients including drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 2, 2014

Is the next stop 'brokesville' for the maglev?

Robert Moses, the civil servant who built the great park-expressway-bridge network in New York state during the middle of the last century, succeeded by gaming the system. Understanding how politics would make it difficult for him to fulfill his vision, he often started a public works project clandestinely....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2014

Success of Chinese reform is key to BRICS' rise

Last week, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) took a decisive step toward building institutions that could plausibly challenge the long geopolitical and economic ascendancy of the West. But Vladimir Putin's posturing at the meeting just hours before a Malaysia Airlines jetliner was shot down in Ukraine was one indication of the group's inability to offer an acceptable moral and political alternative to Western hegemony.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2014

Orix reportedly to buy stake in Hyundai marine logistics unit

Orix Corp. has agreed to buy a stake in Hyundai Merchant Marine Co.'s logistics unit and may announce a deal as soon as Thursday, sources said.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2014

Tax-free NISA working poorly, Sawakami says

Japan's tax-free investing program is failing to draw new stock buyers as the benefits expire too soon and young people fail to see its advantages, said the founder of the Sawakami Fund.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2014

'Ironclad: Battle for Blood' (Ironclad Blood War)

If extraterrestrials visited England in the year 1221, they would have taken one look and gone home. Life was horrible then — full of marauding, armored men, hell-bent on driving the pointy ends of swords into each others' midriffs. That's how "Ironclad: Battle for Blood" portrays medieval living among...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2014

Time to say goodbye to the business cycle?

The many failures of economics before, during and after the recent financial crisis have left an intellectual vacuum. It seems that governments' past success in stabilizing the economy in the short run encouraged too much debt and instability in the long term.
WORLD
Jul 1, 2014

Whole town up for sale in South Dakota

Prospective buyers who want to be masters of their own domains could turn to southwestern South Dakota, where an entire town can be purchased for $399,000.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2014

Ensure stability of pension fund

It would be a mistake to view the Abe administration's shakeup of the Government Pension Investment Fund as a short-term shot in the arm for the stock market rather than as a way to stabilize the nation's public pension system.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2014

Winds of change in retail industry

The retail industry is entering into a period of major transformation. In addition to traditional entities such as department stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, new retail business forms are emerging, including mega shopping mall developments led by real estate companies and JR train terminals...
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2014

Funding the corporate tax cut

The Abe administration's decision to cut corporate taxes as a key feature of its economic growth strategy doesn't indicate how a fiscally weak government will make up the lost tax revenue even as households face another consumption tax hike next year.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 21, 2014

South Korea closes net around family of fugitive linked to ferry sinking

The wife of South Korea's most wanted man, a businessman linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds of schoolchildren drowned, was arrested Saturday, prosecutors said, as the net tightens around the fugitive's family.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2014

Mori eyes ¥1 trillion in projects ahead of Games

Mori Building Co., Japan's largest closely held developer, is planning projects in central Tokyo worth an estimated ¥1 trillion with its partners, as the city prepares for the Olympic Games in 2020.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 3, 2014

Firms woo female investors with goodies

When Chiho Higo started teaching stock trading at a Tokyo night school in 2008, there were often no female attendees. Now there are 50. One mother said she bought shares in a toymaker instead of toys for her child.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 2, 2014

Generation gaps filled by brick and mortar

Though their numbers have dwindled in the developed world over the past century, multi-generation households are still common, and in fact may become even more common in countries where income gaps are increasing. In Japan, multi-generation households have social relevance owing to cultural norms, the...
BUSINESS / FOCUS
May 24, 2014

Business as usual in Thailand

Many of the wealthy Thais who come to investment manager Charles Blocker have a question for the generals who seized control of the country in a military coup last week: What took you so long?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 24, 2014

Kiev pins hopes on oligarch's fighters in battle against eastern separatists

Ukrainian self-defense fighters who clashed with armed pro-Russian separatists on Friday are at the forefront of Kiev's efforts to prevent the country from splitting.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 23, 2014

Businessman linked to China's ex-security czar is sentenced to death

A former mining magnate with suspected ties to the family of China's retired security czar Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to death on Friday on charges of leading a gang on a crime spree spanning two decades.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2014

Newly confident Resona bullish on corporate loans

Resona Holdings Inc. is targeting a fivefold increase in corporate loans this year, signaling Japan's fifth-biggest bank is confident that the economic recovery is strong enough to spur business spending.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?