Search - ads

 
 
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2005

Desperate drones are content to be 'conned' into buying a condo

As long as I've lived in Tokyo I've received phone calls from condominium salespeople. In the past, these solicitations seemed accidental, as if the salespeople had dialed my number at random. But in the last five years the calls have been more deliberate. The salespeople know where I live -- not just...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2005

Thai woman admits selling girl into sex trade

A Thai woman in Kanagawa Prefecture has been arrested on suspicion of selling a teenage Thai girl to a woman who manages prostitutes, and a Japanese man in Tokyo was taken into custody for introducing the girl to another man for purposes of solicitation, police said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2005

Ad spending up 3% in 2004: Dentsu

Japan's advertising expenditures amounted to 5.86 trillion yen in 2004, up 3 percent from the previous year for the first rise in four years, Dentsu Inc. said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2005

Painting over old Edo

As a child, Akira Yamaguchi spent countless hours hunched over his desk, doodling the many space-age rocket ships and humanoids he encountered in his bedroom anime collection. The young artist, however, also remembers feeling a sense of guilt whenever he attempted to mimic more traditional Japanese art...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 19, 2004

A tourist jaunt to horrors past

Kanchanaburi (pop. 58,000) could be just another semi-rural town in Thailand. There are touts with strong ideas about where you might like to stay. There's the smell of someone flash-frying beef somewhere -- chilies, garlic and basil; a few feckless chickens are pecking at bits and pieces in the middle...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2004

Profit picture brightens for TV Asahi

TV Asahi Corp. said Friday its group net profit swelled 216.3 percent to 3.47 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2004 from a year earlier.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2004

'Fat liberation' movement declares war

WASHINGTON -- Another civil-rights movement is stirring in America. A "fat liberation" movement. Complains Marilyn Wann of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, "We're living in the middle of a witch hunt."
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2004

Yahoo Japan's net profit more than doubled in '03

Yahoo Japan Corp. said Wednesday its net profit more than doubled to 24.83 billion yen for the year through March, powered by robust growth in ad revenue.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 8, 2004

The campaign-finance floodgates open

WASHINGTON -- Only 208 days are left in this presidential campaign. From the intensity that both President George W. Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry are going at it, you would think that decision day is next week. The advertising is pouring out over the airwaves at mid-October frequency and the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2004

Court halts weekly over story on Tanaka daughter

The latest issue of Shukan Bunshun was removed from newsstands Wednesday after the Tokyo District Court ordered a temporary injunction barring the sale of the Japanese-language weekly magazine.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2003

Year's top commercials 'ad' up to great Japanese TV

Anyone who reads this column regularly probably believes that I find Japanese television completely worthless. It's not true; or, at least, not completely true. I think Japanese TV commercials are very good and often more representative of the hopes and dreams of the nation than the programming is.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2003

Navigating the deep Internet

MOSCOW -- There could hardly be a tougher opponent for a struggling college professor than the Internet. You ask your students to write an essay about Moscow, and you end up with the papers based on sources like www.moscow-taxi.ripoff.com and www.moscow-hotels.dump.ru. When, fuming with rage, you inform...
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2003

Horse-race tipster targeted over 300 million yen tax scam

Tax authorities have filed a criminal complaint against a Tokyo firm that provides betting tips on horse races, alleging it evaded some 300 million yen in corporate taxes on 1 billion yen in income during the 18-month period to March 2002, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2003

JT campaign aims to blunt war on smokers

Several weeks ago this newspaper published letters from non-Japanese readers who complained about a Japan Tobacco advertising campaign that depicts Western men and women with exaggerated noses sniffing cigarette smoke out of wine glasses. Two of the writers were angered by the image itself, saying that...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Bikini 'campaign girls' exit stage left

In a move likely to disappoint aspiring actresses, many major textile firms are abolishing a decades-old advertising tool -- sexy "campaign girls" in bathing suits.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Japan slowly pulls head out of sand on smoking ills

During the five years since a landmark suit against tobacco manufacturers and the government was filed, slight but steady progress has been made in regulating cigarette sales and advertising.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Oct 21, 2003

Toho to take domestic smash 'Bayside Shakedown 2' overseas

A Tokyo-based motion picture company is poised to take on Hollywood with a live-action cop film that was a hit in Japan this summer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

The money hole

Kumiko Morita looked down at her cell phone as it began to ring. With reluctance she picked it up and answered it. After listening to the caller, she began to speak -- not in her usual soft-spoken way, but in a loud, forceful voice.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 10, 2003

Finding acting work, reducing phone bills and ditching old stuff

Freighter travel Judi Sullivan's daughter, who lives in Japan, sent her a Lifelines column with an enquiry from reader Lisa Beretta, who wanted info on cargo ships willing to take a passenger to Europe.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Air-cleaner maker just blowing smoke

The Fair Trade Commission has warned air-cleaner maker Tornex Inc. about misleading consumers, sources close to the case said Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Jul 11, 2002

'Happoshu' price war seen taking toll on brewers

It was just a regular Friday, but lovers of beerlike beverages found an excuse for another round as the country's major breweries marked down their versions of "happoshu."
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2002

Listen to an ad, get a free call

Telecom venture Third Line Communications Co. said Monday it has launched a new fixed-line phone service that allows users to speak for free for about three minutes if they first listen to corporate ads for about 15 seconds.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 24, 2002

Dubya's campaign to bring tourists to America

During this past Christmas season, it became something of a joke in the United States when Americans were asked by their government to go shopping as a means of pursuing the War on Terrorism at home. The idea was that the Forces of Evil wanted nothing less than the destruction of Our Way of Life, so...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2002

METI to submit bill to regulate spam

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will submit a bill, possibly next month, proposing legal revisions to regulate unsolicited e-mail advertisements sent to consumers, ministry officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2001

Building-materials publishers under fire

The nation's public works projects -- notorious for their lack of transparency -- have sucked up tens of trillions of yen in taxpayers' money for decades, pushing government coffers to the brink of crisis.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 9, 2001

Drivers wary of the troll who collects the toll

With new highway construction suspended and the prime minister pledging to abolish public corporations, the business of the Japan Highway Public Corp. at the moment is anything but business-as-usual. As both the overlord of the nation's vehicle-choked intercity expressways and the troll who collects...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 9, 2001

Sharing your daze with a studyholic

My wife takes a scalpel to her schedule and carves up blocks of time. First to go are the hours she spends teaching Japanese, the hours she rides the commuter train, and then the additional hours and hours she uses for preparation.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2001

Tokyo prepares to introduce 'ad trains'

"Ad trains" may hit Tokyo as early as the fall as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government moves to lift its ban on city trains carrying exterior advertisements, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Kubota hit with back tax for payoffs, false outlays

OSAKA — Tax authorities have determined that farm machinery maker Kubota Corp. disguised 450 million yen as legitimate expenses, including some 100 million yen in illegal payoffs to "sokaiya" corporate extortionists, over the past several years, industry sources said Monday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2001

Cosmetics companies give themselves a makeover

Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of...

Longform

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