Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2012

Ozawa not guilty of fund conspiracy

Ichiro Ozawa, former president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, was acquitted Thursday of conspiring with former aides to make false financial reports in his political fund management body Rikuzankai in 2004 and 2005.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 2012

Yomiuri vs. Asahi in war over Giants' broken paycap agreement 'scoop'

On March 15, the Asahi Shimbun reported that the Yomiuri Giants baseball team paid huge amounts of money in contract-signing bonuses to several rookies, in violation of an agreement signed by all 12 Japan Professional Baseball teams. The payouts took place from 1997 to 2004, and involved six players...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2012

Ozawa enters final plea of innocence

Ichiro Ozawa, former president of the Democratic Party of Japan, entered his final plea of innocence Monday at the Tokyo District Court, claiming no false entries were made in his political funds reports and he never conspired with his former secretaries to make such entries.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 19, 2012

Retooling Hawks need newcomers to contribute

You might think Fukuoka Softbank Hawks manager Koji Akiyama is worried about the coming season and successfully defending his 2011 Japan Series championship. After all, he's lost three of his best pitchers and his All-Star shortstop from 2011.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 18, 2011

Bureaucrat housing perks draw fire

As The Government Scrambles To Find Funds To Rebuild The Disaster-hit Tohoku Region, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Hinted Monday The Government May Cancel A ¥10.5 Billion Project To Construct A State-owned Housing Complex For Civil Servants In Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, Amid An Opposition Uproar.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2011

Former Ozawa aides judged guilty

Three former secretaries of Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa were given suspended prison terms Monday for making false entries in the financial reports of Ozawa's political fund management body Rikuzankai in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 26, 2011

TV: Analog out, digital in, with rivals Net, satellite, cable

Sunday marked a nationwide transition to digital terrestrial television broadcasting, bringing to an end over five decades of analog transmissions in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2011

Brace for a surge in Southeast Asian piracy

China's aggressive claims to parts of the South China Sea contested by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei is damaging regional cooperation against piracy, allowing more attacks — 41 so far this year after 30 last year. Naval exercises with the United States this week do include anti-piracy...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2011

Disaster expert seeks better tsunami defense

A town hall located several kilometers inland was the designated disaster evacuation site in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Tohoku on the afternoon of March 11, a young town employee broadcast an urgent evacuation order to local residents. Her broadcasts...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 12, 2011

Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa

In the late 1960s, James Spencer was a United States Navy longshoreman on Okinawa's military docks. "During this time, we handled all kinds of cargo, including these barrels with orange stripes on them. When we unloaded them, they'd leak and the Agent Orange would get all over us. It was as if it were...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 28, 2010

NPB looks to trim deficit by having third All-Star Game

You no doubt saw the news item whereby the Nippon Professional Baseball authorities are asking the Japanese players union to have a third All-Star game in 2011, in order to blot a portion of its reported ¥60 million of red ink. Two All-Star games are scheduled so far next season: at Nagoya Dome July...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2010

White House Iraq policy pumping up Iran

BAGHDAD — The Obama administration's Iraq policy is in chaos. Seven months after Iraq's national elections, the United States has publicly denied taking sides in the wrangling over who will be prime minister. Privately, however, the U.S. is backing the incumbent, Nouri al-Maliki.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2010

Ozawa inquest panel rules for indictment

Former Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa should be indicted over falsified reports from his political fund management body, an independent judicial panel announced Monday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 26, 2010

Day of reckoning looming for Big Matsui, Little Matsui, Iwamura

Matsui, Matsui and Iwamura.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2010

Universities feel the squeeze

Since national universities became independent administrative agencies in 2004, their financial conditions have weakened. In accordance with the Koizumi administration's 2006 decision, government grants to pay for national universities' ordinary outlays have declined 1 percent annually.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 4, 2010

Corey out to make most of second chance in Japan

Chiba Lotte Marines right-hander Bryan Corey is back in Japan for a second chance, following a turbulent half-season in 2004 with the Yomiuri Giants, and he is determined to make the most of this opportunity.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2010

Mr. Ozawa's latest account

The investigation of allegations that Rikuzankai, the political funds management body of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, falsified funds reports has entered a new phase with the Jan. 23 questioning of Mr. Ozawa by the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public...
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2010

DPJ drawn into Mr. Ozawa's pickle

A regular Diet session started Monday — less than a week after the chief secretary and two former secretaries of Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, were arrested. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad arrested the three on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2010

Money, land and a politician

Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa has agreed to comply with a request from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad to be questioned voluntarily about dubious points surrounding a 2004 Tokyo land deal. The questioning of Mr. Ozawa, a powerful DPJ...
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2009

Freedom of expression takes a hit

The Supreme Court on Nov. 30 upheld a high court ruling that had found a 62-year-old Buddhist monk "guilty of trespassing" for entering a Tokyo condominium to distribute political fliers for the Japan Communist Party in December 2004. The ruling fined him ¥50,000.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan