Search - 2004

 
 
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2008

Manufacturer confidence at four-year low

Confidence among manufacturers for the April-June quarter fell the most in at least four years because of surging commodity costs and waning demand for cars and electronics, a government survey showed Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2008

Reducing disaster-related deaths

The 2008 government white paper on disaster prevention points out that communities' capability to cope with disasters is in decline mainly because of the aging population and a drop in the number of people who work as community-based volunteer firefighters. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, in his October...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 22, 2008

Suzuki's double lifts A's in 11th

OAKLAND AP — Kurt Suzuki's knee was throbbing. So was his foot, painful reminders of the foul balls that that hit off his body earlier in the night.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jun 21, 2008

Southpaw trio going the distance to help Hawks

Tsuyoshi Wada was pitching a complete game against the Yokohama BayStars on Sunday and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. Not Fukuoka Softbank Hawks pitching coach Tadashi Sugimoto and not the BayStars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2008

'The Magic Hour'

Koki Mitani is the reigning king of comedy in Japan, as the writer and sometimes director of a string of hit stage plays, TV series and three feature films that culminated in 2006 with "The Uchoten Hotel (Suite Dream)." This laugh-packed take-off on the 1932 Greta Garbo classic "Grand Hotel," based on...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 20, 2008

Fine French wines and fruity desserts

Conrad showcases Master of Wine The Conrad Tokyo is offering wine connoisseurs a rare opportunity to experience a special dinner featuring wines selected by world-renowned Master of Wine Ron Georgiou on June 23.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2008

A North Korean about-face

North Korea has promised to begin a "reinvestigation" of the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by its agents and to hand over the four remaining members of the nine leftists who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet to Pyongyang in 1970 along with two wives of the leftists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2008

Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival

Following his appearance in 2004, Italian talent Fabio Luisi returns to the Pacific Music Festival this year as principal conductor. Luisi's dynamic baton and the PMF Orchestra will cap the festival's finale with a colorful and narrative program, featuring Richard Strauss' symphonic poem "Don Quixote"...
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2008

Citigroup's offer to retire staff 'unacceptable': union

Citigroup Inc. has offered 1,350 employees at its consumer finance unit in Japan early retirement with two months' pay as the company withdraws from the business, a proposal the workers' union called unacceptable.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 18, 2008

Maruta leads Deers to Pearl Bowl title

Kajima Deers running back Yasuhiro Maruta rushed for a team-high 77 yards and three scores on 11 carries, leading his team to a 27-14 victory over the Fujitsu Frontiers in the 32nd Pearl Bowl final on Tuesday at Tokyo Dome.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2008

Death sentences on the increase

Tuesday's hangings of serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki and two other inmates come at a time when courts are more inclined to mete out capital punishment.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2008

Black Friday for the EU

Ireland has rejected the European Union reform treaty.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2008

Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global

In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Jun 17, 2008

King Kojien dictionary knights new words

The four writing systems utilized in Japanese (>kanji, katakana, hiragana and the Roman alphabet, known as romaji ) provide Japanese advertising copywriters, journalists and young people with an abundance of raw material from which to create new words. The great majority of these neologisms fade away...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 15, 2008

Nuggets of 'wisdom' can speak volumes beyond what's said

"Biting Comments, Curious Statements and Famous Misstatements" is the headline on the lead article in the June 5 issue of the popular Japanese weekly magazine Bungei Shunju. It features dramatic ejaculations of famous politicians, sports figures and entertainers, among others.
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008

Space modules for the space-challenged

According to the latest Japanese government statistics (from 2003), the average Tokyo apartment that is home to a four-person family allows them a measly 36.5 sq. meters to live in. That's just a bit more than a large shipping container.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 15, 2008

Nationality ruling could affect Japanese who don't 'exist'

After the Supreme Court ruled on June 4 that 10 children born to Filipino women had the right to be granted Japanese nationality, every media outlet in the country called the verdict "epoch-making" because the court declared a provision of the Nationality Law unconstitutional.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 14, 2008

Kinoshita selected for NFL's IPS

Japanese top football player Noriaki Kinoshita was selected as one of the 16 players on the NFL's International Practice Squad (IPS), the NFL Japan announced on Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2008

'Kamisama — no Puzzle'

Directors and producers who score big hits become big powers in the industry, ipso facto. They can consequently make films that would get their less successful brethren laughed out of a pitch meeting. A new case in point is "Kamisama no Puzzle (God's Puzzle)," an SF thriller by hit-making director Takashi...
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2008

NHK censorship ruling reversed

The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling Thursday, dismissing a suit filed by a women's rights group that demanded NHK and two production companies pay compensation for altering the content of a documentary on Japan's wartime sexual slavery.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat