Search - 2003

 
 
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2005

Minister prods panel on beef imports

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshinobu Shimamura again prodded a government-appointed panel Friday to reach a speedy decision on the future of Japan's ban on U.S. beef imports.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2005

Medicine group goes after sleeping sickness in Africa

A group supplying drugs to the poor in developing nations signed an agreement Friday in Tokyo with the Kitasato Institute to conduct a joint project to develop a cure for sleeping sickness, currently spreading across Africa.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2005

Pension program invested into black

The public pension program cleared its books of red ink in fiscal 2004, with a weak yen helping it offload foreign stocks and bonds for a profit, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2005

Security threat from disease

SINGAPORE -- Given the real possibility of a global pandemic, possibly from the possible outbreak of a virulent influenza, it's time to ask: Should states treat infectious diseases as security threats?
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2005

Shutting down business fraud

Today's communities in Japan, especially impersonal big cities, are becoming hostile places in many ways for elderly people living alone. New gangs of criminals, who often pose as kind and soft-spoken business operators, are eager to swindle the elderly out of their life savings. These con artists know...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2005

Japan Highway retiree, four bridge execs held in bid-rigging

Prosecutors Tuesday arrested a former board member of Japan Highway Public Corp. and four officials of major bridge builders for alleged bid-rigging on projects ordered by the government-affiliated body.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2005

New Delhi gets serious about cigarettes

MADRAS, India -- A recent study in the United States revealed that films have a powerful effect on viewers' behavior. When actors smoke on screen, they serve as a link between big tobacco companies and impressionable young people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 13, 2005

Interesting times in China

Chinese contemporary art made a splash in the late 1990s with the so-called Mao Goes Pop movement, which broke big among Western gallerygoers and collectors.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

Bid-rigging smacks of 'amakudari' to core

As the No. 2 at the Japan Highway Public Corp., the unidentified bureaucrat wielded enormous power over Japan's major road-builders.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2005

Airlines grapple to root out human error

The airline industry and the transport ministry are trying to overhaul safety standards following a series of blunders involving commercial aircraft, but finding a quick solution will not be easy.
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2005

Humanitarian paints hope for students of Vietnam

Fred Harris looks around the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho, central Tokyo, and observes with his usual keen but fond eye, "This was the first club I joined when I came here in 1964." (He was also in Japan while serving as a U.S. soldier during the Korean War.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 9, 2005

Five signs of the coming Golden Age of trance

In the fast and chaotic protoculture growing around psychedelic trance in Japan, it is often difficult at best and futile at worst to try to get a genuine fix on the direction in which we are headed.
JAPAN / Q&A
Jul 8, 2005

Why is Japan so impatient to land a permanent seat in the UNSC club?

Japan moved a step closer toward its goal of becoming a permanent United Nations Security Council member Thursday, as the so-called Group of Four nations -- Japan, Germany, India and Brazil -- submitted a resolution on the matter to the U.N. Secretariat. The following are some basic facts on the UNSC...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Jul 8, 2005

YSL raises its flag again

In 1958, at the tender age of 21, Yves Saint Laurent took over the reins at the venerable couture house of Dior. From the outset hailed as a genius, then touted as no less than the savior of the French fashion industry, YSL is one of the world's most enduring fashion icons.
JAPAN / Q&A
Jul 8, 2005

Why is Japan so impatient to land a permanent seat in the UNSC club?

Japan moved a step closer toward its goal of becoming a permanent United Nations Security Council member Thursday, as the so-called Group of Four nations -- Japan, Germany, India and Brazil -- submitted a resolution on the matter to the U.N. Secretariat. The following are some basic facts on the UNSC...
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2005

IPS exec urges news agencies to find new roles in Internet age

The Internet has upset the monopolies on communication and information traditionally enjoyed by major news organizations, and news agencies must define their roles in this new environment, according to Mario Lubetkin, director general of global news agency Inter Press Service.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2005

Supporters petition for retrial of boxer 25 years on death row

Supporters for a former professional boxer who has been on death row for decades handed the Supreme Court a petition with 2,880 signatures Wednesday demanding a retrial.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2005

Putting ODA in its place

The Japanese government has recently announced a plan to renew an important component of its diplomacy -- a plan aimed at not only checking but reversing the downtrend in Japan's official development assistance. Specifically, in its basic policy program for the nation's financial and fiscal operations...
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2005

Unlike Africa, crisis in Asia not yet on political radar

KOBE — Unlike the situation in Africa, Asia's AIDS crisis has yet to grab the attention of Irish pop singers, Hollywood celebrities or leaders of the richest nations.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2005

Cult leader loses murder appeal over false beliefs

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of a 66-year-old cult leader who was sentenced to seven years in prison for murdering a sick man by attempting to cure him through supernatural means instead of proper medical treatment, according to the ruling made available Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2005

'04 tax revenue up 5.3% as jobs, dividends grow

In a sign the economy is growing stronger, tax revenues in fiscal 2004 rose 5.3 percent from the previous year to 45.59 trillion yen for the first increase in four years, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2005

MMC to move back to original HQ

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Monday it will move its head office at the end of next year back to a building near JR Tamachi Station in Tokyo that it occupied until April 2003.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2005

Lawmakers' average income drops to new low

The average annual income reported by members of both houses of the Diet dropped to a record-low 23.59 million yen in 2004, down 5 percent from the previous low of 24.81 million yen in 2003, according to a tally by Kyodo News based on annual reports released Monday.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go