Search - 2004

 
 
BUSINESS
May 10, 2006

GM to quit selling Opels in Japan, focus on mainstays

General Motors Corp., which has been struggling to revive itself, will stop selling Opel vehicles in Japan, the U.S. automaker's Japanese unit said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 9, 2006

Local fury at Hardy perennial

Last month, as they have every year for decades, a small crowd of people gathered under fat cherry blossoms in Tokyo's Aoyama Park, carrying red lanterns, placards and peace symbols.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2006

Philippine terror havens threaten region

CANBERRA -- The presence of insurgent or terrorist sanctuaries in nonbelligerent countries is one of the most intractable, explosive issues in international relations. It was a central fact of the Vietnam War, brought about the destruction of Lebanon, and continues to plague the coalition in Iraq. It...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 8, 2006

In search of Galbraithian wisdom for Japan's woes

John Kenneth Galbraith died last month. He was arguably one of the most influential economists of our time. One wonders what his comments would have been, had he been asked to say something about the course of the Japanese economy during these past few months.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 7, 2006

Bungling F.A. suits have gone for second best in McClaren

After countless interviews, cloak-and-dagger meetings, secret talks and public humiliation for the Football Association after being turned down by Portugal's Luiz Felipe Scolari, Steve McClaren was named the next England head coach on Thursday -- 99 days after Sven-Goran Eriksson announced he was leaving...
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2006

Following the great haiku poet on the road

BASHO'S JOURNEY: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, translated with an introduction by David Landis Barnhill. State University of New York Press, 2005, 191 pp., $19.95 (paper). The great haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was first represented to the West just over a century ago. This was in W.G. Aston's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 7, 2006

Japanese being ensnared in ill-suited U.S. trappings

Back in the 1960s and '70s, the Japanese people were being raked over the coals from West Virginia to the Ruhr Valley and beyond for, chiefly, two things.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2006

Program develops Dutch dropouts' vocational, social skills

AMSTERDAM -- As Japan gropes for ways to motivate undereducated youths to look for jobs, other developed nations facing similar challenges are experimenting with steps to integrate them into the working population.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2006

The man in gray

Fatih Akin, at 33, made several good films before "Head On," but it was this more intense concoction that put him on the map, winning the top prize at 2004's Berlin Film Festival.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2006

Minamata's legacy after 50 years

Fifty years have passed since the first official recognition of Minamata disease, a major symbol of Japan's postwar industrial pollution. Yet relief for those who suffered massive organic mercury poisoning, dating back to the 1950s and '60s, has not been fully delivered. More than 3,700 people have filed...
JAPAN
May 4, 2006

Japanese least willing to have more kids: five-nation survey

Japanese parents are less likely to have more children than parents in other countries because they are expensive to raise and educate, an international survey conducted by the government says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2006

"Chihiro Ito -- A Landscape Wall Painting"

Ai Gallery and SPC Gallery Closes in 16 days
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 2, 2006

Fingerprint fears and TELL news

Immigration law Michael asks how the new immigration law for foreign arrivals will affect those with re-entry visas. "Can we still use the Japanese national line, or will we have to go to the foreigners line? Japanese nationals are not being photographed or fingerprinted."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 1, 2006

Global inflation changing economic fundamentals

Ajoint statement released April 21 by finance minis- ters and central bankers of the Group of Seven major economies in Washington noted that the global trend in economic expansion has entered its fourth year, with inflationary pressures relatively contained despite the surge in crude oil prices.
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2006

Trail to the epicenter of faulty math

Police have arrested disgraced structural designer Hidetsugu Aneha and seven others involved in the scandal that has shaken public confidence in the safety of residences, although the specific allegations against them at this point are not directly related to the core of the scandal -- Mr. Aneha's fabrication...
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2006

Marking 50 years of Minamata

Hundreds of Minamata disease patients and their supporters marched through central Tokyo on Saturday, two days ahead of the 50th anniversary of its official recognition.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2006

Daughters sue to help guru lodge appeal

Two daughters of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara and his lawyers are suing the government and a psychiatrist to fight the Tokyo High Court's dismissal of his appeal of the death sentence, the lawyers said Saturday.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2006

Jobless rate at seven-year low of 4.3%

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate averaged 4.3 percent in fiscal 2005, down 0.3 percentage point from fiscal 2004 and the lowest in seven years, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2006

Koizumi issues official Minamata apology

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday issued the first formal apology by a prime minister for the state's failure to deal properly with Minamata disease, one of the worst pollution-caused maladies and one that erupted during the nation's speedy economic growth of the 1950s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 29, 2006

Nisei bears witness to 'looking like the enemy'

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald was 17 when her life fell to pieces, shattered by the U.S. policy of interning Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2006

Howa Bank eyes public funds to boost capital

Howa Bank, a second-tier regional bank based in Oita Prefecture, said Friday it is considering applying to the Financial Services Agency for an injection of public funds to strengthen its depleted capital.
SOCCER / World cup
Apr 28, 2006

Zico dismisses link with South Africa

Japan coach Zico slammed a newspaper report linking him with the South African national team job, but said he is still weighing up a coaching career in Europe.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2006

SMBC to be suspended from derivatives selling

Financial regulators said Thursday they will slap Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. with a six-month ban from May 15 on selling financial derivatives.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2006

Earnings solid at JFE, Kobe Steel

Major steelmakers JFE Holdings Co. and Kobe Steel Ltd. both reported strong earnings Thursday for fiscal 2005 to March 31, thanks to robust domestic and overseas demand.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 28, 2006

Music Day Japan 2006

The concept of Music Day Japan was borrowed from Fe^te de la Musique, a vast free music festival held in France on the summer solstice. Founding the festival in 1982, the French cultural ministry has made sure that the wide range of music on offer consistently crosses generational boundaries.

Longform

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