Search - 2003

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2004

Geography, history flex E. Asia's 'quadrilateral'

THE GEOPOLITICS OF EAST ASIA: The Search for Equilibrium, by Robyn Lim. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 208 pp., £65 (cloth). East Asia is a dangerous neighborhood and thus professor Robyn Lim admonishes Japanese leaders to abandon "head in the sand" pacifism and acknowledge that at the dawn of the 21st...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Shinsei logs net profit rise of 25%

Shinsei Bank said Friday that its net profit rose 25 percent to 66.4 billion yen in fiscal 2003.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

FTC warns Citibank, Shinsei over unclear ads

The Fair Trade Commission warned Citibank and Shinsei Bank on Friday over misleading newspaper advertisements for time deposits in Australian and New Zealand dollars, FTC officials said.
JAPAN
May 28, 2004

Diet cracks down on overstayers, widens door for refugees

The Diet on Thursday enacted a law that toughens penalties imposed on illegal aliens in Japan -- but expands the window of opportunity for prospective asylum-seekers.
JAPAN
May 28, 2004

Accounts may be tied to al-Qaeda

Police have discovered bank accounts in Japan that might have been part of an underground bank for the al-Qaeda network, investigative sources said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 28, 2004

Porto's Mourinho paid his dues on way up coaching ladder

LONDON -- Two years ago few outside of Portugal had heard of Jose Mourinho.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
May 27, 2004

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," "Fergus Crane"

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," Mark Haddon, Random House; 2003; 272 pp. You know from the first paragraph that this is no ordinary book.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Ministry releases work-related illness data

A total of 312 people became eligible for workers' compensation due to brain and heart illnesses induced by excessive work in fiscal 2003, according to labor ministry statistics released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2004

Softbank pursues Japan Telecom

Softbank Corp. is negotiating with U.S. investment fund Ripplewood Holdings LLC to turn Japan Telecom Co. into its subsidiary, sources close to the talks said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 26, 2004

A hard man-woman is good to find

Casting is all in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," but here all's very well indeed.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Ministry releases work-related illness data

A total of 312 people became eligible for workers' compensation due to brain and heart illnesses induced by excessive work in fiscal 2003, according to labor ministry statistics released Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Lawyers, welfare experts to open private shelter for troubled youths

Lawyers and child welfare experts will open a private temporary shelter for about five teenagers on June 1 in Tokyo -- the first facility of its kind in Japan.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2004

Toyota remains top income earner

Toyota Motor Corp. declared the highest amount of corporate income to tax authorities in calendar 2003, holding the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, credit research agency Teikoku Databank Ltd. said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Fewer firms inclined to donate to political parties: poll

More than one in four major companies have no plans to make political party donations this year, a Kyodo News survey has reported.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Resona racks up 1.66 trillion yen net loss

Resona Holdings Inc. on Monday reported a group net loss of 1.66 trillion yen for the year that ended March 31, with the bailed-out banking group having spent some 1.41 trillion yen on bad-loan writeoffs.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Wrangling over new Kobe airport rumbles on

OSAKA -- Tension over the future of airports in the Kansai region boiled over recently, with politicians and business leaders in Kobe and Osaka engaging in public skirmishes with the central government and with each other.
JAPAN
May 24, 2004

Political leaders weigh in on value of Koizumi's visit to North Korea

Political leaders continued debating Sunday the outcome of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, with an opposition leader denouncing it as a "big failure."
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2004

Blowing smoke on tobacco

The government has begun belated efforts to restrict smoking in Japan, which has long been a smokers' haven. In May 2003, the government enacted the Health Promotion Law to reduce exposure to passive smoking. In March it signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control --...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 23, 2004

Should be handled with extreme caution

Violence is in, pop-pickers. You've seen those pictures of those troops whooping it up in Iraqi jails. Violence is clearly fun. It's cool. It basically rocks! Just ask Bush and Rumsfeld. They kicked the whole thing off.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 23, 2004

Obsessions with Japan's uneasy history

NEUTRAL WAR, by Hal Gold. New York: The Lyons Press, 426 pp., 2003, $22.95 (cloth). TOKYO, by Mo Hayder. London: Bantam Press, 364 pp., 2004, £10.99 (paper). Novels that tantalize readers by intertwining known facts about the Pacific War with historical what-ifs and maybes bring to mind such entertaining...
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Terrorist kept calling Japan

A senior al-Qaeda operative who hid from Interpol in the city of Niigata for more than a year made phone calls to two Japanese and 11 foreign Muslim men in Japan after he left the country last year, investigative sources said.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2004

Net external assets down a second year

Japan's net external assets stood at 172.82 trillion yen as of the end of 2003, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
May 21, 2004

Dental group bribery probe widens

Tokyo prosecutors have questioned two senior health ministry officials in connection with a bribery probe involving the Japan Dental Association, sources said Thursday.

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