Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2005

22% of state offices coerced to buy wares: NPA

Nearly 22 percent of government offices were targets of some form of outside coercion during the year spanning August 2004 to last July, with at least 8.6 percent pressured into buying merchandise, subscribing to publications or making donations, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2005

Ricoh drops Taiwan patent suits

Ricoh Co. said Wednesday it has dropped its patent infringement lawsuits against Taiwanese companies because settlements have been reached.
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2005

Breaking the cycle of hatred

The suicide bombings that devastated three crowded restaurants on the Indonesian resort island of Bali over the weekend come as a chilling reminder that the world has yet to break the cycle of terrorist violence. The coordinated attacks reportedly killed at least 22 people, including a Japanese tourist,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2005

Beautiful truths woven in lyricism

If poetry is an art then songwriting is a craft. Verbal phrases and musical phrases each have their own modes of logic and the trick is to match them up in a way that sounds natural. All songwriters try to do that to a certain extent, but Joanna Newsom seems more conscious of the actual work involved...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2005

Australia gets tough on terror

SYDNEY -- Tough new laws enforcing preventive detention of suspected terrorists will soon drastically change the laid-back response that Australia has so far allowed to the growing world threat of terrorism. But even before new laws start, the wails of protests from civil-liberty groups are deafening....
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2005

Goal eyed for government lending cut

The government plans to set a target year for halving the ratio of outstanding loans by eight governmental lenders to the gross domestic product, officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 6, 2005

Give them what they want

When Paul Baron moved to Tokyo three years ago, he was excited to explore the city's vast art world as he had been an avid follower of art events while studying graphic design in London. There was only one problem: Where to find out what was going on. It should have been easy; it should have all been...
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2005

PC software shipments grow 4.3%

Domestic shipments of packaged personal computer software in fiscal 2004 reached 786.2 billion yen, up 4.3 percent from the previous year, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday by the Japan Personal Computer Software Association.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 5, 2005

Iwamura tells Swallows he wants to play in majors

Yakult Swallows infielder Akinori Iwamura made a new request Tuesday to the Central League club to switch to the major leagues next season via the posting system.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

Soil contaminated with uranium shipped to U.S.

The nuclear research and development agency has shipped uranium-contaminated soil to an undisclosed location in the United States for disposal, officials said.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2005

Bureaucratic workforce to face 10% cut over five years

The government said Tuesday it will cut the number of national-level civil servants by 33,230, or at least 10 percent of the total as of the end of fiscal 2004, over the next five years, officials said.
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2005

When numbers don't add up

of a Japanese unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Group were arrested last month on suspicion of falsifying accounting reports of Kanebo Ltd., a maker of sundries, food products and pharmaceuticals. If these CPAs are found guilty of violating the Securities and Exchange Law, the credibility of the nation's...
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2005

'Tankan' up slightly amid worries over oil

Sentiment at large manufacturers rose slightly in September, with optimism for strong exports somewhat dampened by worries over soaring oil prices, according to the Bank of Japan's "tankan" quarterly business survey released Monday.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2005

Latest Bali blasts to have limited impact, travel agencies say

Japanese travelers appear to be taking Saturday's deadly bombings in Bali calmly, with relatively few tour cancellations reported by travel agents so far.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2005

Telecom exec wanted over share-price scam

A former executive of a failed telecommunications firm has been placed on the nationwide wanted list on suspicion of announcing an unrealistic mobile phone service to raise the stock price of its parent company, investigative sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2005

Harumi Kurihara: Homing in on success

As a cook and lifestyle guru, Harumi Kurihara has often been dubbed Japan's answer to America's Martha Stewart or Britain's Delia Smith. But in February this year, she scaled new heights when the English-language edition of her book "Harumi no Japanese Cooking" -- titled "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" --...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2005

Execs avoid prison over Roppongi Hills fatality

The Tokyo District Court found three former company executives guilty Friday of professional negligence resulting in the death of a 6-year old boy who was crushed in an automatic door at the Roppongi Hills complex in March 2004.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2005

Patent high court sides with Justsystem icon

The Intellectual Property High Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling and ruled that Justsystem Corp. can continue to produce and sell its Ichitaro word-processing software and Hanako graphics software because they do not infringe on a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. patent.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2005

FTC expects Japan Highway to sue execs for collusion damages

The Fair Trade Commission said Thursday 45 domestic bridge-builders rigged bids for 260 billion yen worth of state and Japan Highway Public Corp. contracts from 2002 to 2004.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2005

Dead sperm donor's in vitro paternity not recognized

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday refused to recognize a man as the father of a child conceived by in vitro fertilization after he died, calling the reproductive process "unnatural."
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2005

Can a watchdog watch itself?

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's plan to go public in fiscal 2005 (ending next March 31) seems unlikely to go smoothly as the Financial Services Agency opposes the plan. At issue is a debate over whether the bourse can continue to properly execute its public role as a watchdog over the stock market after going...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2005

Tokyo High Court rejects Turkish Kurd's appeal for asylum

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by a Kurdish asylum seeker to revoke a Justice Ministry decision to deny him refugee status.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2005

MTFG, Merrill Lynch in joint venture

Competition in the private banking business got tougher Wednesday after Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. announced they will set up a joint-venture brokerage targeting wealthy customers.

Longform

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