Search - 2003

 
 
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2004

Regional economies earn second straight upgrade

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday upgraded its quarterly assessment of the nation's regional economies for the second time in a row.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2004

Kanebo, Kao again delay integration accord

Kanebo Ltd. and Kao Corp. said Monday they have again postponed signing a formal agreement to integrate their cosmetics businesses.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2004

Rengo facing crisis over 'shunto'

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) faces a crisis this spring. Management has suggested that there may be decreases in basic wages and that annual spring labor campaigns for higher wages are dead.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 25, 2004

Ota skates away with gold at Four Continents event

Yukina Ota of Japan won the overall women's title at the Four Continents figure skating championships in Hamilton, Ontario on Friday. Canadian champion Cynthia Phaneuf took second spot after winning the free-skating section of the event.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 25, 2004

Embracing the beauty and the beast

The Chicago band Califone and Tucson-based singer-songwriter Howe Gelb will be coming to Japan next month to do a club tour together. Both artists record for the same Chicago indie, Thrill Jockey, which has a licensing deal with the Japanese company Headz, and they both happen to have time to kill in...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 25, 2004

To give proves easier said than done

JAPAN'S "CULTURE OF GIVING" AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, by Akira Matsubara and Hiroko Todoroki, translated by Richard Forrest. Tokyo: Coalition for Legislation to Support Citizen's Organizations, 2003, 45 pp., free (paper). Japan's transformation is proceeding quietly, slipping beneath media radar screens...
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Doctors paid to 'lend' names to other hospitals

Doctors paid to 'lend' names to other hospitals
MORE SPORTS
Jan 23, 2004

Shimizu to run in Tokyo Marathon

Koji Shimizu, who finished 21st in the men's marathon at last summer's World Championships, and Takayuki Nishida are among the 11 Japanese invitees who will compete in the upcoming Tokyo International Marathon, organizers said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Group urges landlords to accept foreign tenants

Finding a place to live is one of the biggest difficulties foreign residents of Japan face, and one of the main reasons is that landlords are reluctant to accept them as tenants.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2004

Market rally lines pockets of online brokerages

Online brokerages continued to enjoy steep earnings growth thanks to the recent market rally, with Matsui Securities Co. reporting Thursday its net profit during the October-December period jumped more than 3 1/2-fold from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2004

PC shipment volume up, value down

Shipments of personal computers in Japan in 2003 dropped for the third consecutive year in terms of value despite the first upturn in two years in volume, an industry association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2004

Kojima to be next Mitsubishi chief

Mitsubishi Corp. Vice President Yorihiko Kojima will become company president April 1, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2004

Science majors want to work at Toyota

Toyota Motor Corp. is for the first time the most popular place to work among male university students majoring in science and engineering, according to results of a 2003 survey released Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2004

Stockpiled U.S. beef hit with ban

The government has ordered meat wholesalers not to sell hundreds of tons of American T-bone steaks and other U.S. beef products considered at risk of carrying mad cow disease, health officials said Wednesday.
SUMO
Jan 22, 2004

Asashoryu edges ever closer

Grand champion Asashoryu edged closer to his fifth Emperor's Cup after tearing through rank-and-filer Kakizoe for his 11th straight win at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2004

Did the government lay an egg?

The recent outbreak of avian flu in Yamaguchi Prefecture has not only shocked restaurants and the fast-food industry, but has highlighted the government's inability to prevent such deadly diseases from emerging in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2004

Making a spectacle of man's inhumanity to man

"Bent" is one of the outstanding theatrical creations of the 20th century. Ostensibly about the persecution of homosexuals and Jews under Hitler's dictatorship, what the play really addresses is the power -- in even the most disempowered circumstances -- of the individual and of love.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Pay pension premiums or else, agency warns

The Social Insurance Agency will mail letters Tuesday to some 500 people, demanding they pay their national pension premiums or face measures such as the confiscation of their bank deposits, agency officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Koizumi seeks support for dispatch

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on the nation to support his decision to send Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq as he kicked off the 150-day ordinary Diet session Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Crime down -- but serious offenses up

The national crime rate was down for the first time in eight years in 2003, with criminal cases falling 2.2 percent from the record 2,853,739 recorded the year before, the National Police Agency said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2004

Tanigaki promises to implement fiscal debt remedies, tax reforms

The government will remedy the country's mounting fiscal debts and initiate tax reforms to revitalize the economy and build a sustainable fiscal structure, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki pledged Monday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 19, 2004

Japan must preserve upswing by allaying public fear with reform

Expectations are growing that Japan will finally achieve a full-scale economic recovery this year.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 18, 2004

Kanto freezes Waseda for title

What a difference a year makes.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 18, 2004

On a mission for the future of funk

Coming up with a technical definition for funk isn't easy, but New York Times critic Jon Pareles did a pretty good job in his review of a Nov. 2003 concert by the New Orleans band Galactic. Stating that the "discipline of funk [is] the repetition and deliberate space that give the music its solidity...
COMMENTARY
Jan 18, 2004

Authoritarian threat grows

LONDON -- The real threat from terrorists is being used as a pretext for growing authoritarian tendencies in democratic countries. On the grounds that every possible step must be taken to prevent terrorist attacks, suspects are being imprisoned without trial or access to lawyers, and Draconian controls...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 18, 2004

Wacky potions can be crocks of gold

The doorbell rang. It was my neighbor, Mrs. S., asking if the lady of the house (a Taiwanese) could help her by translating the Chinese-language instructions for a "miracle" baldness remedy that someone had brought back from China and presented to her husband.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2004

Slew of new ambassadors named

The government appointed new ambassadors to East Timor, Sweden, Latvia, Luxembourg, Guatemala and Bolivia at a Cabinet meeting Friday.

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