Search - 2004

 
 
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 28, 2005

Angry Tuffy lashes out at 'lousy' Giants teammates

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Tuffy Rhodes is tired of losing, and has some harsh words for his teammates.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2005

Shiseido posts a net loss of 8.86 billion yen

Shiseido Co. said Wednesday it posted an 8.86 billion yen net loss for the year that ended in March, after booking hefty restructuring costs including an early retirement package.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2005

Nippon Steel profit jumped five-fold in '04

Nippon Steel Corp. said Wednesday its group net profit totaled 220.60 billion yen for fiscal 2004, a 5.3-fold jump from the year before, thanks to brisk steel sales amid strong demand at home and abroad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 27, 2005

Soft-focus images to unsettle us

The first Yokohama Triennale, held back in 2001, was a critical success, and so I was delighted to hear that the second incarnation of the contemporary art extravaganza has been set for September.
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2005

Household spending saw first rise in eight years in '04

Monthly spending by wage-earning households rose for the first time in eight years in fiscal 2004, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2005

Honda hits record profit on brisk overseas sales

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday its group net profit increased 4.7 percent from the previous year to a record 486.1 billion yen in fiscal 2004, mainly due to brisk overseas sales and a rise in profits from affiliates.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2005

Tokyo court rejects Yasukuni-visit suit

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a damages suit by about 1,000 people, including South Koreans, who said visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara were unconstitutional.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Ex-UFJ execs in scandal avoid prison

Former UFJ Bank Vice President Kazuyoshi Okazaki, 57, was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, for masterminding efforts to thwart government inspections in 2003.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

Index, KDDI move to boost mobile content

Index Corp., the leading distributor of content for mobile phones, said Monday it has formed a capital alliance with and will become the largest shareholder of toy maker Takara Co.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Is the economy better off under Koizumi?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday enters the fifth year of his administration.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

DoCoMo to end pager service in 2007

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday it will stop offering pager services at the end of March 2007, pulling the plug on the nearly 40-year-old business due to decreasing subscribers.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2005

Nissan reports record profit for fifth year

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it posted a record group net profit of 512.3 billion yen for fiscal 2004, up 1.7 percent from the previous year, and the fifth consecutive record annual profit.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2005

Better India-Pakistan relations

Last week Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on various new confidence-building measures between the two nations. Their talks, held during Mr. Musharraf's unofficial visit to India on April 17, produced agreement, for example, on the passage of trucks...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2005

N.Y. Times bureau chief honored

Internationally recognized journalist and author Howard W. French was awarded an honorary doctorate Saturday in Tokyo in recognition of his years reporting on Asia as chief of The New York Times' Tokyo and Shanghai bureaus.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 24, 2005

Time for some Showa trivia and Heisei melodrama

GEISHA -- HARLOT -- STRANGLER -- STAR: A Woman, Sex & Morality in Modern Japan, by William Johnston. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 245 pp., $29.50, (cloth). ISOLATION, by Christopher Belton. New York: Leisure Fiction, 2003, $6.99, 372 pp., (paper). To be honest, I've never really understood...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2005

Former teacher can't understand indictment over 'Kimigayo' protest

A former teacher pleaded not guilty in a court hearing Thursday to a charge of disrupting a graduation ceremony at a public high school in Tokyo last year by opposing the singing of "Kimigayo," the national anthem.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2005

Agency inspects 39 Aum facilities

The Public Security Investigation Agency inspected 39 Aum Shinrikyo-related facilities in 2004, later sharing pertinent data with 49 municipal governments, according to a government report released Friday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2005

The G7 does it again

The topics of discussion at last weekend's meeting of finance heads from the Group of Seven were obvious: danger from rising oil prices, global imbalances and developing nations' debt. Yet the ministers failed to make headway on these issues. The global economy needs more than well-heeled cheerleaders....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 21, 2005

Time to honor the planet, every day

'If the environment is a fad, then it's going to be our last fad," warned Denis Hayes at the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, having given up his own graduate studies at Harvard only months before to organize this historic event.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2005

Narita to extend runway, but which way?

The transport ministry is in a dilemma over whether to extend Narita International Airport's "interim" second runway northward or pursue its original southward plan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 20, 2005

'S wonderful: Wiling away the time with Caetano Veloso

Caetano is here. Caetano Veloso. The man who has been hailed for decades in his native Brazil as a singer, composer, poet and revolutionary, and commonly celebrated abroad as the 'Bob Dylan of Brazil,' despite his dislike for such labels.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2005

Hostile protests, Wall Street slide send Nikkei plunging below 11,000

Tokyo's benchmark stock index plunged more than 3 percent Monday amid investor concerns about anti-Japan protests in China.
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2005

Libya hasn't changed its spots

LONDON -- A recent trip to Libya showed that it remains a police state dominated by a personality cult. Col. Moammar Gadhafi's portrait was everywhere, and tourists were warned of severe penalties for criticizing the leadership.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2005

Correct unfair trade practices, China told

Japan urged China to correct trade practices it believes are unfair, including higher tariffs on photo film and auto parts, in an annual report released Monday.

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