Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2004

NPA report lists the usual suspects: Islamic terrorists, Aum, Pyongyang

International terrorist organizations run by Islamic extremists are expected to continue carrying out attacks worldwide, and the possibility of Japan becoming a target cannot be ruled out, the National Police Agency reckoned in an annual report on security released this week.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2004

Revamped H-IIA a go for launch with satellite

Japan plans to resume the use of its domestically made H-IIA rocket around February and launch a new multifunctional transport satellite, the first H-IIA mission since the previous launch ended in failure in November last year, government officials said Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 9, 2004

Sasaki's deal with BayStars is the richest ever in NPB

Yokohama BayStars closer Kazuhiro Sasaki confirmed the terms of his final contract year with the Yokohama BayStars on Wednesday and revealed that he earned 650 million yen in the 2004 season, making him the highest-paid Japanese ballplayer in history.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2004

Banks' new service ploy a flop: Matsui

The latest strategy of banks to raise revenues via one-stop, across-the-board financial service shops is doomed to fail, the chief of online securities firm Matsui Securities Co. said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 8, 2004

Working on a tough shoot

Whether it's a movie, a TV show, a commercial or even a music video, a key decision is choosing where the cameras will roll. To that end, members of film crews are often dedicated to hunting down locations that will satisfy both the directors and producers, and this is where film commissions can play...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2004

Tax and spend no better than borrow and spend

UBUD, Bali -- For most politicians and bureaucrats, so-called tax reform is a cover for them to raise taxes. And so it is not surprising that Japan's Tax Commission insists it is impossible to avoid tax increases to sort out Tokyo's fiscal problems. But it turns out that this assertion is based on logic...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2004

Males more prone to commit crimes but whys elude

As in other advanced countries, statistics show that most crimes in Japan are committed by males, especially violent offenses.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 7, 2004

Taniguchi nails second MVP award

Toru Taniguchi, who rebounded in 2004 following a season plagued with health problems, was named the Most Valuable Player by the Japan Golf Tour Organization for the second time in his career Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 7, 2004

Costly crackdown

Prospects of stricter visa requirements on foreign entertainers wishing to enter Japan worry Filipino recruiters and entertainers who say the restricted entry of Filipino workers into Japan may mean less money for families who depend on remittances being sent by relatives.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2004

Existentialist/essentialist

SHINTO: The Way Home, by Thomas P. Kasulis, preface by Henry Rosemont Jr. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 2004, 188 pp., $15.00 (paper). One day several years ago, the author of this new book on Shinto took an early stroll through the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine. After "feeling the connectedness...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2004

Way of the corporate giant robot

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, by Yoshiyuki Tomino, translated by Frederik L. Schodt with an introduction by Mark Simmons. Stone Bridge Press, 2004, $14.95 (paper). Yoshiyuki "Kill 'em All" Tomino is the mega-prolific creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam phenomenon, known, perhaps a little patronizingly, as the "Star...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2004

Telephone fraud is criminally dumb at the end of the line

Misfortune for some can be entertaining to the rest of us. Microwaved poodles and death-by-sexual-dalliance often have such a ridiculous aura about them that we tend not to identify with the victims because the stupidity inferred precludes any feelings of sympathy.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Japan to accelerate push for permanent UNSC seat

When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh last week, he playfully asked whether the so-called G4 nations' campaigning for U.N. Security Council reform stands for the "Gang of Four."
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 3, 2004

Gunners have gone from invincible to mortal in just over a month

LONDON -- On the face of it two defeats in your last 56 Premiership games hardly seems reason for a crisis.
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2004

Nippon Life cedes lead to AFLAC

Nippon Life Insurance Co. had lost its No. 1 position in the individual life insurance market by the end of September for the first time in the postwar period, industry officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Dec 3, 2004

It's a stroll in a park to find the old Yoyogi

The town of Shinjuku dates from the late 17th century, when a post-station was set up there on the Koshu-kaido on the northwestern edge of Edo (present-day Tokyo). To the south, Yoyogi was then mainly sparsely populated hills that rolled on as far as the eye could see.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2004

Rice harvest dampened by typhoons

Japan's rice harvest index for 2004 was a "slightly poor" reading of 98, remaining below the base of 100 for an average year for the second consecutive year due to a series of typhoons this fall.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2004

Manufacturing still our lifeblood

Fifteen years after the collapse of the economic bubble, Japan's longer-term economic prospects look fairly promising. One reason for this is that Japanese banks, particularly big ones, are making good progress in their efforts to clear up their nonperforming loans. Another reason is that manufacturers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 1, 2004

Instruments of invention

It has been 91 years since Luigi Russolo published his manifesto "The Art of Noises," in which the Italian Futurist implored, "We must break out of this narrow circle of pure musical sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise sounds."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 1, 2004

Dodgers coach Colborn feels right at home in Japan

Thrilled to be back in Japan last month as the pitching coach on the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Japan Tour was Jim Colborn, former pitching instructor for the Orix BlueWave and currently mentor to the mound staff of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2004

Heading for higher taxes

The latest report from the government's Tax Commission has a sobering message: In the long run, taxes in Japan have nowhere to go but up. As the commission's chairman, Mr. Hiromitsu Ishi, points out, there is no way to avoid tax increases in order to put the nation's fiscal house in order.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 28, 2004

A clever yarn crafted from a hoax

MY LIFE AS A FAKE, by Peter Carey. Faber & Faber, 2004, 276 pp., £6.99 (paper). One of the most stunning acts of literary criticism in modern times was perpetrated in an Australian magazine called Angry Penguins during World War II. It consisted of a small body of faux experimental poetry, purporting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2004

Kanye West

The term "old school" can be taken several ways on Kanye West's "The College Dropout," easily the overground hip-hop album of 2004. The once and future producer of Jay-Z, West obviously makes a lot of money so he doesn't have to convince anyone that his lack of higher education didn't hold him back....
MORE SPORTS
Nov 27, 2004

'Godzilla' returns home after heartbreak season

Even after living every boy's dream of hitting cleanup for the New York Yankees in the 2004 season, Hideki Matsui isn't happy.
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2004

Recuperating Kanebo chalks up 358 billion yen net profit in first half

Kanebo Ltd., which is rehabilitating under the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, on Friday reported a group net profit of 358.11 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2004.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2004

Tax panel pushes hikes in 2005

The Tax Commission recommended Thursday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi raise both income and residential taxes in fiscal 2005 in what would be the first significant tax increases in six years.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2004

As bad-loan worries finally recede, banks turn attention to weak profits

Major Japanese banks are finally set to bid farewell to the bad-loan problems that have dragged down the country's financial sector, not to mention the economy as a whole.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2004

Fuso trucks made this month to join recall for faulty hubs

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. announced Wednesday it will issue recalls possibly in mid-December for about 130,000 large vehicles to replace front- and rear-wheel hubs, including vehicles produced this month.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 24, 2004

Kiyohara set to stay

Disgruntled veteran Yomiuri Giants slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara indicated Tuesday he will stay with the Central League club next season.

Longform

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