Search - 2005

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2006

An Asian woman becomes aware

Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2006

Celebrating civilizations

The Islamic world is home to one of the richest and most important musical traditions on Earth. It doesn't hurt that it also spans an incredibly vast area, stretching west to Morocco and east as far as Indonesia, and that it contains an intricate tapestry of races, languages and cultures, or that it...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 27, 2006

Marines rough up Matsuzaka; Lions fail to grab No. 1 seed

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. At least Daisuke Matsuzaka has the playoffs.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2006

Pioneer sues Samsung over patent

Pioneer Corp. said Monday it has filed a lawsuit with a U.S. district court in Texas against Samsung SDI Co. and several other Samsung group companies over an alleged infringement of patents related to plasma display panel technology.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Success elusive so far in China summit talks

Japan and China took a break from sub-Cabinet-level talks Monday in Tokyo apparently without having agreed on an early resumption of summits after Shinzo Abe becomes prime minister.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2006

Some hospitals OK blood for kids over parents' objections

Three out of four hospitals that have guidelines on Jehovah's Witness patients have said they would give young children blood transfusions even if their parents opposed such procedures on account of their faith, according to a survey released Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2006

Sticky bureaucratic fingers

It used to be said that Japanese bureaucrats were first rate while politicians were third rate. That's no longer true, as evidenced by an appalling spate of scandals involving slush funds in the central and local governments.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Justice minister still refuses to sign execution orders

Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura has expressed his unwillingness to give the go-ahead for executions before he steps down next Tuesday with the outgoing Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to sources.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Horigome tabbed as next Supreme Court chief justice

The government has decided to appoint Yukio Horigome, a Supreme Court justice, as the next chief justice, replacing Akira Machida who will retire Oct. 15, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Talks open with China to lay summit groundwork

and Japanese officials open two days of policy talks in Tokyo on Saturday. KYODO PHOTO
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

Japan needs a Willy Brandt

BERLIN -- Junichiro Koizumi will resign as the Japanese prime minister at the end of this month and be replaced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. Koizumi became prime minister in April 2001. After more than five years as prime minister, Koizumi's political record is checkered: He achieved big successes...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

575 defense workers took unauthorized trips: agency

A total of 575 Defense Agency employees, including Self-Defense Forces personnel, have traveled abroad without informing their superiors, agency officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

More single men expect future wives to work

An increasing number of single men hope their future spouses will continue to work after having children, according to a government survey released Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2006

Stepping up pressure on Pyongyang

Japan imposed financial sanctions on North Korea earlier this week. The action, which came more than two months after the North's July 5 test-firing of seven missiles, may have been be unavoidable since Pyongyang has not shown any sign that it will return to the six-nation talks on its nuclear-weapons...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

506 teachers in '05 tagged incompetent

More than 500 teachers at public schools across Japan were branded as incompetent in the 2005 academic year, down about 10 percent from a year earlier but still the second-highest number since the teacher assessment system began in 2000, the education ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 2006

Award-winning docudrama 'From a Silk Cocoon'

It is 1986, the year that the U.S. government passes the Civil Liberties Act for providing financial reparation and an apology to all Japanese-Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2006

A setback for Thai democracy

The Thai military seized power Tuesday, revoking the constitution and declaring martial law. The coup took place while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York attending a U.N. General Assembly session.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Japan in FTA talks with Gulf states

Japan and the oil-producing countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council began official negotiations Thursday in Tokyo on a free-trade agreement.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Surplus saw 95.5% jump in August

The trade surplus ballooned 95.5 percent to 200.5 billion yen in August from the previous year, logging its first increase in three months due mainly to brisk auto exports to the United States, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Thai coup puts FTA, investment in doubt

Tuesday's bloodless coup in Thailand has left a free-trade agreement negotiated between Tokyo and Bangkok up in the air, a senior Japanese official said Thursday as businesses waited for the dust to settle.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

LDP election broke with norm

to a certain degree," he said. "Without Koizumi's guidance, Abe would never have become party president." Abe won 464 votes, or 66 percent of the total, although he had reportedly been shooting for more than 70 percent. Aso came in second with 136 and Tanigaki got 102.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2006

The world's biggest mystery

LONDON -- In a recent opinion poll in Russia carried out by the Yury Levada Analytical Center, 58 percent of the respondents said they believe that "non-Russian nationalities are to blame for many of Russia's misfortunes"; 52 percent said they thought the government should restrict immigration.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Paternity leave slowly catching on

A record 1 percent of central government male workers engaged in clerical work took paternity leave after their wives gave birth in fiscal 2005, up 0.1 point from a year earlier, according to the National Personnel Authority.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.