Search - announcements

 
 
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 12, 2006

What defines Japan for you?

Daniel Schuellein Student, 23 The cell phone market here is so advanced. People use them for everything; from earthquake announcements to checking when the bus arrives. The distinctive youth culture in Harajuku can only be found in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2006

Merkel's reforms drift toward dead end

MUNICH -- A year ago, Angela Merkel, Germany's charming new chancellor, was in the final phase of her election campaign. The incumbent, Gerhard Schroeder, lagged so far behind her Christian Democrats (CDU) in public opinion polls that she thought she would win a landslide victory and could therefore...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2006

Tokyo groping down overall but picking up on some lines

Groping incidents and other harassment targeting female commuters increased on some Tokyo-area train lines last year, despite an increase in women-only cars, according to police officials.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006

Tokyo's ring of steel

Who would have thought that something that chases its tail all day for a living could be so incredibly important to the workings of a major metropolis?
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006

Lives in their hands

Uniformed officials of East Japan Railway Co. are solemnly but methodically at work. Their train has just made an emergency stop after running over a middle-age man, who is either unconscious or dead. The driver radios the control office in central Tokyo, from where police and an ambulance are alerted....
SUMO
Jun 15, 2006

With Wailing Walls and Dead Sea dips, who needs the World Cup?

Sumo, unlike football -- (the proper one as opposed to the pads and helmet version) -- never stops.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2006

New auto jobs, not quotas

WASHINGTON -- U.S. automakers are in dire straits. While non-U.S. brands are gaining market share, both GM and Ford have announced major plant closings and substantial layoffs. For some, these announcements have raised the specter of a return to the policies of the 1980s, when the United States imposed...
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

Matsushita profits up 39% despite heater fiasco

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday robust sales of plasma display panel TVs and digital cameras boosted its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2005, raising its net profit by 39 percent to 49.3 billion yen.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2006

Access to courts no given under freedom of press, judge rules

The Tokyo District Court dismissed a journalist's suit Wednesday over the press club system and government discrimination against freelance reporters, ruling media access to court proceedings does not fall under freedom of the press.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2006

Sharp to invest 275 billion yen

Sharp plans to invest 275 billion yen next fiscal year to maintain its top spot in the liquid crystal display TV market, President Katsuhiko Machida said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2005

Asbestos-relief bill may hit 27 billion yen

The government revealed Tuesday that thousands of buildings nationwide, including public facilities, pose asbestos exposure risks while unveiling a draft bill to pay 27 billion yen in compensation to the people affected.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 18, 2005

Ministry missive wrecks reception

Between Oct. 7-11, the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Japan's largest convocation of language educators, held its annual meeting in Shizuoka, a pleasant city between Tokyo and Osaka.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 15, 2005

Get all animalistic and 'manner up!'

There is no doubt that Japanese people are losing their good manners. Alarmed, the government and private organizations are doing their part to encourage the public to "manner up!" by displaying posters and signs. These signs, probably designed by elementary school teachers with a grudge, seem to be...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2005

Trying to keep the train-groping perverts out of touch

Earlier this year when some Japanese train lines inaugurated women-only cars the Western media picked the story up as yet another example of Weird Japan, a place, they implied, where sexual deviancy was so culturally grounded that the only thing railway companies could do to protect female passengers...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2005

Tokyo, convenience stores, Yoshinoya ink disaster pact

Major convenience stores and Yoshinoya restaurants in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures agreed Wednesday to help people in emergencies by providing drinking water and other amenities when earthquakes and other disasters strike.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2005

State to draft law on asbestos redress

The government will draft a law outlining compensation for victims of asbestos-related illnesses, including those who lived near asbestos-linked factories and the families of those who worked with the unburnable material, the Cabinet decided Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2005

Threshold of a lower threat

The fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear-arms programs opens Tuesday in Beijing. The question is whether the talks will succeed in convincing the North to halt its nuclear-arms development, which poses a serious security threat to Northeast Asia. For Japan, the United States, South...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Asbestos deaths just tip of the iceberg

Recent revelations that hundreds of workers at firms across Japan have died from asbestos-linked diseases over the past few decades have raised questions about whether the health risks of the unburnable mineral were duly recognized by the government and businesses.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2005

Bank client data loss at 1.8 million

Customer data loss cases at major Japanese banking groups, regional banks and credit unions mounted to more than 1.8 million as of Friday, according to a tally compiled by Kyodo News based on their announcements.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 26, 2005

New book offers interesting retrospective on Japanese game

Remembering Japanese Baseball, an Oral History of the Game is the title of a new book by Robert K. Fitts, the creator of RobsJapanese Cards.com, the world's largest Web site dedicated to Japanese baseball cards and memorabilia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2005

EU states also need to deal with Israel

DOHA, Qatar -- Hamas' electoral success since the first round of local elections in Gaza in December has signaled a dramatic shift in the way the movement is perceived both nationally and internationally.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2005

Shareholders' meetings poised for takeover debates

The season for general shareholders' meetings is just around the corner, and a growing number of companies plan to use them to propose measures against hostile takeovers.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2005

Rules to survive by

The Cabinet has approved a set of ground rules for protecting the people in the event of a military, terrorist or missile attack on Japan. The rules, officially called "Guidelines Concerning the Protection of the People," state what protective measures the government will take in such an emergency.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2005

Toshiba outlook cut as chips plunge

Toshiba Corp. said Monday it has slashed its projected operating profit for the full year to March by 30 billion yen to 160 billion yen, joining a growing list of technology firms that are revising their outlooks due to a slowdown in the sector.
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2005

An opportunity for Indonesia

It is an old cliche, but there may be good reason why the Chinese word for "crisis" consists of characters that mean "danger" as well as "opportunity." The earthquake and tsunami that devastated many South Asian communities in the last week of 2004 are truly a "crisis" for Indonesia. The danger is obvious:...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2005

Disaster alerts to be in 'easy Japanese'

Local governments and radio and television stations might broadcast disaster warnings and information using children's-level Japanese so that foreigners can understand.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?