Search - 2005

 
 
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2006

Asahi Tec to buy U.S. car parts rival Metaldyne

Auto parts maker Asahi Tec announced Friday it will buy U.S. rival Metaldyne Corp. for $1.2 billion.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2006

Pyongyang taking it to the brink?

There is a growing concern that North Korea might be preparing to test a nuclear bomb. On July 5, the country test-fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, prompting a United Nations Security Council resolution, which condemned the country and banned U.N. member states from transferring missile-related...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2006

Courts refuse to hire lawyers on nationality

Three courts have refused to allow three Korean residents working as lawyers to assume commissioned jobs despite being nominated by their bar associations, because they are not Japanese, attorneys said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2006

Ito-Yokado must pay 5.5 million yen over import heater ills

The Tokyo High Court ruled Thursday that a 22-year-old man developed chemical sensitivity syndrome from using an electric heater and ordered major retailer Ito-Yokado Co., which sold the appliance, to pay about 5.5 million yen in damages.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2006

Toho Housing buys back Aneha-tainted condos

Toho Housing Co. has bought back all 32 units of a Tokyo condominium complex constructed with data fabricated by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha and started razing the structure with a plan to rebuild it, company sources said Thursday.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 1, 2006

Metalchicks "St. Wonder"

Formed in 2000, Metalchicks are comprised of Sugar Yoshinaga from Buffalo Daughter and Yuka Yoshimura, formerly of DMBQ and OOIOO. Their sophomore disc, "St. Wonder," is the soundtrack for the film "Warau Michael."
BASKETBALL
Aug 31, 2006

Greeks gaining respect

SAITAMA -- Even before Wednesday night's game, the Greek basketball team had been turning a lot of heads.
BASKETBALL
Aug 31, 2006

Greece dunks France to reach World Championship semis

SAITAMA -- Lazaros Papadopoulos and Antonis Fotsis scored 14 points each as Greece posted a methodical 73-56 victory over France in their quarterfinal game at the FIBA World Championship on Wednesday at Saitama Super Arena.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2006

M.crew offers work in the day, cheap bed at night

Three years ago, a 19-year-old man arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu to work at a security company.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2006

Tokyo beats Fukuoka in bid to host '16 Games

congratulates Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara after the JOC announced Wednesday that the capital, and not Fukuoka, will be the nation's candidate city to vie to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTO
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2006

Experts demand end to high seas bottom trawling

Experts at the United Nations have compiled a report calling for a moratorium on seabed trawling on the high seas to protect vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems, Japanese experts said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2006

JT to stub out 12 cigarette brands for good

Japan Tobacco Inc. will cut 12 relatively new cigarette brands, nine of which have been marketed in target areas to gauge consumer interest, company officials said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL
Aug 30, 2006

Navarro another star for loaded Spanish

SAITAMA -- Pau Gasol is the star on the Spanish team, but he's not the only reason unbeaten Spain has golden aspirations at the FIBA World Championship.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2006

Daiwa succeeds with Hinode TOB

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. said Tuesday its takeover bid for the Osaka-based brokerage Hinode Securities Co. has been successfully completed, paving the way to make the target a subsidiary.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

Monk with JCP fliers ruled not trespassing

The Tokyo District Court acquitted a Buddhist monk Monday on charges of trespassing at a housing complex in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, while distributing fliers for the Japanese Communist Party in December 2004.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

Paloma hit with emergency recall order

, spokesman for Paloma Industries Ltd., faces reporters Monday at the company's headquarters in Mizuho Ward. KYODO PHOTO
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

Second Kansai runway no cure

OSAKA -- Kansai International Airport has earned international praise for its clean lavatories and other services, but its goal of being a major Asian hub appears to be sinking and the controversial, costly, hard-fought second runway set to open in less than a year appears unlikely to turn things around....
BASKETBALL
Aug 29, 2006

Eight remain in world hoops showdown

It now comes down to this: Six European nations, Team USA and Argentina remain in the hunt for the FIBA World Championship.
BASKETBALL
Aug 28, 2006

Greeks sends China reeling with loss

SAITAMA -- Relentless and selfless.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2006

It pays to join China's CCP

LONDON -- The Chinese government recently announced that membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has grown to a record 71 million; apparently there are also 17 million applicants waiting to join. Last year 2,540,000 people were admitted. Since 1990 party membership has grown by almost one-fifth....
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2006

Strictures of job flexibility

The 2006 white paper on labor and the economy focuses on the rising number of irregularly employed workers, such as part-timers and temporary workers from agencies, and the widening gap in income between regularly and irregularly employed workers. If this gap grows and becomes fixed, society as a whole...
Japan Times
LIFE / DISABILITY IN JAPAN
Aug 27, 2006

Is 'disability' still a dirty word in Japan?

Mainstream society is slowly, but slowly, opening up to the physically ormentally impaired, as officialdom appears happy with a 'steady' approach
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 27, 2006

Korean voices from Japan's colonial past

HIDDEN TREASURES: Lives of First-Generation Korean Women in Japan, by Jackie J. Kim, introduction by Sonia Ryang. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2005, 240 pp., with b/w photos, $32.95 (paper). Jackie Kim, an unaffiliated freelance writer, has here compiled the oral histories of 10 first-generation...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 27, 2006

'Disguised contracting' gets proper airing in media . . . with results

The main front page story of the July 31 Asahi Shimbun was about the prefectural labor bureaus cracking down on major manufacturers for improper employment practices; in particular, something called giso ukeoi, or "disguised contracting."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006

Picturing North Korean propaganda

Japan's comic craze was first documented for the West with the publication of Frederick Schodt's "Manga Manga, The World of Japanese Comics" (1983). Since then, the production and consumption of manga and anime -- its moving picture equivalent -- have spread to China and the Republic of Korea. More recently,...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2006

Be Your Own Pet "Be Your Own Pet"

Fast-playing BYOP sparked an indie buzz in 2005 as a raw, late-teens rock band from Nashville with an archetypal post-punk hellcat in lead singer/yelper Jemina Pearl Abegg. The buzz built up further after they launched a string of three hot singles without releasing an album. By then their mystique ensured...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2006

Defendant hangs self in shared cell

A 48-year-old man being held during his trial for insurance fraud hanged himself in his four-inmate police cell in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward earlier this month, police revealed Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2006

U.S. beef ban over but it seems otherwise at stores

It's been weeks since Japan ditched its import ban on U.S. beef and the first shipment went on sale, but American beef is nowhere to be seen at supermarkets here -- except for the five Costco stores.

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.