Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
May 26, 2006

Canon exits film cameras amid digital dominance

Following in the footsteps of camera giants Nikon Corp. and Konika Minolta Holdings Inc., Canon Inc. will stop developing new film-based camera products because of the shrinking analogue market and dramatically growing digital demand, the company's president said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2006

Weak effort to equalize votes

The Upper House has passed and sent to the Lower House a bill to revise the Public Offices Election Law in order to rectify disparities in the relative value of a vote in Upper House elections. The bill, submitted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito, is likely to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 26, 2006

Politics scaled with music

Matthew Herbert's new album "Scale" is easy to like. His signature arrangements of accessible house-inflected beats behind jazzy melodies are polished to a glossy sheen. Strings swoon. Horns sound lushly. Songs like the soulful "Moving like a Train" or "When We Are in Love" positively slink out of the...
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Consulting firm chief quizzed in quake scandal

Police questioned the head of a Tokyo-based consulting company on a voluntary basis Wednesday over a fraud case involving a hotel in Nara Prefecture built with fake earthquake-safety data, investigation sources said.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2006

ANA to resume Narita-O'Hare service in the fall

All Nippon Airways Co. said Wednesday that it will resume flights between Tokyo and Chicago's O'Hare airport in October as part of its overseas expansion plan in the coming years.
JAPAN
May 24, 2006

Engineering officials held over bid-rigging

Seven senior officials from seven major engineering companies were arrested Tuesday over their alleged involvement in fixing bids for sewage and sludge plant projects financed by local governments, investigative sources said.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2006

Leopalace21 chief to quit over loans

Furnished rental apartment provider Leopalace21 Corp. said Tuesday its president, Yusuke Miyama, will resign June 1 to take the blame for his alleged inappropriate lending practices.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 24, 2006

A road to ancient history's ruin

Irish politician Dick Roche is in the business of government, and his two-decades-long career has touched on public administration, finance, transportation and economic planning and development.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2006

Sompo facing partial suspension

The Financial Services Agency is set to partially suspend Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. from business for about a month over unlawful sales practices that surfaced earlier this year, FSA sources said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2006

U.S. beef imports to resume

Japan and the United States have reached a general agreement on the conditions to resume the importing of American beef to Japan. Beef imports have been suspended since the Japanese government imposed a ban on Jan. 20 after discovering that a U.S. meatpacker had violated safety rules. If everything goes...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2006

Daihatsu drops Otaka as auditor

Daihatsu Motor Co. said Monday it will name Hiroyuki Watanabe, senior technical executive at Toyota Motor Corp., as its new corporate auditor, dropping a plan to select former Toyota Motor North America Inc. President Hideaki Otaka, who has resigned over a sexual harassment scandal.
JAPAN
May 22, 2006

LDP may try to take away tax deduction for 'NEETs'

The Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel will consider proposing that households with young people not in employment, education or training -- the so-called NEETs -- be excluded from income tax deductions for dependents, panel sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 21, 2006

Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before?

Well, the news is out, and it's good news.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 21, 2006

Hopes and fears fuel soccer fans' far-flung parties

Walking up Gaien-Higashi Dori, the road that begins at Tokyo Tower and cuts through the Roppongi entertainment district, at 7 in the morning last Saturday there was more than the usual bags of garbage being torn at by crows, bleary-eyed hosts and hostesses knocking off work, or resting ticket touts and...
JAPAN
May 20, 2006

Corporate social responsibility seen gaining favor in Japan, experts say

Growing awareness of corporate social responsibility was praised as favorable progress for Japan at a symposium in Tokyo earlier this week.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2006

Economy defies dip in consumption and pulls off 0.5% rise

The economy grew by a real 0.5 percent in the January to March quarter, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of growth despite a slowdown in private consumption, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2006

TV Asahi posts 28% rise in net profit

TV Asahi Corp. said Friday its group net profit increased 28.2 percent in the 2005 business year over the year before to 9.47 billion yen on a 3.0 percent rise in operating revenues to 249.38 billion yen.
JAPAN
May 20, 2006

Young killers at heart of capital punishment fight

it just did it right there." His flippant attitude at the time and during his trial outraged Yayoi's husband, Hiroshi, and prosecutors, who appealed the life sentence, demanding the death penalty.
JAPAN
May 19, 2006

Incidents reports drop nearly 20%

The number of incidents reported to police by members of the public dropped 19.5 percent in 2005 on the year to 1.4 million, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2006

Cho warns domestic automakers about fallout from success in U.S.

Japanese automakers should be careful of possibly sparking trade friction with the United States due to their growing strength in the American market, the new chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2006

Fuji TV profit plunged 50% in '05

Fuji Television Network Inc. said Thursday its group net profit for 2005 plunged 50.3 percent from the previous year to 11.35 billion yen, due mostly to the loss incurred from selling its stake in Livedoor Co.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2006

Inequalities of pensions

In 1984, the government decided to rectify inequalities between the pension plan for company employees (kosei nenkin) and the one mainly for public servants (kyosai nenkin). Public servants are entitled to receive more benefits by paying smaller amounts of contributions than company employees.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake