Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2006

Livedoor tied to faked transactions

Former Livedoor Co. executives are now suspected of booking fictitious transactions and revenues in 2005 as well as those earlier reported for the year to September 2004, investigative sources said Thursday.
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.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

New games bring more people to video consoles

There may be no monsters to slay or racing cars to spin, but new video games that claim to stimulate the brain or translate languages are being snapped up by a new crowd of gamers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2006

M.I.A. terrorizes the dancefloor

Maya Arulpragasam sighs into the phone. I've asked her if journalists have accurately depicted her life story, and she seems tired of the question.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Nissan issues all-new Moco in bid to tap minicar shift

Nissan Motor Co. launched a fully remodeled version of the Moco minivehicle Wednesday that is being supplied by Suzuki Motor Corp. on an original equipment manufacturing basis.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Sharp's third-quarter profit climbs to record 26 billion yen

Sharp Corp. said Wednesday its net profit jumped 26 percent to a quarterly record of 26.26 billion yen for the three months through December, driven by continued strength in its liquid crystal display TV sales.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2006

Police collar 'quack-upuncturist'?

An self-styled acupuncturist and his assistant were arrested Wednesday for allegedly practicing medicine without a license in Tokyo, police said.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2006

Extra budget clears Lower House

The House of Representatives approved a 4.52 trillion yen fiscal 2005 extra budget Tuesday after a Lower House panel was forced the day before to delay the planned passage when debate was disrupted for hours over the beef import issue.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 31, 2006

Hospital death exposes 'tip of malpractice iceberg'

Loyd Cummings tried to ignore his headache when it began on Aug. 7, 2003. But the electronic technician, who was working in Japan on U.S. Navy radars, eventually collapsed from an aneurysm -- a bulge in a vein in his head.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 30, 2006

Fighters, Diaz agree to contract

After originally agreeing to a one-year deal with the Hiroshima Carp, former Chicago White Sox prospect Felix Diaz instead will be joining the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the club announced Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 30, 2006

Another side to Japanese-Korean history

NEW YORK -- Historian George Akita recently sent me a brief essay that appeared in the December issue of the monthly Nihon Rekishi (Japanese History). He had told me of a full-length article he'd written on alternative views of Japan's rule of Korea between 1910 and 1945. The essay, titled "New Currents...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 29, 2006

Beverlin back for another chance after Tommy John surgery

Call this the year of the recycled foreign player in Japanese baseball.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

Graphic view of Pyongyang

PYONGYANG: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2005, 176 pp., $19.95 (cloth). A consideration of North Korea must be, one supposes, a howl of rage, a moan of despair, or some combination, and this anger and despair must certainly be molded...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

Ministry to pay for CJD autopsies

The health ministry plans to provide 250,000 yen to subsidize each autopsy of a person suspected to dying from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to confirm whether they died from that or variant CJD, which is linked to mad cow disease, officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

A reliquary for the story of Buddha

BUDDHISM: On the Path to Nirvana, by Swati Chopra, foreword by Lokesh Chandra, photo editor Lance Dane. New Delhi: Brijbasi Art Press, Ltd., 2005, 160 pp., 200 color photos, $35 (cloth). The true accomplishments of any leader are often compromised when legend wraps itself around the man himself. This...
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 28, 2006

Gamba, Urawa to open J. League

The J. League will kick off its 2006 season on March 4 with a clash between defending champion Gamba Osaka and Urawa Reds, runnerup in 2005, the league announced Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Livedoor nemesis now rescuer

Livedoor Co. on Friday asked Fuji Television Network Inc. to support its efforts to recover during the two firms' first executive-level talks since prosecutors raided Livedoor's offices on Jan. 16 over alleged Securities and Exchange Law violations, Fuji TV President Koichi Murakami said.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

Fewer women atop ladder in '05

The number of female corporate leaders in Japan fell for the first time in 25 years in 2005 to 67,299, down 604 from the previous year, according to a survey by a private credit research company.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2006

No place for pension evasion

At a time when people's trust in the nation's pension systems is declining, some enterprises, especially small ones, are behaving in a manner that will weaken the reliability of social security. They deliberately choose not to join the corporate employees' pension system (kosei nenkin) while the number...
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

Net brokerages post record profits

Japan's top five online securities companies posted record operating revenues and net profits for the April-December period of 2005 on a jump in trading commissions, particularly from individual investors, according to the brokerages' financial results, all of which had been released by Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 28, 2006

Belavi Facelift Massage battles time and gravity

The room is warm. The music relaxing. Aromatherapy oils perfume the air. I am wrapped in hot towels after an hour of sheer bliss. And the years have fallen away. Off my face, that is.

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