Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2005

Cabinet endorses basic plan to promote gender equality

A basic plan to achieve gender equality was endorsed at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday and features the goal of raising the rate at which woman are recruited for the top-level career track in the central government.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 28, 2005

Sleazy snappers turn eco-show sour

Originally this column was going to be about Eco-products 2005, a trade show held at Tokyo Big Sight earlier this month. But as you'll see, I got seriously sidetracked and my focus shifted more or less entirely.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2005

INEPT LEADERSHIP CONTINUES

HONG KONG -- A controversial plan to extend democracy in Hong Kong died Dec. 21 when the legislature failed to pass it by a big enough majority. Hopes of true democracy in the special region of China have thus been put into deep freeze, with recriminations reverberating from Hong Kong to Beijing and...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2005

Seven & I seals deal to buy Millennium

Seven & I Holdings Co., operator of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., formally announced Monday it will acquire department store giant Millennium Retailing Inc. for about 130 billion yen, creating the country's largest retail group.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2005

Dazed Meiji Yasuda seeks outside help

For scandal-hit Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co., the biggest task ahead is how to reflect outsiders' voices in management decisions, newly appointed President Kenji Matsuo said.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2005

Ito-Yokado, Seibu enter final merger negotiations

The holding firms of supermarket chain Ito-Yokado Co. and Seibu Department Stores Ltd. are in the final phase of merger negotiations, industry sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 26, 2005

A Japanese take on 'intelligent design'

NEW YORK -- Why do my compatriots, the Japanese, try to copy Americans -- often on the basis of a most tenuous understanding? The wonderment occurred when I checked the Internet to see if the notion of "intelligent design" (I.D.) was known in Japan and at once found that it was, and more.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 25, 2005

Merry Christmas -- whether rendered as a fact or not

Today being Christmas Day, I think we should all come clean and dedicate ourselves to truth. When all is said and done (and pretty soon it may be), there is probably no person in the world as tortured over the truth these days as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 25, 2005

Political 'capital' like dust in the wind

WASHINGTON -- What a year! When 2005 began, there was so much hope and optimism in Washington, even among us Democrats.
Features
Dec 25, 2005

Haruki Kadokawa: Spirits of the Yamato

Haruki Kadokawa is the closest Japanese equivalent to fabled Hollywood moguls like Sam Goldwyn or Howard Hughes in their glory days as master promoters and unrepentant egotists.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 25, 2005

Cultural depths of celluloid

READING A JAPANESE FILM: Cinema in Context, by Keiko I. McDonald. Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press, 2005, 294 pp., photo illustrations. $20.00 (paper). Films are not only to be passively watched, they are also to be actively "read." The viewer deciphers not just the story but all the other indications...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 24, 2005

Pan Pacific has loaded lineup

Defending champion Maria Sharapova will feature in a strong field of players at the 2006 Toray Pan Pacific Open, which also includes former world No. 1 Martina Hingis, organizers said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 24, 2005

Mourinho alienating everyone but his players, Chelsea fans

LONDON -- Jose Mourinho seems to have found the 30-hour day.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2005

East Timorese still searching for justice

EAST TIMOR -- East Timor's 800,000 citizens are finding that the truth does not set them free and that justice and reconciliation is elusive. A recent report published by East Timor's Commission of Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) estimates that there were a minimum of 102,800 conflict-related...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 22, 2005

Completely useless objects

It's 6 p.m., it's the end of the work day at a busy Kanda office block. OLs have been furiously tapping away at their keyboards, and connections have been made in the meeting rooms. Power players in their suits have been clinching make-or-break, win-win deals. Suddenly, the doors of the elevator open...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2005

ODA outlay marks 3.4% fall

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday allocated 759 billion yen for official development assistance for fiscal 2006, down 3.4 percent from the previous year.
COMMUNITY
Dec 20, 2005

Readers' Write Back

Last week's mock list of ways to deal with the NHK man caused some concern over at the broadcaster, which believed the article may have been taken seriously by some. We'd just like to clarify that we weren't in fact encouraging readers to break the law, and to share the thoughts of some readers who felt...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 18, 2005

What did you read about Asia this year?

Donald Richie THE COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel (Columbia University Press) This new take on Japanese modern classics -- old standbys and lots of recent writing as well -- is big (864 pages and it's only the first volume). It includes examples...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 18, 2005

Sinister stats suggest southpaws should swap sides

I am very depressed by the news these days. But, believe me, it's not what you think. It's all because I'm left-handed, an extrovert and a writer of poetry.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2005

Population now on track to start shrinking in 2006, not 2007: report

Japan's population will start shrinking next year and not in 2007 as was earlier projected and could be half of what it is now in a century, if the birthrate continues to decline at the current pace, according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2005

JH execs Uchida, Kaneko plead not guilty

A former vice president and a former board member of Japan Highway Public Corp. pleaded not guilty Friday to charges they were involved in rigging bids for steel bridge projects undertaken by the now-defunct government highway builder-operator.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 16, 2005

Giants add Powell to roster

The Yomiuri Giants said Thursday they have signed right-hander Jeremy Powell, who played for the Orix Buffaloes in 2005 and has a 57-47 record in the past five seasons in Japan, to a two-year contract.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2005

Tax breaks may soon be pulled; hikes eyed

The ruling coalition Thursday recommended scrapping income, residential and corporate tax breaks and raising liquor and tobacco levies in its reform proposals for fiscal 2006, and agreed to discuss a possible consumption tax increase for fiscal 2007.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2005

Pair using Tamiflu die but state denies drug poses safety worry

The health ministry said Thursday that two men, one in his 50s and and the other in his 80s, died after taking Tamiflu, one after developing a serious skin disease and the other from kidney failure.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Dec 16, 2005

Another jewel in the Cartier crown

Venerated as the royalty of jewelers and the jewelers of royalty, Cartier is by far the largest brand of its kind in the world. With its illustrious history and client list including countless kings, queens and princes, it is little wonder that the brand's double C logo and distinctive red packaging...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 15, 2005

Imano, Fukabori named to Asia team

Yasuharu Imano and Keiichiro Fukabori have been selected from the Japanese tour for next month's Royal Trophy team competition between Asia and Europe, the Japan Golf Tour Organization said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2005

'Tankan' finds broad improvement in business confidence

Companies turned more optimistic in December amid improved exports and firm domestic consumption, demonstrating that the economy is continuing its gradual upswing, according to the Bank of Japan's "tankan" quarterly business survey released Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 15, 2005

The form of the infinite

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."

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