Search - 2005

 
 
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

JR West reports 4% increase in net profit

West Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday its group net profit in the April-June quarter rose 4.0 percent from a year ago to 13.87 billion yen despite the fatal April 25 train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Economy seen moving out of soft patch

Economic policymakers on Tuesday showed their strongest confidence yet that the nation has emerged from the lull that started in autumn and upgraded their economic assessments accordingly.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 7, 2005

Will Giants turn to foreign manager after Horiuchi departs?

The Yomiuri Giants are not going to win the 2005 Central League pennant and most likely will finish in the "B Class" (bottom three) for the first time since 1997.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 5, 2005

Colts lose Stokley to shoulder injury

With the sound of hard hits, blazing speed and dynamic super plays, the NFL is back in Tokyo for the first time in two years.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 5, 2005

Top soccer figures confound with contradictory words

LONDON -- England was gearing up to the start of the Ashes series against Australia, the cricket season building into its much-awaited climax.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2005

Money-transfer fraud up but total crimes down

The number of reported money-transfer frauds and the losses from them increased in the first half of 2005 from the same period last year, but total crimes, including those committed by minors, decreased for a third straight year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2005

S&P mulls downgrades for Sony

Standard & Poor's said Thursday it has placed ratings for Sony Corp. and its affiliates on credit watch with negative implications.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2005

Manufacturers plan big spending boost for third year

Manufacturers plan to spend 19.8 percent more on plants and equipment over the previous fiscal year for a third consecutive year of double-digit increases, according to a survey by Development Bank of Japan released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2005

Mazda reports sharp drop in profit

Mazda Motor Corp.'s profit shrank sharply in the April-June quarter despite improved sales because of a change in accounting standards, the affiliate of U.S. automaker Ford said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

1.17 million refuse to pay NHK fee

The number of households that refused to pay subscription fees to scandal-tainted NHK soared to around 1.17 million as of the end of July, from 970,000 two months earlier, the public broadcaster said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2005

Lufthansa to boost Eastern Europe destinations

Lufthansa German Airlines will expand its Eastern European destinations to improve access at a time of growing demand in Japan for business trips to that region, according to the carrier's executive vice president, Thierry Antinori.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2005

Germany and Japan: parallels in reform

Japan and Germany can learn from each other as two major industrialized economies that have faced similar structural problems since the 1990s and are now trying to overcome them with reforms, a leading German economic scholar told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Fare to love -- or loathe

If you plan on visiting Expo 2005 Aichi, you may find you have to join long, long lines and brave the summer heat to get into the most popular pavillions. And should you go through Nagoya on your way back home, don't be surprised to see more long lines in the city center. But these long waits are nothing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2005

Dawn of New Wave

If you're reading this on Sunday then most likely you're not at the Fuji Rock Festival this weekend. But if you're kicking yourself for not having made the trip to Naeba, you still have a chance to enjoy at least a fraction of the Fuji fun, because six bands who are playing at the festival will be doing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

Book bite

SEEING JAPAN (three-volume boxed set), by Charles Whipple, Juliet W. Carpenter, Kaori Shoji. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, approx. 90 pp. per volume, 11,400 yen (cloth). "Seeing Japan," the boxed set, presents three different visual journeys: Japan as a whole, plus the country's two famous cities...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

Breach the defenses of marriage with a smile

FORTRESS BESIEGED, by Qian Zhongshu. Penguin Classics, 2005, 426 pp., £18.99 (cloth). 1937 was a rotten year for China. Japanese forces moved their operations from the Peking to the Shanghai region, the Nationalist lines in Nanjing collapsed, and the remnants of the resistance moved their troops deeper...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

'Secret' city basks in its low-profile limelight

It's at the geographic center of Japan and has in the past been at the hub of its history. It's also the nation's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million. But despite these, and many more, claims to fame and prominence, Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture has always been outstanding for its...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

ANA trounced JAL in fiscal first quarter

The nation's two major airlines Friday announced contrasting results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005, with All Nippon Airways Co. managing to upstage Japan Airlines Corp.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 29, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 07.29

Saturday 07.30
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2005

Michigan seeks investment, to evolve

Seeking to lure investment from a country that once threatened her state's main industry with ruin, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday her five-day trade mission to Japan underscores the new reality of the global economy -- evolve, or die.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

Japan eyes retaliatory tariffs for U.S. steel

Japan may impose retaliatory duties on U.S. steel products, including ball bearings, in September to counter subsidies paid out to steel firms by Washington under an antidumping program that has been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

Honda reports 3.1% drop in net profit

Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday that its net profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 fell 3.1 percent to 110.6 billion yen, despite brisk domestic and overseas sales.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 28, 2005

Moves afoot to counter U.S. Big Oil's clout

Reducing the greenhouse gases that derive from human activities and cause global warming is perhaps the most critical environmental challenge facing the world community.
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2005

Cutting butter with a saw?

The 2005 government white paper on the Japanese economy and public finances, which the Cabinet cleared earlier this month, has a chapter titled "From Public to Private: Restructuring the Government Sector and Its Challenges." It makes the following points:
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2005

Preferred enters hotel fray in Japan

Despite the ongoing hotel war in Tokyo with many international hotels debuting, the chief of the Preferred Hotel Group in Chicago is optimistic about its expansion here.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2005

Condoleezza Rice's unfortunate decision

HONOLULU -- The recent decision by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to skip the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) ministerial-level dialogue this Friday in Vientiane represents a setback for U.S. efforts to persuade Southeast Asians that Washington really cares about their region. Rice plans...

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