Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2004

New runway at Kansai airport nears government approval

The government will give the go-ahead to construct a second runaway at Kansai International Airport, to be operational in 2007, government sources said Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 5, 2004

Way of the corporate giant robot

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, by Yoshiyuki Tomino, translated by Frederik L. Schodt with an introduction by Mark Simmons. Stone Bridge Press, 2004, $14.95 (paper). Yoshiyuki "Kill 'em All" Tomino is the mega-prolific creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam phenomenon, known, perhaps a little patronizingly, as the "Star...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2004

GSDF officer involved in LDP's draft for constitutional revision

A senior officer in the Ground Self-Defense Force has compiled a draft plan for revising the Constitution to authorize the existence of a "military force" and enable the nation to engage in collective defense, it was learned Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2004

Japan mulling offensive missile capability

The government wants to research long-range precision missile technology, according to a draft outline of the midterm defense buildup plan for fiscal 2005-2009.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Japan to accelerate push for permanent UNSC seat

When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh last week, he playfully asked whether the so-called G4 nations' campaigning for U.N. Security Council reform stands for the "Gang of Four."
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 1, 2004

Kiyohara to play for Giants in 2005

Disgruntled veteran slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara said Tuesday he has reached middle ground with the Yomiuri Giants and will play for the Central League club next season, the final year of his four-year deal.
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2004

DoCoMo, mm02 to provide i-mode services in Europe

NTT DoCoMo Inc. and major British mobile carrier mm02 have agreed on a deal to allow mobile telephone users in Britain, Germany and Ireland to surf the Internet on their handsets, DoCoMo said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2004

Chinese sub highlights underseas rivalries

HONOLULU -- The incursion of a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine into Japanese territorial waters Nov. 10 has illuminated the mounting competition under the surface of the Pacific and Indian oceans and their adjacent seas.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2004

Challenges and opportunity

SINGAPORE -- As the first Indonesian president to be elected through direct universal suffrage, and backed by a mandate from a considerable majority of Indonesian voters, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is injecting new energy into the 10-member Association for Southeast Asian Nations. Furthermore,...
BASKETBALL
Nov 25, 2004

Japan to get new pro basketball league

Japanese basketball officials on Wednesday announced the formation of a new professional basketball league.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 25, 2004

Now may be the time to finesse U.S. 'bully'

Beneath the buzz of news last week, it was easy to overlook one important story -- as much of the media did. On Thursday, the Russian Federation submitted to the United Nations its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, beginning a 90-day countdown to the protocol's entry into force. As a result, on Feb....
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2004

Mizuho, SMFG loan ills abating

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the nation's biggest bank by assets, said Monday its first-half net profit fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier but its bad loans shrank due to improved earnings at borrower firms.
COMMENTARY
Nov 22, 2004

Limits of education control

The proposed trilogy of tax and fiscal reforms, aimed at giving more fiscal independence to local governments, is troubled by disputes over whether the state should continue paying for compulsory education. At issue is whether the education ministry or the local autonomies should be responsible.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2004

Education for sustainable development

2005 will mark the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The Decade offers a vital opportunity to make real progress toward putting human society on the path to sustainability. More than one-fourth of humankind lives in conditions of chronic poverty. Famine, military...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2004

Fiscal panel calls for tax increases

An finance advisory panel Friday recommended the government drastically cut spending and increase revenue by raising taxes in order to restore Japan's fiscal health -- a prerequisite to ensuring a sustained domestic demand-led economic recovery.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2004

Koizumi puts off final decision on contentious subsidy reforms

Blocked by fierce opposition from his own party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday postponed finalizing a plan to give more fiscal freedom to prefectural and municipal governments.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Derailment mars shinkansen safety myth

Reverberations from the bullet train derailment in Niigata Prefecture on Oct. 23 continue to echo across Japan, as experts debate whether it was luck or skill that saved the day for the passengers roughed up by the series of strong earthquakes.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2004

Steps for the Palestinians

The death of Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat opens the door to new possibilities in the troubled Middle East. While Mr. Arafat was the embodiment of Palestinian aspirations, he had also become an obstacle to peace. His most important interlocutors -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 16, 2004

How old is too old to teach?

Too old? G. is a a 60-year-old native English speaking female who has earned a BS in Elementary Education and an Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Consumers help GDP edge up just 0.1%

Slumping corporate spending and exports caused the economy to slow to a crawl in the July-September period, with real gross domestic product expanding just 0.1 percent from the previous quarter, Cabinet Office data showed Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2004

Doyukai pushes government to clean up nation's finances

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) urged the government Thursday to come up with specific plans to sort out the nation's finances, association officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2004

Community service required curricula

Students at all Tokyo Metropolitan Government-run high schools will be forced to engage in community service beginning in the 2007 academic year, metro board of education officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2004

State urged to pare, eventually end yen loans to aid-donor China

Japan should reduce its yen loans to China with an eye to eventually abolishing them because such official developmental assistance is no longer needed, says a report released Wednesday by the House of Councilors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2004

Manga animates new millennium

Manga took a giant leap into its future on New Year's Day 1963, when space-age cartoon images from Osamu Tezuka's famed comic book "Tetsuwa Atomu (Astro Boy)" came to life in Japan's first original animated TV series. This was the birth of anime, which has now mushroomed into a multi-billion-dollar global...

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