Search - 2005

 
 
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...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2004

Dealing with the nuclear-threat hydra

LONDON -- The U.S. government has named Iran and North Korea as rogue states. Iran is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and breaching the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). North Korea may already have a few nuclear devices and has announced its withdrawal from the NPT. The two states...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2004

Government plans stricter rules on disposal of CFC substitutes

Regulations on disposal of chlorofluorocarbon substitutes that cause global warming will be tightened, government sources said Tuesday.
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 3, 2004

Final Toyota Cup

The 25th and final edition of the Toyota Cup between Portugal's FC Porto and Colombian side Once Caldas will be held at International Stadium Yokohama on Dec. 12, the Japan Football Association said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2004

Ishihara tries to counter city's birthrate-unfriendly nature

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara would probably be happy to learn that when Mayumi Ozaki's 2-year-old daughter caught a cold, her minder went to the girl's home and looked after her for two days.
COMMENTARY
Nov 1, 2004

Withdrawal is the only honorable way out

WASHINGTON -- Iraq has become the central issue in America's presidential campaign, but neither candidate has a solution for a conflict that has cost more than 1,100 American lives. Unfortunately, the killing will continue until the United States and its allies withdraw their forces, leaving Iraq to...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 29, 2004

Mystery solved: Ferguson hit by orange juice during brawl

LONDON -- There is nothing this column likes more than an exclusive though it would normally be a player moving to another club or a manager quitting than a culinary scoop.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 27, 2004

Foreign heavy hitters show some 'appeal' during Japan Series

Congratulations to the Seibu Lions on winning their first Japan Series in 12 years.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2004

British pension crisis looms

LONDON -- An important report on the pension crisis facing Britain was published Oct. 12. The report by the Pensions Commission, chaired by Adair Turner, a former director of the Confederation of British Industry, warned that, because of increased longevity and a shortfall in pension funds, British pensioners...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Tentative accord reached on U.S. beef

Japan and the United States on Saturday agreed in principle to resume U.S. beef imports as early as next spring, although a final accord on specific conditions for lifting the ban was left to further negotiations.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2004

Jobless hurting nation's growth rate

An increase in the number of young people who do not attend schools, get jobs or receive job training will probably pull down Japan's potential growth rate during the 2000-2005 period, according to a think tank report.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2004

Households could be hit with 5,000 yen green tax

Households might have to pay an average 4,950 yen per year if a planned environment tax is introduced in fiscal 2005, according to a government draft released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2004

Aichi's futuristic expo to spotlight the past with 10,000-year-old mammoth

Shuttle buses without drivers, trains floating on magnetic fields and other visions of the future will be on display at the Aichi world fair next year. But Expo 2005's centerpiece will be rooted deep in the past -- the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.