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BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2012

Builders tap postdisaster rush for quake-resistant homes

Ken Saishoji, a Tokyo real-estate agent, used to answer questions from potential apartment buyers about the proximity to train stations and prices, but that changed after the March disasters.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2012

Behind schedule, third 787 to land in Tokyo

Boeing Co.'s third Dreamliner to enter service will land in Tokyo Thursday, capping off the 2011 handovers of the new 787 and 747-8 models that probably fell short of projections.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2011

Year of revolution and crisis

Every year brings changes, but some years really are turning points: 1492, 1789, 1914, and 1989, for example. Does 2011 belong in the august company of such Really Important Years? Probably not, but it definitely qualifies for membership in the second tier of Quite Important Years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 30, 2011

Films that make you feel it like the first time

My one wish for the New Year would be to wipe my brain clean of all the movies I've ever seen. With a fresh slate, I could sit back and enjoy, say, some new neo-noir without comparing it to "Chinatown." On a bad day I'll think that cinema is most intense at first blush, that the films that imprint themselves...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2011

Real estate unit projects 18% rise in condo sales in '12

Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc. plans to boost its home sales by about 18 percent next year as a drop in housing inventories signaled a rebound after the March 11 earthquake.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2011

Firms' credit ratings suffer in year of crises

Credit rating companies issued a record number of downgrades this year as the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises pushed Japan's economy into its third recession in a decade.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 28, 2011

Looking forward to the next year in tech

If you can manage to look past the bummer of Mayan doomsday prophecies, 2012 looks pretty promising from a tech geek's point of view.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2011

Noda under tax hike pressure

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda faces escalating pressure to secure support for higher taxes after the budget plan for fiscal 2012 revealed the government's record dependence on borrowing.
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2011

Economy sees first signs of nasty drop

Kiyohito Okuda is a businessman and an optimist, and so he has found at least one redeeming angle to Japan's slow-motion economic decline: Never has the pain felt too acute to bear.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Dec 18, 2011

U.S. 'quietly' frustrated with ongoing Tokyo inaction on key policy issues

More than any specific policy recommendations, Japan needs to have the capability to make decisions and implement them far more quickly than today — whether on the security or economic policy fronts.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2011

2012: the year of muddling

Nowadays there is no shortage of pundits, economic or otherwise, warning of impending disaster. If right, they are hailed as seers; if wrong, chances are that no one will remember. So here's a forecast: There will be no shortage of predictions that 2012 is shaping up as a disastrous year.
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2011

Glimpse of hope from Durban

The 17th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) held in Durban, South Africa, since Nov. 28 agreed Sunday to start work in 2012 to write a comprehensive treaty that will require both developed and developing countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. According...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2011

TSE, OSE woo foreign investors

Japan's top two stock exchanges are starting campaigns to lure overseas investors after agreeing last month to merge amid falling trading volumes.
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2011

Russia's cooperation options for design of a trade scheme

Nowadays the trend toward trade and investment liberalization is developing under restraints of the opposite — protectionist — tendency strengthened by the shaky and unpredictable world situation, which in turn was created by the global financial and economic crisis.
COMMENTARY
Dec 6, 2011

Growth on austerity road

The British chancellor of the Exchequer (the finance minister) in his autumn statement to the House of Commons on Nov. 29 admitted that the British budget deficit will last beyond 2015 — when a general election has to take place. That means continuing cuts in government expenditures and in public sector...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2011

U.S. budget cuts and the next war of choice

The failure of the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach agreement on budget cuts now sets the stage for $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions to begin in January 2013.
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2011

Firms to aid disaster-info FM stations

Kyodo Shiseido Co., Canon Marketing Japan Inc. and Panasonic Corp. will provide financial help for 15 temporary FM radio stations broadcasting information for victims of the March 11 disasters.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2011

Controversial plan to ship debris

Not much progress has been made in transporting debris in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures created by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami to other prefectures for disposal because local governments and residents outside the disaster-hit areas fear the debris could be contaminated with radioactive substances...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?