Search - 2012

 
 
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 11, 2010

Media fixated with China's new wealth

With the World Cup, sumo's baseball betting scandal and Sunday's Upper House election dominating the media's attention, some readers may have not noticed the extensive coverage also being devoted to China. And we're not just talking about crowds at the Shanghai Expo, but the crowds of visitors to Ginza,...
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2010

NEC sets supercomputer goals

NEC Corp. aims to double its share of the global supercomputer market in the next four years by increasing sales in Europe, a market where industry leaders IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. may be easier to challenge.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2010

Japan's economic fantasy

HONG KONG — Belatedly, Japan's leading politicians are waking from their coma and realizing that the country's economy is in a massive mess hit by a triple whammy of low growth, heavy debts and an increasingly aging population.
JAPAN / OKINAWA'S HOSTAGE ECONOMY
Jul 7, 2010

Futenma relocation has certain bidders salivating

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Last month an executive of a major construction company in Nago confessed what was considered a long-held industry secret in this city that is poised to be the replacement site for the Futenma military base: For decades most local contractors had rigged bids for public works projects,...
JAPAN / OKINAWA'S HOSTAGE ECONOMY
Jul 7, 2010

Special burden, special economic benefit

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — On Aug. 4, 2005, then Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine was told by Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya that the United States had agreed to return all of the major military bases south of Kadena, central Okinawa Island, to Japan on condition that the Futenma air base be relocated...
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2010

Getting serious on debt reduction

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's call for supra-partisan discussions on a consumption tax raise and the government's long-term fiscal management plan announced shortly before the G20 summit show that the Kan administration has become serious about reducing the national debt. As a deflationary trend continues,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2010

New era for cross-strait relations

Officially, it is called the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), but it is potentially much more. The trade deal signed by China and Taiwan early last week could transform the relationship between the two governments. It deepens the integration of the two economies, opening the door to closer...
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2010

Toyota may shift some car output to Thailand

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest carmaker, may move production of some cars to Thailand, reducing its reliance on Japanese factories.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2010

The G20's expensive party

HONG KONG — Leaders of the world's most powerful nations and a few less powerful hangers-on, like Canada and Italy, have just spent a few more billions of their taxpayers' money as they failed to devise a rescue plan for a world economy that is still perilously close to the cliff edge of disaster....
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Jun 28, 2010

Japan not competing hard enough to reap big rewards in Africa

These days the world's eyes are on Africa. However, of the 32 soccer teams competing in the FIFA World Cup, one main stakeholder is missing: the Chinese team.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2010

Aderans plans to expand upscale wig shops

Aderans Holdings Co., Japan's largest wigmaker, plans to expand its network of luxury female wig stores sixfold as the nation's growing elderly population spurs demand.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2010

A new Tokyo landmark

More than 50 years have passed since Tokyo Tower was constructed in a more optimistic time, when Japan was recovering from the war years and entering a period of high economic growth. Unimaginatively modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was the tallest free-standing tower in the world at its opening...
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2010

Kan may need ¥7 trillion tax hike

Prime Minister Naoto Kan may have to raise taxes by as much as ¥7 trillion to fulfill his pledge to cap bond sales in coming years, according to an independent adviser to the government.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 14, 2010

South Koreans show split over what sank their ship

Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 5, 2010

Niseko's real estate boom: Bigger picture in sight for local development

For some it was a flash in the pan, at best an experiment destined to fail, at worst a mini-bubble hyper-inflated by greedy "outsiders" with little interest other than the type accumulating in the bank.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2010

Yet another nuclear success

For the first time in a decade, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference was a success. The 189 nations that met for a month at the United Nations headquarters reconfirmed their commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, and to that end agreed to hold a regional conference...
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2010

Panasonic aims to outshine solar competitors

Panasonic Corp. is banking on the solar-panel business that it gained by acquiring domestic rival Sanyo, aiming for a top market share of at least 35 percent in Japan by 2012.
OLYMPICS
Jun 1, 2010

Ukraine preps Winter Olympic bid

KIEV (AP) Ukraine is considering a bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Bukovnya in the Carpathian mountains.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 24, 2010

If China's amazing growth seems illusory, maybe it is

Not many people in Japan are convinced that China has truly become an economic giant even though Beijing has released impressive statistics on the country's economic growth, accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, rising automobile sales and aggregate stock market value.

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