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BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2007

TCI latest fund to seek better returns from companies

The Children's Investment Fund Management Ltd., the U.K.-based activist fund with more than $10 billion (¥1.1 trillion) in assets, said it won't let Japanese companies stymie its efforts to boost shareholder value.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2007

NEC Electronics to make car goods with China FAW

NEC Electronics Corp., Japan's third-biggest semiconductor maker, and China FAW Group Corp. will jointly develop car electronics to meet demand in the world's second-biggest automotive market.
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2007

Hugo Chavez, democrat

Fears about the future of Venezuela's democracy have abated, at least for now. Despite pre-vote threats about the potential cost of opposing his wishes, President Hugo Chavez has accepted the defeat of his constitutional reform package. The outcome has the potential to rejuvenate a dispirited and divided...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2007

Japan climate effort needs rethink: experts

One of Japan's goals at the Bali conference on climate change is getting legally binding emission controls placed on developing countries, but many experts doubt the nation's ability to get its own house in order first.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2007

Fruitful talks in Beijing

Japan-China high-level trade and economic talks, which were held in Beijing over the weekend, have helped advance economic ties between the countries and improved overall bilateral relations. The talks did not resolve the issue of China's exploitation of natural gas fields in an area of the East China...
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2007

Science fact, not fiction

In its fourth and final report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner (with Mr. Al Gore) of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, concluded that global warming is "unequivocal" and already threatens hundreds of millions of lives and as much as two-thirds of the species on the planet....
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2007

Australia with a new face

Until around a year ago, Australian Prime Minister John Howard looked unbeatable with his administration's strong economic management. But in Sunday's elections, the youthful-looking Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd dealt a crushing defeat to the conservative coalition led by the 68-year-old Mr. Howard....
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 27, 2007

Japan zeroes in on homegrown jetliner

On Sept. 30, 2006, Japan retired the last of its only domestically produced airliner, the YS-11.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2007

Telling the truth about the limits of oil

LONDON — If a diplomat is "an honest man sent abroad to lie for the good of his country" (Sir Henry Wotton, 1612), then oil industry executives used to be the business world's equivalent of diplomats.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2007

Vladimir Putin, part two

LONDON — Opinions about Vladimir Putin run the gamut. In the West, he is regarded as an "authoritarian," an "autocrat," even as a "dictator," while in Russia a huge majority regard him as the most "democratic" of leaders, on the grounds that he has done more than his predecessors to improve the lot...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Nov 2, 2007

Well-heeled in Chuo Ward

From the opulence of world-renown Ginza emporiums, to the glittering scales on the fish auctioned from slick palettes in Tsukiji market, Chuo Ward wheels and deals precious commodities.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2007

France suits up as European full-timer

PARIS — When Nicolas Sarkozy became president of France, he declared that his country was back in mainstream Europe. Since then, Sarkozy has thrown himself into the European political fray.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2007

Nissan profit drops 27% but sales growth promising

Nissan Motor Co. reported Friday a 27 percent decline in profit for the July-September quarter on one-time expenses and higher taxes that eroded overall sales growth and improved earnings in core auto operations.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2007

Quality care with less

A government plan to save on medical costs by reducing the number of hospital beds dedicated to long-term convalescence is causing anxiety for patients and their families. If the health ministry carries out the plan carelessly, it could lead to the loss of people's trust in the nation's medical system....
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2007

From awareness to action

It was almost anticlimactic when Mr. Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Climate change has steadily climbed the global public policy agenda, and is now the first action item at most international gatherings. Some would call this...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2007

Empty gestures on climate change

U.S. President George W. Bush has been hailed for a decisive change in his thinking about climate change. After rejecting the Kyoto treaty early in his presidency, he no longer questions the fact of "climate change" and has attempted to claim a leading role in the international fight to combat this problem....
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2007

Hype on nuclear power is misleading

NEW DELHI — Talk of a "global nuclear renaissance" remains just that — all talk. Notwithstanding the strong public relations campaign by the nuclear power industry and its powerful lobbying groups, nuclear energy is hardly the answer to the twin challenges of carbon mitigation and energy security...
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2007

Bullet trains get ¥200 billion boost

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and West Japan Railway Co. will spend a combined ¥200 billion more on new bullet trains than originally planned as they move to adopt more fuel-efficient cars, the two companies said Wednesday.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan