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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2011

How big is China's economy?

HONG KONG — There was much fanfare last month when Beijing reported that China had overtaken Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world. But this celebration was bogus — because the reality is that in real terms China has already become the biggest economy in the world, edging slightly...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2011

Chubu Electric to invest ¥800 billion abroad by '30

Chubu Electric Power Co., Japan's third-biggest energy utility, plans to invest as much as ¥800 billion overseas by 2030, increasing its foreign business by more than 10 times as domestic demand falls.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2011

Battling U.S. for huge deal, Eurofighter woos Japan

In a deal that could be worth billions of dollars and determine one of the primary fighter jets in Asia for decades to come, European aircraft makers are trying to get Japan to do something it has never done before — snub America.
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2011

Risk from rising global prices

A part from agreeing on a set of indicators to measure economic imbalances, the Group of 20 emerging and developed economies that met in Paris last week shared the observation that rising prices of primary industry commodities including food are becoming a risk factor for the global economy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2011

Japan urged to beef up business ties with India

Japan has yet to explore the potential of its economic relations with India, even though the strategic importance of Tokyo-New Delhi ties has repeatedly been emphasized, Indian scholars and experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2011

The growth bargain in Asian consumption

LONDON — U.S. President Barack Obama caught the imagination of the world when he talked recently of a new "Sputnik moment." He outlined a bold plan for improving education, infrastructure and technology, and vividly compared the resolve required to put a man on the moon to the determination needed...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2011

Vietnam delusion endures

LONDON — Communist party congresses are generally tedious events, and the 11th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (Jan. 12-17) was no exception. The changes in personnel at the top were decided by the elite inner circle of the party long before the congress opened, and the rhetoric was in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Foreigners solicited, hard-pressed to stay

Despite sending his resume to more than 15 companies, Bryan Cheng, a Taiwanese graduate student at Waseda University in Tokyo, hasn't received any positive replies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2011

Facing the specter of famine

SINGAPORE — In India, a potentially huge economic and social crisis is in the making, involving extensive rewriting of recipe books to exclude a favorite ingredient. Onions are in short supply and their prices have risen by 80 percent, too expensive for many Indians to afford as part of their daily...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2011

Daihatsu plans ¥1 million gas-sipping minicar

OSAKA (Kyodo) Daihatsu Motor Co. will begin marketing its new highly fuel-efficient gasoline-engine minivehicle this summer at a sticker price of ¥1 million or less, company President Koichi Ina said in a recent interview.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2011

Remembering Kobe

Sixteen years have passed since a devastating earthquake hit Kobe on Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,434 people and injuring some 44,000 others. In 2010, the Hyogo prefectural government and the Kobe city government for the first time designated 328 people as having become disabled due to the quake. But 121...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2011

Deflation becoming notorious export

Deflation is so entrenched that companies are exporting it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 11, 2011

Smart grid pursuit slow off mark

The term "smart grid" is coming up a lot as the United States prepares to replace its aging electricity infrastructure. While President Barack Obama pledged $3.4 billion in 2009 to spur an early transition to the new distribution grid, Japan isn't expected to follow anytime soon.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2011

Rengo head pushes for tax reform

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government should focus on reforming the tax and social welfare systems this year and work to improve job prospects for young people, Nobuaki Koga, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), recommends.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2010

2010's many charts tell a confusing tale

As seems to be becoming commonplace with these end-of-year roundups, the big music story was once again the rise (and rise) of AKB48 and their rapidly multiplying sister groups, SKE48 (named after their home at Nagoya's Sunshine Sakae building), NMB48 (after Namba in Osaka) and "mature" proto-porn, postgraduation...
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2010

What is Beijing willing to do to secure oil and gas supplies?

SINGAPORE — China's dependence on increasing amounts of oil imported from potentially unstable areas of the Middle East and Africa through vulnerable shipping channels has become an uncomfortable fact of life for the government in Beijing.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2010

Nippon Yusen to triple fleet serving India

Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's second-largest operator of dry-bulk ships, plans to more than triple its fleet of capesize vessels serving India because of demand for coal and iron ore in the world's fastest-growing major steel market.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2010

Reviving the West is key

LONDON — In 2008, at a time of financial peril, the world united to restructure the global banking system. In 2009, as trade collapsed and unemployment rose dramatically, the world came together for the first time in the Group of 20 to prevent a great recession from spiraling into a great depression....
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2010

Blame the pragmatic feel for DPJ's popularity slide

Ever since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in September 2009, the DPJ administrations have turned out unexpectedly unpopular.

Longform

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