Search - 2004

 
 
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2006

Copyright revision helps one-coin DVDs become hit with movie collectors

It happens all the time: You run down to the video store to rent your favorite movie classic, only to find someone else has beaten you to it. But what if you could buy your very own DVD of the film for the same price as renting it?
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 11, 2006

Sick, desperate Japanese turn to booming Chinese organ trade

When Kenichiro Hokamura's kidneys failed, he spent four years on dialysis before going online to check out rumors of organs for sale.
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2006

Yasuda Warehouse gets DBJ's first low-rate loan

The Development Bank of Japan on Thursday extended its first low-interest rate loan for firms with good disaster plans to Yasuda Warehouse Co., the government-controlled bank said.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2006

China slammed over cryptographer honey trap suicide

The government Friday condemned China for blackmailing a Japanese diplomat in Shanghai two years ago for intelligence, driving him to commit suicide.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2006

Daiichi Sankyo to acquire Zepharma

Daiichi Sankyo Co. will buy Zepharma Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc.'s nonprescription drug unit, for 23.5 billion yen on April 13, Daiichi Sankyo and Astellas said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2006

Muraoka acquitted of hiding JDA check

The Tokyo District Court found former Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Kanezo Muraoka not guilty Thursday of concealing a 100 million yen donation from the nation's dental lobby in July 2001 to the then top LDP faction.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 30, 2006

Hawks hoping to get over playoff hump

CHIBA LOTTE MARINES -- Manager Bobby Valentine's club won it all last season and will no doubt be a contender for the Pacific League again. The lineup is solid with veterans Kazuya Fukuura (6 home runs, 72 RBIs, .300 average in 2005) at first base and Koichi Hori (7, 46, .305) at second, National Team...
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2006

Accounting firm's undoing: Livedoor

The Yokohama-based accounting firm that audited the books of indicted Internet firm Livedoor Co. is planning to disband in late June, company officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

What next in Asahara trial saga?

Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara's lawyers continue to protest the Tokyo High Court's dismissal Monday of their appeal of the cult guru's death sentence.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2006

Overseas production ratio hit record high 16.2% in '04

The overseas production ratio of Japanese manufacturers rose 0.6 percentage point from the previous year to a record high of 16.2 percent in fiscal 2004, up for the fifth straight year, according to an annual government survey released Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2006

Ukraine's watershed election

KIEV -- Ukraine's politics are not those of the steppe. Our voters cannot stroll in one direction during one poll, and in the opposite direction the next time they vote, without worrying about falling over the edge. Ukrainians are people of the watershed: We live on either one side or the other of a...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2006

Visit Japan, sure, but info centers closing

Ah, the friendly tourist information center -- often the first place travelers visit when trying to acquaint themselves with an unfamiliar city.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2006

Two die, one critical in apparent suicide bid

Police found two women dead and one man in critical condition Monday afternoon inside a car in a mountainous part of Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture, apparently victims of a group suicide attempt.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2006

Local hire pocketed visa overcharges at Indonesian Embassy

JAKARTA (Kyodo) A Japanese employee at the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo allegedly skimmed nearly $1.2 million from applications made to the mission's visa section in Japan, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2006

Prosecutors set to charge Livedoor's accountants

Prosecutors are getting ready to file criminal charges against accountants who did work for Livedoor Co. as part of their investigation into the Internet and financial services firm's alleged accounting fraud in 2004, prosecution sources said.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2006

Horie starting to confess his guilt, prosecutors say

Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie has owned up to part of the accounting fraud charges against him and the Internet and financial services firm for the first time since his January arrest, according to prosecution sources.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2006

You can't really go wrong with the army on your side

Talking with Yevgeni Lavrentyev is like walking into a Tolstoy novel: The characters will launch into monologues that can take up an entire page, but ultimately they have their own agenda on what to say, or not.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Horie, four colleagues dealt new charges

Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie and four others, as well as the company itself, were charged Tuesday with falsifying the company's financial statements for the business year through September 2004.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Trio's bid-rigging charges grow

Tokyo prosecutors again indicted three men Tuesday over new allegations of bid-rigging for additional public works projects in their past posts at the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, investigative sources said.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2006

Net boards venue for faceless rightists

OSAKA -- They are called "Net uyoku," or Internet rightwingers.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 13, 2006

Japan's Ota 2nd in World Cup foil

Japanese fencer Yuki Ota posted his second podium finish on the World Cup circuit Sunday when he came runner-up to German Peter Joppich in the men's individual foil.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Equality still has a long way to go

International Women's Day, commemorated March 8, was a chance to celebrate women's achievements. But it also highlighted the fact that discrimination continues to be a major problem for women around the globe -- and Japanese women, unfortunately, are no exception. In fact, the world's second-largest...

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.