Search - 2004

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

FSA punishes Meiji Yasuda once again for unpaid claims

The Financial Services Agency on Friday ordered Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. to suspend part of its operations following the insurer's repeated failure to pay legitimate insurance claims.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2005

Output up for second month in row

Industrial production inched up a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in September from the previous month, scoring a second straight monthly increase for the first time since the summer of 2004, according to a preliminary government report released Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2005

Risks of U.S. beef low if regulations observed: panel

An expert panel on mad cow disease has agreed there is little difference in the risks posed by beef from North American and Japanese cows, paving the way to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports before President George W. Bush's visit next month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Court splits on Hansen's compensation

Judges were split Tuesday on two lawsuits filed by former Hansen's disease patients from South Korea and Taiwan -- the South Korean patients were denied compensation while the Taiwanese were awarded it.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Let consumption tax pay for welfare: panel

A Liberal Democratic Party panel called Monday for converting the consumption tax into a welfare tax, a step that would certainly boost the tax rate to more than 10 percent from the current 5 percent.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2005

Emissions data put Kyoto target in doubt

Japan emitted 1.329 billion tons of greenhouse gases in fiscal 2004, up 7.4 percent from the benchmark year of 1990 set under the Kyoto Protocol, the Environment Ministry announced Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2005

MMC seeks salvation in flagship Outlander SUV

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Monday launched the new Outlander sport utility vehicle, its first all-new model in nearly 2 1/2 years, which it hopes can revitalize the struggling automaker.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2005

America's war criminals pass the buck to underlings

'I was only following orders." With these words, that have entered our language as a cliche reeking of bitter irony, SS-Obersturmbannfurer Karl Adolf Eichmann (1906-62) defended his part in the murder of innocent prisoners in Nazi death camps. The court in Jerusalem, where Eichmann was put on trial in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 9, 2005

Roll up! Roll up! For a freak show starring 'Koizumi's children'

Adding salt to its wounds, it was reported recently that the Democratic Party of Japan paid 129 million yen to the American public relations firm Fleischmann-Hillard to buff its image in 2004. Though it might have helped in last year's Upper House election, the company's strategy didn't seem to work...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2005

Six held in bogus mushroom ads

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested six people Wednesday including an executive of a Tokyo-based publisher on suspicion of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law by advertising in books a type of mushroom as a treatment for cancer.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

Researchers scam millions in subsidies

Four researchers, including a Keio University medical doctor, had fraudulently received a combined 85 million yen in government subsidies for scientific research as of the end of fiscal 2004, according to officials of the Board of Audit of Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2005

Woman's kin sue Unification Church alleging it caused family breakdown

Parents of a Unification Church member filed a 17 million yen lawsuit Wednesday against the organization, alleging it caused their family to fracture.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2005

Underwhelmed in Okinawa

Most of the Japanese political community is all agog over the overwhelming victory of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party in the Sept. 11 Lower House election. Okinawa Prefecture is the exception.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2005

EU economic integration rolls on despite political crisis

After voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the proposed European Union Constitution, the bloc no doubt plunged into a deep crisis, but it is a crisis that will lead to "a period of reflection and a stronger European Union at the end," a Brussels-based think tank expert told a recent symposium...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2005

Six more Japan Highway execs tied to bid-rigging

Six more officials of Japan Highway Public Corp. are suspected of involvement in rigging official bids in connection with bridge building contracts, President Takeshi Kondo said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2005

'Manga' publishers see cell phones as the future

Cartoon-strip publishers, whose printed-matter sales have been losing steam, are actively embracing mobile media because cell phones are what young people are spending their time and money on.
Japan Times
Sep 22, 2005

Firms betting on Russia amid political poker

A screen up front read "Welcome to St. Petersburg!" as top officials of Russia's second-largest city gave a presentation in Tokyo to lure Japanese investment.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2005

FTC to scold Japan Highway

The Fair Trade Commission will order Japan Highway Public Corp. to come up with measures to prevent bid-rigging, sources said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2005

Disaster defense that works

Typhoons land on Japan every year, and many people often die or go missing. Indeed, typhoons are more vicious than earthquakes, except for really large-scale quakes like the one that struck Kobe in 1995 and killed some 6,000 people.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 19, 2005

Postelection policy management and the Japanese economy

The Sept. 11 House of Representatives election ended in a landslide victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which secured 296 out of the 480 seats in the lower chamber of the Diet.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2005

G8 to shoulder 70% of debt relief costs; Japan's share at 13%

The Group of Eight nations plan to shoulder 70.19 percent of debt cancellation costs for the world's poorest nations, with the share for Japan set at 13.17 percent, international financial sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2005

20% of Japanese aged 65 or older

Twenty percent of the population, or 25.56 million people, were aged 65 or older as of Thursday, up 0.5 percentage point from a year earlier, government statistics showed Sunday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2005

Narita to pare landing fees but add offsetting charges

Narita International Airport Corp. said Friday it has agreed with the International Air Transport Association to cut its notoriously high landing fees for the first time by an average of 21 percent.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2005

Consumers reaping benefits of farm deregulation

Fresh tomatoes, sweet oranges and bright green lettuce grown organically and tracked by computer may soon arrive on consumers' tables directly from farms, thanks to agricultural deregulation.

Longform

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