Search - 2004

 
 
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2005

Honda sets sales goal of 4 million cars

Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it hopes to boost its worldwide car sales to 4 million vehicles in fiscal 2007, up 23.4 percent from fiscal 2004, by launching new models with better fuel efficiency and expanding its lineup in North America.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2005

Ministries to seek complete asbestos halt

The health and trade ministries will jointly ask 18 industry groups to stop all use of asbestos as soon as possible, sources said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2005

Japan's quiet time bomb

Health problems linked to asbestos, which was used in large quantities as heat-insulation material for buildings during the period of Japan's high economic growth, are spreading among workers who inhaled the substance in the past. One enterprise after another has released lists of workers who have died...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

Bid-rigging smacks of 'amakudari' to core

As the No. 2 at the Japan Highway Public Corp., the unidentified bureaucrat wielded enormous power over Japan's major road-builders.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

DEPRESSION

'Istarted to get to work late -- sometimes at 11, then at 12 and then at 2; and then I had to quit my job."
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2005

Putting ODA in its place

The Japanese government has recently announced a plan to renew an important component of its diplomacy -- a plan aimed at not only checking but reversing the downtrend in Japan's official development assistance. Specifically, in its basic policy program for the nation's financial and fiscal operations...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2005

Thai woman admits selling girl into sex trade

A Thai woman in Kanagawa Prefecture has been arrested on suspicion of selling a teenage Thai girl to a woman who manages prostitutes, and a Japanese man in Tokyo was taken into custody for introducing the girl to another man for purposes of solicitation, police said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2005

The increasing threat of AIDS

The Seventh International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which opened in Kobe on Friday, comes at a time when the HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading rapidly from Africa to Asia. The message is loud and clear: Without stepped-up efforts to combat the crisis, it could reach serious proportions...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2005

Protection in a modern economy

The recent theft of data from some 40 million credit-card accounts in the United States is another reminder of the insecurities of the digital world. Electronic commerce continues to rise in volume but consumers, retailers, financial institutions and other parts of the business chain have not yet adjusted...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2005

Firms upbeat for first time in three quarters: 'tankan'

Japan's large manufacturers turned more confident about their business in the April-June quarter, marking the first improvement in three quarters, according to the Bank of Japan's "tankan" business sentiment survey released Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Bid-rigging probe targets highway body

Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday searched the headquarters of Japan Highway Public Corp. in connection with their investigation into massive bid-rigging for bridge construction projects.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Romania envoy seeks more investment in EU entry runup

Romania has sent Aurelian Neagu, one of its Japan experts, to Tokyo as ambassador at a time when Japanese companies are considering investing in Romania and Bulgaria in the runup to the two nations' planned entry into the European Union in 2007.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Foreign investment hit record 4 trillion yen in '04

Direct investment in Japan by foreigners jumped 90.3 percent in fiscal 2004 from the previous year to a record 4.027 trillion yen, with capital inflow from the United States swelling more than sevenfold, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 29, 2005

World Press prizewinning photos get to the heart of the story

Every year the Dutch-based non-profit organization World Press Photo sifts through thousands of news photographs from around the world in search of images that "represent an event, situation or issue of great journalistic importance and demonstrate an outstanding level of visual perception and creativity."...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 25, 2005

Agents continue making huge sums for doing very little work

LONDON -- The following story is, I promise, absolutely true, but you will understand why I have not used the names of the player, agent, club or manager concerned.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 25, 2005

No easy fix for reapportionment wrongs

WASHINGTON -- Among the issues that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will take to a special referendum election next fall is that of reapportionment. Specifically, the Gubernator wants to change the way California draws its district lines for representation in the state legislature and in the Congress....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2005

Democrat abroad shapes multimedia for export

Terri MacMillan is marvelous. Funny, outgoing, dramatic and driven, she has a heart of pure gold. Ask anyone who knows her. Come to think of it, it's hard to imagine this funky, articulate American has a single enemy -- except among hard-core Republicans, who must surely hate her guts.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2005

Fuso execs forfeit 100 million yen in retirement pay

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Thursday that two former senior executives will not receive their retirement allowances and two have returned half of the money they were paid to take responsibility for vehicle defect coverups that caused two fatalities in 2002.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2005

AIDS stigma a dangerous failing of Japan: activist

Japan and other parts of Asia should make efforts to curb prejudices against people with HIV and AIDS and reflect their needs in government policy, the founder of an HIV/AIDS advocacy group said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2005

Nissan shareholders rap directors' pay

The Nissan Motor Co. board of directors was paid too much in fiscal 2004, shareholders charged Tuesday at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Yokohama.
JAPAN / A GENERATION CLOCKS OUT
Jun 21, 2005

Baby boomers poised to turn pensioners en masse

A mass exodus looms in 2007 when baby boomers begin reaching retirement age, and the implications — both positive and negative — will be far-reaching.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2005

Sewing up a textile deal

China and the European Union last weekend worked out a deal that limits Chinese exports of textiles and heads off a dangerous trade confrontation between them. Both sides, as well as Beijing's other trade partners, are hailing the arrangement as a "win-win" solution to trade disputes. Ultimately, however,...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2005

Fuso has to recall another 424,600 vehicles

Scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 424,600 large vehicles to repair minor defects overlooked during last year's probe into past cases of vehicle problems — even though one of the defects was reported in the late 1980s.

Longform

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