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BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2005

Matsushita 65-inch PDP TV under 1 million yen

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will offer the world's first full high-definition 65-inch plasma display panel TVs with a price tag of less than 1 million yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2005

FSA going after businesses pushing risky forex trading

The Financial Services Agency is tightening its grip on financial futures businesses over high-risk foreign-exchange trading, with business suspension orders issued to three small firms in the past month.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2005

Toyota top income earner in Japan for a sixth year

Toyota Motor Corp. was Japan's biggest corporate income earner in fiscal 2004 for the sixth straight year, credit research agency Teikoku Databank said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2005

China and Russia: brothers in arms?

Last week, China and Russia began their first ever joint military exercises. The drills have some armchair strategists warning of a new entente between Beijing and Moscow that could pose a threat to the existing regional security order. The truth about the exercises is considerably less exciting. For...
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2005

Square Enix ready to acquire Taito

In the latest move amid industrywide reorganization, Square Enix Co., the maker of the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy video games, announced Monday it will acquire smaller rival Taito Corp. for 67 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2005

What's next? 'Warm Biz'

Japan will kick off the "Warm Biz" campaign Oct. 1, an autumn-winter version of the "Cool Biz" campaign held this summer, to promote energy conservation by encouraging business people to wear extra layers of clothing and help reduce the use of heaters, the Environment Ministry announced Monday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 23, 2005

Old clothes and capsule delight

Waste not, want not Elizabeth in Kyoto Prefecture is leaving Japan in a month's time, having spent two years here.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2005

Unhealthy fixation on 'miracle' growth

HONG KONG -- In the late 1970s, after China had emerged from the frenzy of the Cultural Revolution and it was again politically correct to talk about development, economists and officials focused on two principal economic indices: GVIO and GVAO, or gross value of industrial output and gross value of...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

Not fade away

On stage, Takashi Ugawa, 47, feels lighter than air. One reason is that the young and pretty tarento (showbiz personality) Eiko Koike has just flashed his band a smile. Another is that for a whole month now, he's avoided food and beer after 9 p.m.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

End of an era in Shibuya style

Where did all the gyaru (trashy girls) go? With their carroty tans, shoveled-on makeup and bleached hair, the kogaru (high gals), ganguro (black faces) and yamamba (ogresses) were a style phenomenon the likes of which may never be seen again.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 21, 2005

It's the eccentrics whose appeal endures

KILLING RAIN, by Barry Eisler. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005, 337 pp., $24.95 (cloth). BANGKOK TATTOO, by John Burdett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, 304 pp., $24 (cloth). While perhaps not as well known as Sherlock Holmes or Agent 007, pulp magazines and later paperback books featuring the intrepid...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

Museum rises from passion for pachinko

Tetsuya Makino, 40, has devoted most of his life to a game that has fascinated him since he was 7 years old: pachinko.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2005

Home renovation scams causing alarm

Reports of home renovation fraud have been coming out of the woodwork ever since the media reported that two elderly sisters with dementia were duped for 50 million yen in unnecessary repair work and almost lost their home in an auction to pay for the scam.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2005

Wakamaru heads for assembly line

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to commercialize Wakamaru, its humanoid secretarial guard robot, by the end of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2005

Four illegal crocodiles take a bite out of crime

Tokyo police have arrested a reptile wholesaler from Shizuoka and two other people on suspicion of illegally breeding and falsely registering four false gavials, a type of endangered crocodile, it was learned Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2005

An uneven economic recovery

It appears that Japan's economy has emerged from a "soft patch" and entered a new period of moderate growth. In April through June, the nation's gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.1 percent, the Cabinet Office announced last week. That marked the third consecutive quarter of positive...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 15, 2005

Despite removal of dollar peg, yuan still a currency under control

On July 21, the People's Bank of China announced it had ended the yuan's effective peg to the U.S. dollar and that it would link it to a basket of currencies based on China's main trading partners. The central bank also said that the yuan's exchange rate as of that evening was 8.11 to the dollar.
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2005

Energy myths and illusions

LONDON/OSLO -- People like to discuss whether the world is running out of oil and gas, and the big oil companies round the world have now joined in with warnings about energy shortages and the need to retool our economies on a more energy-efficient basis. And to emphasize their dire warnings, they are...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Nostalgia wave sees '60s 'anime' hits going DVD

A string of animations aired during Japan's miraculous economic boom of the 1960s is gradually regaining popularity with people in their 40s to 50s.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Economy grew 0.3% in April-June quarter

The nation's economy grew by a less-than-expected 0.3 percent in the April-June quarter, the government said Friday, but economists said better business and consumer spending, along with strong exports, suggest Japan's recovery this time may last.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2005

Bankruptcies post drop of 9% in July

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan totaled 1,024 in July, down 8.8 percent from the previous year for the first fall below 1,100 in the month in 14 years, credit research agency Tokyo Shoko Research said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Softbank forecasting first operating profit since 2000

Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it is projecting a full-year operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2000 thanks to subscriber growth in its high-speed Internet connection services.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

JR West reports 4% increase in net profit

West Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday its group net profit in the April-June quarter rose 4.0 percent from a year ago to 13.87 billion yen despite the fatal April 25 train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 10, 2005

Market dreams of glory

Tokyo art collectors were out in force as the first-annual Tokyo Art Fair (TAF) debuted this past weekend (Aug. 6-8) at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho. The fair saw participation from 81 galleries and art-related companies.
EDITORIALS
Aug 9, 2005

Mr. Koizumi raises the stakes

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House on Monday after a rebellion within his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House killed the postal privatization bills, the centerpiece of his reform agenda. Despite his prompt countermove, Mr. Koizumi's overall political agenda has suffered...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2005

Investors train sights on Russia, Eastern Europe

With the investment boom in Chinese and Indian stocks waning, Japanese investors are shifting their focus to Eastern European and Russian shares.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 5, 2005

Postwar labor scene still grim for working women

Choice has been a long time coming for Japan's working women.
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2005

Honda will go it alone on fuel-cell cars unless GM comes knocking

Honda Motor Co. will work alone to develop fuel-cell cars but is open to the idea of joint research with General Motors Corp., President Takeo Fukui said in an interview Thursday.

Longform

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