Search - 2005

 
 
JAPAN
May 12, 2004

Honduran leader voices summit goal

Visiting Honduran President Ricardo Maduro Joest voiced hope Tuesday that a Japan-Central America summit will be held here on Aug. 19, 2005, during the 2005 Aichi World Exposition, a Japanese official said.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2004

Numerical bad-loan targets sought for regional banks

The government will ask regional banks to set numerical bad-loan reduction targets and to strengthen their financial bases, according to a draft of fresh government guidelines aimed at bolstering the nation's financial system.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2004

Kimono makes comeback -- in used form

Every once in a while, 27-year-old Junko Nagumo and five companions visit boutiques in upmarket Tokyo districts such as Omotesando and Ginza -- not to buy trendy fashion items but to find inexpensive used kimono.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2004

Ministry to gauge baby boom impact

The welfare ministry plans to launch a large-scale, long-term survey in 2005 to track the health and living conditions of thousands of postwar babyboomers.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2004

Japan Post fetes first anniversary

Japan Post marked its first anniversary with an air of satisfaction Thursday because its biggest management target over the past year -- eliminating a deficit in mail delivery operations -- has probably been met.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2004

New TSE chief hopes to list on TSE

Takuo Tsurushima, who became the new president of Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. on Thursday, said he will do his utmost to list TSE stock on Japan's largest bourse in fiscal 2005 and bolster its international competitiveness.
JAPAN / SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
Apr 1, 2004

Private universities feel heat from company-run upstarts

Already struggling to keep student numbers up amid an ever-shrinking pool of high school graduates, private universities now face a new threat -- stock exchange-listed companies entering the fray of running institutions of higher learning.
Japan Times
Events
Mar 31, 2004

Journalists cautious on FTA talks

Is Japan ready to become a leader of Asia by opening its market to the rest of the region in ways commensurate with its status?
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2004

Assembly OKs budget for bank

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly voted Tuesday to pass the fiscal 2004 budget, including an outlay of 100 billion yen for a new bank that the metropolitan government plans to found in 2005.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2004

Clapton, Ma, Brightman to contribute to Aichi expo

Guitarist Eric Clapton, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Sara Brightman will be involved in the musical program of the 2005 Aichi World Exposition that begins next March, organizers said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2004

JAL group to slash 4,500 jobs in next three years

Japan Airlines System Corp. will reduce its workforce by about 8 percent, or 4,500 employees, by the end of March 2007, with net losses expected amid sluggish demand.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2004

Sony to mass produce LCD panels in '05

Sony Corp. said Monday it will start mass producing large liquid crystal display panels in summer 2005 at a joint facility it will launch with Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2004

Government to own more than a third of road bodies

Nobuteru Ishihara, minister of land, infrastructure and transport, said Monday the government will own more than a third of the privatized entities of four public highway corporations after their privatization in fiscal 2005.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2004

Defense Agency eyes media officers to handle deluge

The Defense Agency will create media officer posts in fiscal 2005 to handle increasing public interest in the agency and the Self-Defense Forces.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2004

Special night classes bridging language gap

Since April, 35-year-old Rika Osada of Malaysia has been studying nightly side by side with four Japanese much older than her at Shinsei Junior High School in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2004

JR East aims for faster conventional bullet trains

East Japan Railway Co. will build two prototype bullet trains capable of a top speed of 400 kph and test them from 2005 to 2008 in northeastern Japan, the railway operator said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2004

Panel targets terror via 'e-passports'

An information technology task force proposed Friday that Japan introduce passports featuring a microchip by the end of fiscal 2005.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2004

Government taps Nobel laureate to head Okinawa graduate school

The government on Friday chose a British molecular biologist and Nobel laureate to head a new graduate school in natural sciences that will be set up in Okinawa.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2004

Defuse the debt bomb

Japan's public debt continues to swell ominously, yet there is no reassuring long-term scenario for deficit reduction. The government's latest medium-term outlook for economic and fiscal reform amounts to a tacit admission that the balanced budget is, at best, a distant goal.
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2004

Changing the Constitution

Constitutional revision looms as a major political issue in Japan. It was a key agenda item at the January conventions of the two largest political parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. The LDP decided to draw up a revision plan in 2005, the 50th anniversary of the...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2004

Fiscal constraints mean smaller Japanese handouts for U.N.

Japan has decided to reduce its financial contributions to international organizations, including the United Nations, in light of its tight fiscal situation, government sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Highway privatization panelists face off

Monday's start of the ordinary Diet session renews Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's scrum with vested-interest Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and bureaucrats as he pushes through a watered-down plan to privatize four heavily indebted expressway firms.
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2004

The Americas strike a deal

Overcoming bitter divisions, leaders from 34 American nations agreed this week to try to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas. Although differences prevented them from setting a target date for the deal in the summit's final declaration, any accord should be considered a victory given growing...
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2004

International luxury hotel chains set sights on central Tokyo market

Top foreign hotel chains have set their sights on Tokyo, betting their respective brands of high-class luxury and innovative services will shake the local hotel market out of its doldrums.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake