Japan PM weighs cabinet reshuffle
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is planning to revamp his cabinet as early as this month to remove two censured ministers whose presence blocks a budget deal with a key opposition party, the...
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Sony throws away Japan recruitment rulebook
Attention young Japanese job seekers: Sony Corp. wants to get to know you. The Japanese electronics giant is shaking things up in the way it will hire the incoming class of fresh entry-level suits,...
View ArticleHirata likely hid in Osaka / MPD releases ex-Aum member's photos, asks public...
Makoto Hirata, the former Aum Supreme Truth cult member arrested on New Year's Eve, says he arrived in Tokyo from Osaka aboard a Shinkansen train earlier that day, according to investigation...
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The true story of Japan
Japan has succeeded in delivering an increasingly affluent lifestyle to its people despite the financial crash. In the fullness of time, it is likely that this era will be viewed as an outstanding...
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Train station's popular cat mascot meets likely successor
Tama, the popular mascot cat at a train station in Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, got her first "station staff" Thursday in a ceremony attended by local residents and tourists. Tama, the appointed...
View ArticleJust the lesson Japan needs: follow the Shenzen example in quake zone
If you want to silence a room filled with Japanese politicians, suggest they should learn from China. The conventional wisdom favours the flip side of this dynamic: China should be studying Japan's...
View ArticleRussia-Japan LNG deal imminent
Japan and Russia likely will reach a broad agreement as early as this month on business plans for a liquefied natural gas plant project in Vladivostok, sources have said. Both sides reached a basic...
View ArticleGovt, DPJ OK integrated reform draft
The government and ruling Democratic Party of Japan officially approved a draft plan Friday for integrated social security and tax system reform, which includes raising the consumption tax rate to 8...
View ArticleJAL IPO bid defies budget rival threat
Japan Airlines Corp. is preparing for an initial public offering that may make it the world's most valuable carrier even as new low-fare airlines threaten to lure away travelers in its home market....
View ArticleAirline may spur busiest share offering year since 2007
Japan may see its busiest year for initial public offerings since the global financial crisis, with Japan Airlines Corp., social network providers and manufacturers preparing to issue shares. As many...
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Toshiba to roll out 'thinnest' 10-inch tablet at CES
Toshiba claims it is going to introduce the world's thinnest 10-inch tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Las Vegas. The company's Japanese-language Web site says it's the thinnest and...
View ArticleSony to launch flash cards with 125 Mbps write speeds
Sony said Friday it will begin selling memory cards with write speeds of 125 Mbps, the fastest in the industry, from February. The new cards are the first to be announced under a new standard called...
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Stop the presses and hold the front page
It was perhaps the biggest financial story of postwar Japan - or it should have been.Yamaichi Securities, one of the nation's four top brokerages, which was among the world's six largest in the 1980s,...
View Article'Strange' is the new 'normal' for 2012
"Whatever happens won't be strange." Thus the weekly Shukan Gendai sums up the prospects for the year now dawning. Shaken by 2011, we face the blank slate that is 2012. Mankind's history of trying to...
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Japan's Super-K to resume seeking why anything exists
To start the year, here's an appreciation of a site in Japan that would have left even the Zen-imbued architects of Kyoto's sublime Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) open-mouthed with awe. Not...
View ArticleFukushima lays bare Japanese media's ties to top
Is the ongoing crisis surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being accurately reported in the Japanese media? No, says independent journalist Shigeo Abe, who claims the authorities, and...
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Oops! Pregnant celebs dancing down the aisle
J-pop diva Kumi Koda recently announced her engagement to Kenji03 of the rock band Back-On, and revealed that the pair had met earlier in the year when they collaborated on a song. She didn't mention...
View ArticleThinner and thinner
Japanese girls weigh less than ever, according to an Education Ministry survey of 650,000 Japanese children aged 5 to 17. The average weight of girls in Japan was at its lowest since data started being...
View ArticleBeijing invites Crown Prince, Princess to visit
Beijing has officially invited Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako to visit China this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the two countries normalizing diplomatic ties, sources close...
View ArticleSony eyes golden boy Hirai for president
Sony Corp. is gearing up to promote Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai to president and let CEO Howard Stringer, concurrently president and chairman, focus on the chairmanship, sources said...
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