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 Ayako Mie

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Ayako Mie
Ayako Mie covers Japanese politics and policies for the Japan Times. She started her career as a reporter at Tokyo Broadcasting System in 2001. In 2008, she went to journalism school at University of California, Berkeley as a Fulbright scholar. On returning to Japan in December 2010, she worked for the Washington Post as a special correspondent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2013
Politicians roll up sleeves at Net event
Political parties over the weekend competed for the support of heavy Internet users at an event hosted by an online video-sharing site in the runup to the House of Councilors election in July, the first election to allow politicians unfettered access to the Web in their campaigns.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2013
Sovereignty celebration hit by protests
The government holds its first formal celebration of the day the San Francisco Peace Treaty ended the allied Occupation, angering residents in Okinawa, which stayed under U.S. control until 1972.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 25, 2013
LDP election strategy: double farming income
To shore up Japan's declining farm sector and mollify TPP critics, the Liberal Democratic Party proposes doubling farmers' incomes over the next 10 years.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2013
Record 168 lawmakers visit Yasukuni
A record 168 Diet members visit Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, following visits by three Cabinet ministers and offerings by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2013
LDP plans expansion of JET program
The number of teachers hired for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program would be doubled in three years under a proposal drafted by the Liberal Democratic Party to boost Japan's global competitiveness and nurture international talent.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 24, 2013
Lower House passes vote disparity bill
The Lower House passed a bill Tuesday that would cut five of its 300 districts amid mounting pressure to rectify vote-value disparities that have plagued national elections.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2013
LDP looks to double JET Program's ranks in three years
The number of teachers in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program might double in three years under a new economic proposal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 23, 2013
Is legislation weighty enough to rebalance election system?
While the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe enjoys high support rates, hovering around 70 percent, its very legitimacy is being questioned.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 19, 2013
Diet OKs Internet election campaigns
Japan finally modernizes its political system by passing a bill allowing politicians to campaign over the Internet.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 18, 2013
Abe, opposition face off over economy
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boasted Wednesday that the aggressive economic measures of his first four months in office have helped the economy, but opposition leaders countered during Diet debate that "Abenomics" won't push up wages and increase consumption.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2013
Asylum seeking compatriots in Japan welcome Suu Kyi visit
Asylum seekers from Myanmar were buoyed by the visit of their country's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and hope it will strengthen bilateral ties and encourage more private-sector investment in their nation's struggling economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2013
Abe vows faster hunt for Iwojima's fallen
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday visited Iwoto Island and pledged to speed up the recovery of the remains of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers killed in the Battle of Iwojima, in a pilgrimage intended to mark a break from the postwar period.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 12, 2013
Cabinet OKs bill to pare gap in vote values
On the heels of a spate of court rulings that the general election was unconstitutional and even invalid, the Cabinet approves a bill to rectify vote-value disparities.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 12, 2013
Disaster did little to shake up status quo, expert says
Disappointing expectations that the megaquake and tsunami two years ago — and subsequent nuclear calamity — would trigger a rebirth of politics and government, Japan's key policies remain largely unchanged, says Richard Samuels, director of the Center for International Studies at Massachusetts Institute...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2013
Internet election campaigning bill clears hurdle
A Lower House committee working to revise the Public Offices Election Law unanimously approves a bill to drop a ban on the use of the Internet during poll campaigns.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 11, 2013
Election campaigning takes to Net
Japan is finally dropping restrictions on the use of the Internet as an election campaign tool in a first step toward sweeping changes to the outdated Public Offices Election law before the Upper House poll slated for July.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2013
Diet opens debate on Hague Convention bills
Amid mounting international pressure on Japan to rectify cross-border parental abductions of offspring, the House of Representatives on Thursday started deliberating bills related to joining the Hague Convention.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 3, 2013
Opposition rejects LDP's plan to cut Lower House seats
Amid a spate of high court verdicts that the vote-value disparity in the December Lower House election was either unconstitutional or invalid, the opposition camp rejects the ruling coalition's plan to rectify the problem.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2013
Ishihara confirms stroke but denies retirement speculation
Shintaro Ishihara pledges to remain coleader of Nippon Ishin no Kai, denying speculation he might quit and resign from politics over his poor health.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2013
Ishihara too sick to attend Nippon Ishin's first convention
Shintaro Ishihara, coleader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), will miss its first-ever convention this weekend due to ill health, a party official confirmed Friday.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
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