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 Reiji Yoshida

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Reiji Yoshida
Reiji Yoshida is a staff writer and deputy manager of the Domestic News Division. Since joining The Japan Times in 1993, he has intensively covered domestic politics, diplomacy and defense issues as well as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2014
Chinese coral poachers encroaching on Japanese fishermen
Takashi Shibazaki, 31, a fisherman based on Chichijima about 1,000 km south of Tokyo, saw a suspicious foreign boat in mid-March near the island.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 6, 2014
In possible breakthrough, Abe and Xi likely to hold brief talks at APEC
Tokyo and Beijing are reportedly preparing for a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, but a real thaw remains unlikely.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 29, 2014
Ministerial scandals highlight inadequate controls on political funding
The complicated and inadequate way in which political funds are declared in Japan makes it hard to unearth irregularities in how elected officials raise money and spend it.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2014
New environment minister admits discrepancies in funding reports
Adding to the rash of scandals suddenly plaguing the Abe Cabinet, another new minister admits there are accounting discrepancies in the political funding reports of one of his support groups.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 27, 2014
'Comfort women' issue refuses to go away
"Comfort women," as Japan refers to the females who were forced into sexual servitude for the nation's wartime forces, have been a constant source of controversy since the early 1990s, when the media started to take a serious look at their ordeal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 25, 2014
Suga downplays conflict involving new trade chief's Tepco stake
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga brushed aside concerns Friday about the new trade and industry minister's 600-share stake in Tokyo Electric Power Co. and said that the government guidelines in place to protect Cabinet ministers from conflicts of interest would be followed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 23, 2014
New trade chief slapped by S&M scandal after only three days on job
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is saddled with another scandal after new trade chief Yoichi Miyazawa's staff admits paying a bill for u00a518,230 to a sadomasochism bar in Hiroshima.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 20, 2014
Abe's damage control may have been in time to ward off further woes
The relatively speedy fashion in which his two scandal-ridden ministers resigned may help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe weather the political storm he now faces.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2014
Two of Abe's female ministers resign over separate scandals
Cabinet ministers Yuko Obuchi and Midori Matsushima resign in connection with separate political scandals, dealing a major setback to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 19, 2014
Abe's shift to regional woes fails to erase mistrust in LDP
Local experts and ex-bureaucrats pan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans to rejuvenate stalled local economies, saying the idea is another half-baked initiative from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 18, 2014
Obuchi scandal bad omen for Abe
The departure of METI chief Yuko Obuchi would be a bad omen for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his reactor restart and female empowerment strategies.
JAPAN / History
Oct 16, 2014
Government requests revision of 1996 U.N. sex slave report
The Abe administration asks the author of a U.N. report that accused Japan of wartime military sexual slavery to amend the 1996 document.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 15, 2014
Web page on 'comfort women' donations taken down by Foreign Ministry
The decision by officials to delete the Web page, which carried a 1995 appeal for donations to a government-linked fund for former 'comfort women,' drew immediate protest from Seoul.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2014
Abe's Cabinet issues list of projects to help women
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Friday issued a "package" of policy measures to help women in the nation's male-dominated society, including new government consultancies to help single-mother families, job training courses and expanded after-school programs for young children.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 8, 2014
DPJ takes aim at newly appointed female Cabinet members
The Democratic Party of Japan appears to have identified the Cabinet's three newly appointed female members as a weak point of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2014
Group defends ex-Asahi academic, saying university must resist anonymous calls to fire him
A group of 444 lawyers, scholars, journalists and concerned members of the public calls on a university to stand up to anonymous threats that seek the dismissal of one of its lecturers.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 4, 2014
Japanese officials silent on drama unfolding in Hong Kong
'The future of Hong Kong is extremely important to the future of Japan,' but Tokyo is officially staying tight-lipped about the pro-democracy protests there.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 30, 2014
Amid Hong Kong street protests, Japan calls for 'democratic prosperity' to prevail
A high-ranking official said Tuesday that Tokyo hopes Hong Kong's "free and open regime will be maintained," indirectly urging authorities there to seek a peaceful solution to the ongoing street protests calling for universal suffrage for local residents.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 29, 2014
Abe outlines plans for rural revitalization, sends signal to China in Diet speech
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers a key policy speech pledging to prop up declining provincial economies, while apparently signaling his willingness to improve relations with China.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2014
Is the Asahi a scapegoat of nationalist media or victim of own missteps?
One of the nation's leading newspapers has been in crisis mode of late — a situation that may bode ill for liberal journalism at a time when nationalism appears to be making public inroads.

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