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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 / Politics
Feb 26, 2013
Park to usher in new era of friendship, or side with China?
Park Geun Hye was inaugurated Monday as South Korea's first female president, ushering in what many in Japan hope will be a new era in improved bilateral relations, which were strained by her predecessor, Lee Myung Bak.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 25, 2013
Running in circles DPJ's way forward
In the midst of an identity crisis, the Democratic Party of Japan adopts a new policy platform that fails to include any key points or doctrines differentiating it from its rivals.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2013
Abe sending mixed signals to Seoul with official visits
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration plans to dispatch Finance Minister Taro Aso to Monday's inauguration ceremony for incoming South Korean President Park Geun Hye, but will also send an official to a controversial ceremony dealing with Takeshima, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday....
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 20, 2013
Diet does away with contentious nominee rule
The ruling and opposition parities agreed Tuesday to revoke a self-imposed restriction on how nominees for key government positions are endorsed, moving a step closer for the administration to propose a new Bank of Japan governor and vice governors.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 19, 2013
Exec picks to be pitched this month
The administration plans to present its nominees for Bank of Japan governor and vice governors to the Diet by month's end, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2013
Takeshima ceremony to draw 18 lawmakers
Shimane Prefecture's annual ceremony Friday to commemorate Japan's 1905 annexation of Takeshima will draw at least 18 Diet members, but so far no one in the Cabinet has signaled plans to participate in the event, the prefecture said Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 16, 2013
Alliance-boosting Obama summit set for next Friday
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's long anticipated summit with U.S. President Barack Obama will take place Feb. 22, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 15, 2013
LDP gets behind the Hague Convention
Now that a majority of the Diet appears to support joining the international treaty on settling cross-border child custody disputes, the government expressed determination Thursday to push for quick ratification of the 1980 Hague Convention.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2013
Parties come together to lift ban on Net election campaigning
All 11 major parties in the Diet agree in principle to lift the ban on Internet-based election campaigning in time for this summer's Upper House election.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2013
U.S. agrees: Chinese frigates locked their weapons radar on MSDF units
Washington has sided with Tokyo in the war of words over allegations that Chinese frigates locked their weapons-guiding radar on Japanese targets near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2013
Beijing denies MSDF target-lock
A war of words flares between Japan and China over fire-control radar lock-ons by Chinese warships against a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer and chopper near the Senkakus.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 8, 2013
DPJ signals that it's willing to play hardball on key government nominations
A Democratic Party of Japan executive surprised the administration Thursday when he said his party, the largest opposition force, will reject the government's planned nominee to lead the Fair Trade Commission because his name was leaked in a media report.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 8, 2013
LDP ranks, like-minded lobbies rally against TPP
About 120 members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party joined major lobby groups for a rally Thursday to oppose participation in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, stepping up pressure on the Abe administration to maintain barriers on sensitive items in the farming, fishing and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 6, 2013
Chinese target-locked MSDF ship, chopper
Chinese warships directed their fire-control radar on a Japanese destroyer and a helicopter last month in the East China Sea, the Defense Ministry says.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2013
Abe to meet Obama with hands tied
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing a major challenge ahead of his summit with U.S. President Barack Obama later this month, as calls have mounted within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for Japan not to participate in U.S.-led free-trade talks.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2013
Territory tiffs get official PR spin unit
The government on Tuesday set up a public relations unit dedicated to promoting Japan's side in the various territorial disputes involving the nation in an apparent effort to show the public that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is taking a strong stance on the matter.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 1, 2013
Abe says he feels war sex slaves' pain
Facing questions from an opposition lawmaker Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refused to comment on the government's position on wartime sex slaves, but he did say he feels "heart-breaking pain" when he thinks of how their human rights were violated.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2013
Few chinks in Abe's armor as Diet reconvenes
The 150-day ordinary Diet session that kicked off Monday will be an opportunity for the opposition camp to confront the new Liberal Democratic Party administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Age in the runup to the July Upper House election.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2013
Abe opens Diet, skips hawkish rhetoric
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kicks off the 150-day Diet session with a speech focused on the economy rather than his usual right-leaning political rhetoric.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 25, 2013
Wherever the wily Ozawa goes, party soon to follow
Veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa, who bolted from the Democratic Party of Japan dur- ing its recent rule, launches his sixth new party and formally becomes its president.

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