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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
Jun 24, 2008
TBS report on North Korea deal a lie: Komura
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura lodged a protest Monday targeting a major TV station, calling its news report about recent Tokyo-Pyongyang negotiations "a 100 percent lie" and demanding it to be withdrawn.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2008
JCG delivers apology to Taiwan skipper over sinking of his boat
The head of the Japan Coast Guard's Okinawa regional headquarters handed a letter of apology to the captain of a Taiwanese fishing boat that sank in a June 10 collision with a JCG patrol ship, coast guard officials in Tokyo said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2008
Keep North on list: Komura
When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits next week, Japan will tell Washington that it should continue using its terrorist-sponsor designation for North Korea as leverage against Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2008
Japan stays the path on terror list
Japan will keep pressuring the United States not to remove North Korea from its list of terrorist-sponsoring states since there has been no major progress on resolving the abduction issue, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Thursday.
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jun 20, 2008
Consensus elusive ahead of climate meet
Time is running out for Japanese diplomacy — and possibly for the future of the Earth, too.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2008
Japan, China strike deal on gas fields
Tokyo and Beijing announced Wednesday they have agreed on a plan to jointly develop gas fields in the East China Sea, shelving a thorny dispute that has plagued relations for four years.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2008
Fukuda softens expectations for G8 meet
No medium-term goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be set at next month's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, leaving the key issue for future negotiations at the United Nations, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda indicated Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2008
Taiwanese patrol ships join intrusion
A private boat carrying Taiwanese protesters and nine accompanying Taiwanese patrol vessels briefly entered Japanese territorial waters near a disputed island in the East China Sea early Monday despite repeated advance warnings from Japan.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 17, 2008
How hard is it really to learn Japanese?
As a language so distinct from most others, Japanese has an air of mystery about it.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2008
Japan brings North back to bargaining table
In-mid April, a senior Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs looked confident. Although bilateral talks with North Korea had been suspended for more than half a year, the official predicted Pyongyang would have no choice but to come back to the bargaining table to discuss the abduction...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2008
Pyongyang to reopen abduction probe
Pyongyang has promised to reopen its investigation into the missing Japanese its spies abducted, and Tokyo will partially lift economic sanctions in response.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2008
Fukuda, Rudd affirm economic, security ties but avoid whaling
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed Thursday to cooperate on a wide range of issues but left the sensitive subject of whaling effectively untouched to avoid diplomatic friction.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2008
Coast guard patrol craft, Taiwan fishing boat collide off Senkakus
A Taiwanese fishing boat sank Tuesday after colliding with a Japan Coast Guard vessel during an early morning chase about 10 km south of disputed islets north of Okinawa, coast guard officials said.
JAPAN / TICAD IV
May 31, 2008
Making a continent 'vibrant'
YOKOHAMA — The defining phrase of this year's Tokyo International Conference on African Development was "Towards a Vibrant Africa." But what does this mean to the TICAD participants?
JAPAN
May 30, 2008
ASDF preparing C-130s to carry aid to China
The Air Self-Defense Force is preparing to send C-130 transports packed with emergency supplies to earthquake-stricken China as soon as Tokyo gets the final go-ahead from Beijing, government officials said Thursday.
JAPAN / TICAD IV
May 29, 2008
Japan vows ambitious Africa aid
YOKOHAMA — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda kicked off a major Africa development conference Wednesday by pledging to double Japan's annual net official development assistance to the continent to $1.8 billion by 2012 and extend up to $4 billion in new yen loans over the next five years, in particular for...
Japan Times
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
May 29, 2008
Global realities will make Toyako among most complex G8 summits
Global circumstances surrounding the Group of Eight summit have changed greatly, making an expanded meeting with emerging economies China and India more important than ever, according to the top Japanese coordinator for the July G8 gathering in Hokkaido.
JAPAN
May 29, 2008
China OK with SDF quake help
YOKOHAMA — China has asked Japan to help transport emergency supplies to the earthquake refugees in Sichuan Province and signaled that Self-Defense Forces aircraft would be welcome as well, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 28, 2008
Fukuda slates scores of Africa minisummits at TICAD
YOKOHAMA — Leaders from all but one African nation have arrived in Yokohama to attend the three-day Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which kicks off Wednesday to explore ways to promote economic growth and fight poverty.
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 26, 2008
Tokyo ready to shift foreign-aid focus from Asia to Africa
Japan is embarking on a diplomatic sea change.

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