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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
Dec 17, 2005
Population now on track to start shrinking in 2006, not 2007: report
Japan's population will start shrinking next year and not in 2007 as was earlier projected and could be half of what it is now in a century, if the birthrate continues to decline at the current pace, according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2005
War Hussein's fault: Koizumi
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi argued Thursday that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein triggered the 2003 invasion of his country and Japan was justified in supporting the U.S.-led multinational force that launched the "pre-emptive" attack.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2005
Abe cagey on quest to succeed Koizumi
, and I think (Koizumi) urged them to be ready" in general, Abe said. "Without an order from heaven, I think it'd be rather difficult to become a (LDP) president and prime minister," he added.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2005
DPJ's Goto to resign from Diet
In another political blow to the nation's largest opposition party, veteran lawmaker Masanori Goto of the Democratic Party of Japan said Monday he will resign after two key aides admitted earlier in the day to illegally paying campaign workers in the Sept. 11 general election.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2005
8 billion yen outlay eyed to repair shoddy condo fiasco
and land minister Kazuo Kitagawa, addresses a government meeting Tuesday on aid for condominium owners in the shoddy building scandal.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2005
Yasukuni won't wash as diplomatic card, Koizumi says
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi toughened his diplomatic stance toward China and South Korea on Monday, saying the two countries are trying to use issues related to his visits to Yasukuni Shrine as "a diplomatic card" against Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2005
Jinbo-cho sellers share book info database
Jinbo-cho, Japan's mecca for book lovers, is undergoing a quiet transformation that will change the way people browse for books.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2005
Koizumi to snub Toledo at APEC
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi revealed Thursday he has turned down an offer to meet with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit, which starts Friday in Pusan, South Korea.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2005
War criminals, war dead same: Abe
The government should not look into the responsibility of the accused Class-A war criminals honored at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine and instead count them among the nation's 2.46 million war dead, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 10, 2005
Abe suggests he'll still go to Yasukuni in new post
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a front runner to be the next prime minister, hinted Wednesday he will keep visiting the contentious Yasukuni Shrine.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005
Koizumi warns ministers following gaffe by Sugiura
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi already has some words of caution for his new Cabinet -- they must be careful what they say.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005
Abe deflects politicians' responsibility on judging Yasukuni war criminals
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe argued Tuesday that only historians -- and not contemporary politicians -- will eventually make the correct call on how Japanese Class-A war criminals should be judged.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005
Koizumi reshuffles his Cabinet
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet on Monday and gave key posts to three possible contenders to succeed him in the country's top job.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005
Loyalty rewarded with prime portfolios
is a set of personnel appointments based on merit and reward," said Norihiko Narita, a professor of political science at Surugadai University. "The criteria (for being selected) was loyalty." For example, Seiken Sugiura, who was deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the previous Cabinet, was given the post...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005
Koizumi's Cabinet picks shrouded in mystery
to appoint personnel to the three executive posts to the party and the Cabinet on Oct. 31," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference later the same day. The special Diet session opened after the Sept. 11 Lower House election and ends Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2005
Maehara takes on Koizumi over government spending
," Maehara said. But more money ought to be allocated to areas closely related to people's lives, such as education, welfare and measures to cope with the declining birthrate, rather than public works, the new opposition leader said.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005
Key panel in favor of females on throne
can be expanded to a maternal line," panel Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, a former president of University of Tokyo, told a news conference after Tuesday's panel session. "It's almost certain that the (tradition of) paternal-line-only succession can't continue to exist," he added.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005
Koizumi's next target: the bureaucracy
With the Diet's enactment of the postal privatization bills earlier this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi now has a new punching bag he can use to maintain his political momentum: the bloated bureaucracy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005
Nonaka denies involvement in donation scandal
The mystery over a 100 million yen political funds scandal deepened Monday as a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appeared in court claiming an alibi: He was not at a meeting where the covert donation was allegedly handed over to an LDP faction on July 2, 2001.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2005
Postal bills become law
The hotly contested postal-privatization bills that have been at the center of a political firestorm this year were finally approved Friday, passing through a House of Councilors plenary session with relative ease.

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