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December 23, 2024
 

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Masami Ito

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Masami Ito
Masami is a staff writer for the Life and Culture Division at The Japan Times. She is in charge of the weekly Sunday Timeout, covering various issues related to Japan, from alcohol/drug addiction and juvenile crime to female sushi chefs and kendama. Over her 15-year career, she has written extensively on Japanese politics, foreign policy and social issues.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2010
Futenma unwelcome: Nago mayor
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine met Wednesday with the foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo for the first time since his election last month and reiterated his position that his Okinawa city would not accept a relocated U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2010
Rail CEO to head defense panel
The government announced Tuesday it has set up a panel to revise defense policy, tapping a businessman as chairman to head the team of experts on national security.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2010
NGOs air concerns over strife in Gaza Strip
Japanese nongovernmental organizations and Diet members expressed serious concern Tuesday over the conflict-ravaged Gaza Strip, urging the government and the international community to be more proactive in working toward peace in the Middle East.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2010
Abbas stresses resuming peace talks
Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama agreed Monday in Tokyo that Israel and Palestine must quickly resume their stalled peace talks.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2010
SDF engineers get Haiti marching orders
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Friday ordered the dispatch of about 350 Self-Defense Forces engineers to assist in humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in earthquake-devastated Haiti as part of the U.N. peacekeeping operation there.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 6, 2010
Forces dispatch quick if it's a quake
Three weeks after the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Tokyo is preparing to dispatch Self-Defense Forces personnel to join the United Nations peacekeeping operation to assist in the country's reconstruction.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2010
U.S. pressures Japan to resolve child custody
Japan needs to deal with the issue of Japanese spouses taking their children from their divorced international partners or it could affect bilateral ties with the United States, Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state, said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2010
Futenma can wait till May: U.S. defense envoy
A U.S. defense official said Monday in Tokyo that the United States will wait until May for Japan to review the relocation plan for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and is willing to renegotiate the issue if necessary.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2010
Roos stresses need for U.S. forces in Japan
The United States must maintain forces in Japan to react swiftly to urgent threats in the region, including the biggest concern — North Korea — with its missiles and ongoing succession issue, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2010
Okada offers 'proactive leadership' plug
Japan needs to take "proactive leadership" on global issues like nuclear nonproliferation and climate change and play a larger role in United Nations peacekeeping missions, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2010
U.N. rapporteur to North: Clean up rights act
A special rapporteur for the United Nations on human rights in North Korea has urged Pyongyang to take concrete measures to resolve the abductee issue as soon as possible and return the victims to their families.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2010
Hatoyama praises security pact deterrence on 50th anniversary
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the revised Japanese-U.S. security treaty, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday praised the pact for maintaining Asia-Pacific peace and stressed that U.S. forces here have been and will continue to be a deterrent amid uncertain times.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2010
As security pact with U.S. turns 50, Japan looks to redefine relations
The Japanese-U.S. security treaty in its current form turned 50 Tuesday. Throughout the decades, the two nations have had their ups and downs and occasional tension, but together they weathered the Cold War and entered a new era and new century.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2010
Writer: Juvenile killer not a 'devil'
It all began with a letter from a condemned killer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 5, 2010
Minors in own category but never above the law
Jan. 11 marks Coming of Age Day, an annual holiday to celebrate people who have reached legal adulthood.
JAPAN / LOOMING CHALLENGES
Jan 1, 2010
Diplomatic retooling needed in face of China
First in a series
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009
Xi says he wants to improve ties
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived Monday in Japan where he stressed the importance of the "friendly" ties between China and Japan and vowed to do his best to further develop the relationship.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2009
Hatoyama, Obama meet now unlikely
The United States appeared reluctant Wednesday to arrange a summit between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Copenhagen, dealing a political blow to the Hatoyama Cabinet as Tokyo seeks to ease diplomatic tensions with Washington.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009
Hatoyama playing risky game over Futenma
properly, the Hatoyama administration may not be able to survive, in addition to seriously straining Japan-U.S. relations." Hatoyama and his government have been caught between its coalition partner Social Democratic Party, which is demanding that Futenma be relocated outside Okinawa, and the U.S.,...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2009
Hatoyama: move Futenma to Guam?
Despite heavy U.S. pressure, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appears to have given up on resolving the controversial relocation of a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa before year's end and is now floating Guam as an option.
Zelenskyy to replace Ukraine ambassador to Japan
Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky delivers a speech during a handover ceremony of Self-Defense Force vehicles to Ukraine, at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, in May last year.
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda and Nissan consider mutual production of vehicles, report says
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2023.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
North Korea aiding Russia where it needs it most, Canadian general says
North Korean special forces soldiers march and shout slogans during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang in April 2017.

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