Masami Ito - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Masami Ito

Meta

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.

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports