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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.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2008
DPJ to block gas tax bill; pump price looks to fall
Car owners can expect a break at the pump in the near future if the Democratic Party of Japan makes good on its threat to block a government-backed bill to extend higher rates on road-related taxes that expire March 31.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2008
Fukuda's coalition finds itself trapped
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is stuck.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2008
DPJ set to snub latest pick for BOJ chief
The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday evening that it will reject the government's latest nominee to replace Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui, virtually ensuring the post of central bank chief will go unfilled when Fukui's five-year term ends Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2008
Chamber again votes for Muto as row festers
The Lower House on Thursday approved the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc government's nomination of Toshiro Muto as new Bank of Japan governor, resulting in a split decision after the opposition-controlled upper chamber rejected him just a day earlier.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2008
Upper House rejects Muto
The Bank of Japan is a week away from a vacuum at the top as the opposition-controlled Upper House on Wednesday voted down the government's bid to replace BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui with his deputy of five years, Toshiro Muto.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2008
DPJ officially rejects Muto as BOJ head
The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday that it will reject the government's nomination of Toshiro Muto for new Bank of Japan governor, even though Muto pledged to ensure the BOJ's independence during testimony to the Diet.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2008
Fukuda firm: Muto is the 'best' choice for BOJ governor
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Monday he has no intention of proposing another candidate as governor of the Bank of Japan, even though the opposition camp is mulling whether to reject his original nomination of Toshiro Muto.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2008
Muto nominated as BOJ chief; DPJ unsure
With Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui's term expiring in 11 days, the government and ruling bloc on Friday finally nominated one of his deputies, Toshiro Muto, to replace him at the central bank.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2008
MSDF withdraws ships from fishermen search
The Maritime Self-Defense Force on Tuesday recalled its warships from the search for the missing father and son whose fishing boat was run over by a destroyer last month.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 4, 2008
Politics in game of never-ending musical chairs
A nearly unbroken line of Liberal Democratic Party politicians has headed the government since the party's 1955 formation. This dominance, however, was shaken by the stunning victory of the Democratic Party of Japan in the July 2007 House of Councilors election. In this reshaped political landscape,...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2008
Ruling bloc enacts '08 budget in power play
Turning a deaf ear to calls from opposition lawmakers for further deliberations, the Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition rammed the fiscal 2008 budget through the Lower House late Friday night.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2008
Israel's Olmert lauds Japan for peace-building initiatives
Israel is in the middle of negotiating a peace agreement with the Palestinians that could be concluded by the end of the year, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2008
Tokyo wants better tabs kept on U.S. forces ranks
The U.S. must report annually on the number of service members, employees and family members living off bases in Japan under new measures announced Friday by the government to curtail crimes by U.S. military-related personnel.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2008
Collision laid to negligence by destroyer
Watch standers aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago may have spotted the small fishing boat it ran over before dawn Tuesday 12 minutes before the collision instead of two, as earlier reported, Defense Ministry papers showed Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2008
Diet begins debate on keeping extra gas taxes
Debate over whether to keep for another 10 years the long-standing but provisional extra gas and other auto-related taxes began Tuesday as the Lower House took up the government's tax reform bill.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2008
Noda wins 'madonna' turf war as LDP shunts Sato to Tokyo
A political dispute between two "madonna" lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party both contesting a ticket to run for Gifu's No. 1 district finally came to an end Friday after the party announced that Yukari Sato will run for Tokyo, rather than Gifu, in the next Lower House election.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2008
Overriding vote passes '07 extra budget
The Lower House on Wednesday overrode the Upper House's rejection of a ¥1.78 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2007 and rammed it through the Diet, the first such move pertaining to an extra budget in 15 years.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2008
New magazine takes aim at wrongful convictions
A court ruling last fall changed a man's life. After Hiroshi Yanagihara was found guilty of rape in Toyama Prefecture and served about two years in prison, the Toyama District Court's Takaoka Branch officially found him not guilty.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2008
Ruling bloc pulls stopgap tax bill
The ruling bloc withdrew its contentious stopgap bill to briefly extend the extra rates on gasoline and other auto-related taxes after agreeing Wednesday with the opposition to "reach a conclusion" on the fiscal 2008 budget and related bills by the end of March.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2008
Ruling bloc submits gas-tax stopgap bill
The ruling coalition on Tuesday night submitted a stopgap bill to the Diet that would maintain current provisional gasoline and other auto-related tax rates until May 31, touching off sharp protests from opposition parties who want an end to the 30-year-old temporary taxes.
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.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
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.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

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