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Natsuko Fukue

JAPAN

Aug 20, 2011

Candidate Kaieda eases on Ozawa

Trade minister Banri Kaieda expressed his intention Friday to run for the Democratic Party of Japan presidency and succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and hinted he may lift the suspension on former party leader Ichiro Ozawa, who will soon go on trial.

JAPAN

Aug 16, 2011

Cabinet gives Yasukuni a miss

More than 50 lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties Monday marked the 66th anniversary of Japan's surrender by visiting Tokyo's contentious Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation's war dead as well as Class-A war criminals.

JAPAN

Aug 12, 2011

DPJ shifts focus to Kan successor

As the Lower House passed a crucial bill authorizing bond-issuances Thursday, lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan accelerated their hunt for a successor to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, with former Diet affairs chief Shinji Tarutoko the latest name floated in the Nagata-cho political center....

JAPAN

Aug 11, 2011

Deal on bills looks to pave Kan's way out

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's hoped-for exit by month's end got new legs Wednesday, after a Lower House committee OK'd a key bond-issuance bill for passage later in the month and Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers began laying the groundwork for a race to elect a new leader.

JAPAN

Aug 10, 2011

Noda delays announcement of bid to replace Kan amid market turmoil

With financial markets in a state of tumult, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided Tuesday to postpone the anticipated announcement of his candidacy to succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan as president of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Aug 4, 2011

Lawmaker defends attempt to observe disputed Takeshima isles

Three Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers who were denied entry by South Korea when they tried to visit an island near disputed territory in the Sea of Japan remain undeterred, although their actions ratcheted up diplomatic tension with Seoul.

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Aug 2, 2011

New law fails to ease organ demand

A year has passed since the revised Organ Transplant Law took effect in July 2010. Now anyone, even children, can be organ donors if the next of kin consent. The changes have raised the number of donors but many patients are still waiting to receive organs.

JAPAN

Jul 26, 2011

¥2 trillion reconstruction bill clears Diet

The Diet enacted Monday a ¥2 trillion second extra budget for fiscal 2011 to finance disaster relief and reconstruction since March 11, one of the three conditions laid down by Prime Minister Naoto Kan for his exit.

JAPAN

Jul 16, 2011

¥2 trillion reconstruction budget submitted; July 22 passage seen

The government Friday submitted its second extra budget for the year, worth ¥2 trillion, to pay for disaster relief and reconstruction after the March 11 quake and tsunami in the Tohoku region.

JAPAN

Jul 15, 2011

Sanitary conditions deteriorating in shelters as mercury rises: Hirano

Worsening sanitary conditions and rising temperatures are now the most urgent problems facing thousands of Tohoku evacuees still living in shelters, reconstruction minister Tatsuo Hirano said Thursday.

JAPAN

Jul 14, 2011

Japan must ditch nuclear power: Kan

Japan should gradually become a society that does not have to rely on atomic power, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Wednesday amid the continuing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

JAPAN

Jul 13, 2011

Kan plan set to end nuke goals

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday the administration plans to propose a new energy policy "in the near future" and that the current goal of increasing dependency of nuclear power to 53 percent by 2030 needs to be abandoned.

JAPAN

Jul 9, 2011

Kaieda takes flak, vows to stay on

Industry minister Banri Kaieda denied Friday he intends to resign anytime soon after he said he would "take responsibility" for the administration's flip-flop on whether to fire up idled nuclear reactors.

JAPAN

Jul 7, 2011

Kan under fire in wake of Matsumoto's resignation

Prime Minister Naoto Kan accepted responsibility Wednesday for last week appointing Ryu Matsumoto as reconstruction minister, only to see him resign Tuesday after disparaging the disaster zone he was tasked to mend, but vowed to stay on as leader until his conditions for leaving are met.

JAPAN

Jul 6, 2011

Reconstruction minister quits after week

Ryu Matsumoto resigned Tuesday as reconstruction minister just a week into his stint after he drew flak for insulting two governors in the disaster-hit Tohoku region he was tasked to rebuild, and his exit drove Prime Minister Naoto Kan into a deeper political quagmire.

JAPAN

Jul 5, 2011

Matsumoto rips Tohoku governors

High-handed remarks by newly appointed Tohoku reconstruction minister Ryu Matsumoto rocked the political world Monday, inflaming the opposition and inflicting another headache upon the ailing Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

JAPAN

Jul 1, 2011

113 households identified as radioactive hot spots

The central government on Thursday designated 113 households in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, as areas with radioactive hot spots and recommends that the people living there evacuate despite being outside the no-entry zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

JAPAN

Jul 1, 2011

Doubled sales tax by '16 gets nod

Yielding to strong opposition from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the DPJ president, approved a social security and tax reform plan Thursday that will enforce a 10 percent consumption tax "by the mid-2010s," instead of its initial target of fiscal 2015....

JAPAN

Jun 30, 2011

Tax panel execs to negotiate sales levy hike timing with government

Members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's tax panel on Wednesday authorized panel executives to negotiate with the government the timing of a consumption tax hike, paving the way for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's tax reform plan to be approved as early as Thursday.

JAPAN

Jun 29, 2011

Kan hints at playing nuclear energy card

Whether to promote nuclear power will be the most crucial issue in the next national election, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday, rekindling speculation that he may want to dissolve the Lower House over energy policy.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

By Johan Brooks

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