Search - cabinet

 
 
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2002

Panel suggests liaison office for refugees

A new liaison office should be established under the Cabinet Secretariat to better deal with refugee issues, a Liberal Democratic Party panel said in a report on Japan's refugee policy obtained Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2002

Government sees 'incipient recovery'

The government on Thursday upgraded its economic assessment on the back of brisk exports and improved production but warned that downside risks to the economy are increasing.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2002

GDP data likely to be late: official

Japan's gross domestic product data for the April-June quarter probably won't be released by Aug. 19 as planned, a senior Cabinet Office official said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Road panel to include controverial writer

A long-awaited list of members of a key government panel that will discuss proposed privatization of road-related public bodies was released Friday, controversially naming the well-known nonfiction writer Naoki Inose.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

Rural areas boast higher employment for women in 30s

Women in their 30s who live in rural prefectures are more likely to have jobs than their counterparts in metropolitan areas, according to a government white paper on gender equality released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Suzuki concession eyed in bid to end Diet boycott

Opposition parties on Monday indicated they might be ready to discuss an end to their Diet boycott following a request by prosecutors to strip lawmaker Muneo Suzuki of his parliamentary immunity from arrest.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2002

Wounds of flawed partition remain raw

HONG KONG -- Once again, Indo-Pakistani relations are seen to be teetering on the brink of potentially calamitous conflict. Yet too little attention is being paid to the possible solutions that could diminish the sustained Indo-Pakistani cold war with its proven tendency to occasionally become hot.
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2002

Hollow debate on Diet extension

Discussions and bargaining on an extension of the current session of the Diet, which is scheduled to end on June 19, are heating up. Speculation about the extension of a Diet session that is tied up with the existing political situation is not unusual in itself, but discussions that reflect a leadership...
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2002

Dispel the end-of-era mood

An interesting new book by Edo Period literary expert Takehiko Noguchi, "Bakumatsu Kibun" (The Mood in the Last Days of the Tokugawa Shogunate), details how shogunate officials and citizens of Edo indulged themselves in lavish consumption and entertainment as they faced the demise of the government....
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2002

Koizumi must act to end his state of siege

I cannot help but suspect that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the members of his Cabinet feel beset with troubles both at home and abroad as the current session of the Diet enters the homestretch.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2002

Workers' confidence up for sixth month

Economic confidence among employees with jobs close to the consumer improved in April for the sixth month in a row, but pessimists still outnumber optimists, according to a government survey released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2002

Core machinery orders declined 6.2% in March

Core private-sector machinery orders fell 6.2 percent in March, reverting to minus territory after rising in February for the first time in three months, the Cabinet Office said Monday.
JAPAN
May 11, 2002

Personal information bill endangers privacy, press: LDP politician

A government-sponsored bill to protect personal information, which critics fear would threaten freedom of the press, is more likely aimed at protecting bureaucrats rather than individual members of the public, according to a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who has openly criticized the legislation....
BUSINESS
May 8, 2002

Localities slow to start PFI projects: survey

A Cabinet Office survey released Tuesday reveals that 79.2 percent of local governments and municipalities have not started preparations to implement private finance initiative projects.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2002

Let firms police selves, panel says

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday suggested that companies enter into covenants with their customers regarding product quality and safety.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Posts deregulation bills may shatter LDP, Aso warns

The Liberal Democratic Party may be torn apart if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi goes ahead with his controversial plan to have four bills related to postal deregulation approved by the Cabinet on April 26, a top LDP policymaker warned Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Bills covering emergencies presented

The government has moved forward on draft versions of bills to govern Japan's response to a foreign military attack, with Cabinet endorsement eyed for April 16, according to government sources.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2002

Key economic gauge stays below 50%

The nation's coincident index stayed below the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent for the 13th straight month in January, according to a government report released Thursday.
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Feb 14, 2002

Lawmakers' views of past still plague relations

An education ministry panel's approval last April of a history textbook, which critics denounced as attempting to glorify Japan's wartime past, drew a quick response from South Korean politicians.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2002

Tokyo stocks plummet to 18-year low

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average closed at an 18-year low Tuesday as investors fretted over delays in structural reform and a plunge in U.S. stocks.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Ogata gets government call

The government hopes Sadako Ogata, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will become the new foreign minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda indicated Thursday, adding that the post Makiko Tanaka was fired from should be filled by today.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Gloomy economic assessment left unchanged by government

The government left its bleak assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report issued Wednesday but said the decline in exports may be bottoming out.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2001

Anti-Koizumi LDP faction urges return to old ways

The administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will not last long unless he shifts to a policy of aggressive spending to shore up the economy in the near future, says a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker openly critical of Koizumi's reform initiatives.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2001

Takebe hit for querying need to find source of mad cow

Senior members of the opposition parties demanded Friday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi remove farm minister Tsutomu Takebe from office for his recent comment indicating his reluctance to look into the source of mad cow disease.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Dec 25, 2001

Budget reflects change in course

The compilation on Monday of an 81.23 trillion yen general account budget for fiscal 2002 highlights a significant shift of authority in the drafting of national budgets -- an area long dominated by the Finance Ministry.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2001

Public servants untouched by economic woes

On Dec. 10, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's winter bonus was 5,692,492 yen this year, and other Cabinet members received 4,155,717 yen. These are huge sums in these harsh economic times.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2001

Deregulation measures target health and labor

Japan should seek early deregulation in six priority areas, including health care, to build a consumer-friendly society and revive the faltering economy, a government advisory panel on deregulation said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2001

A first step toward Afghan peace

Afghan factions and the United Nations have managed to sign an agreement stipulating the composition of an interim administration, or Cabinet, to replace the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The official inauguration of the interim administration on Dec. 22 -- after the Ramadan month of fasting ends --...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

Latest numbers spell recession

Japan sank into recession with its ailing economy shrinking 0.5 percent in real terms in the July-September period from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said Friday. The drop translates into an annualized rate of 2.2 percent.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?