Search - cabinet

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Man killed 'elite' kids in hope of being hanged

OSAKA — The man who was arrested Friday in the fatal stabbing of eight pupils at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, said he committed the crimes in a bid to be sent to the gallows, sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

Koizumi to rethink law for mentally ill

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Saturday that his government will begin studying possible revisions to the law regarding crimes by mentally ill people following Friday's massacre of eight children by a man with a history of psychiatric illness.
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2001

Secret fund is still under wraps

The Foreign Ministry, responding to a recent embezzlement scandal involving a senior ministry bureaucrat, has put together a package of measures designed to "reform" its secrecy-shrouded diplomatic war chest. The package falls far short of public expectations, largely because the ministry has not disclosed...
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2001

Unions to join unemployment talks

The government will meet with representatives of the 7.61-million-member Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) and the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) Tuesday morning to discuss an employment safety net, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2001

Machinery orders up 6.3% in April; government cautious

Japan's core private-sector machinery orders rose a seasonally adjusted 6.3 percent from the previous month to 1.035 trillion yen in April, after a 3.6 percent fall in March, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Matsuo fraud trial scheduled to kick off July 31

Katsutoshi Matsuo, the fired Foreign Ministry logistics chief charged with swindling discretionary funds from the government, will have his first Tokyo District Court hearing on July 31, court officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Secret-use funds to be cut, scrutinized

The Foreign Ministry, in the wake of an embezzlement scandal involving a senior bureaucrat, will cut its discretionary diplomatic funds, step up its inspections and let the foreign minister have the final say on spending, it announced Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Shiokawa wants amount of secretly used funds reduced

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Monday his ministry will consider reducing the amount of special funds set aside for classified government activities in the fiscal 2001 budget.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2001

Koizumi urged to rethink shrine visit

Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Koichi Kato, an ally of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, urged Koizumi to reconsider his pledge to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Time ripe for collective defense: panelists

Panelists at a symposium on Japan-U.S. relations held in Tokyo this week agreed that Japan should lift its ban on engaging in collective defense as both nations seek to strengthen security ties.
JAPAN
May 29, 2001

Koizumi plans to boost PR after town votes no on MOX

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday the government will have to work harder to win public support for a plan to burn plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel in Japan's nuclear plants, following the rejection in a plebiscite Sunday of the use of MOX fuel in Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture.
JAPAN
May 26, 2001

Koizumi pitches privatization plan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has called for the reorganization of government-affiliated corporations and pointed to the need for sweeping privatization, government officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2001

Can Tanaka fulfill her duties?

The words and actions of Makiko Tanaka, who made a dashing entry onto center stage as foreign minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are attracting attention from various quarters for various reasons.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2001

Government lowers March economic index to 11.1%

The government said Tuesday it has revised downward its key economic gauge for March due to weak production data.
JAPAN
May 19, 2001

Hansen's ruling appeal, deal eyed

The government is considering starting negotiations with former Hansen's disease patients for an out-of-court settlement after filing an appeal against a court ruling last week ordering the state to pay them compensation, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2001

Urban renewal key to revival: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday urban renewal is key to economic structural reform and reviving Japan.
JAPAN
May 16, 2001

Mori draws Tanaka's ire over Russian isles misstep

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Tuesday criticized former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori for saying on a television program that Japan and Russia had agreed to set up two frameworks to discuss four islands at the center of a sovereignty dispute.
JAPAN
May 12, 2001

Foreign Ministry officials begin sniping at Tanaka

With Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka flexing her muscles over the ministry's personnel affairs, bureaucrats have begun a counterattack, questioning her diplomatic judgment.
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Immigration controls targeted after Kim Jong Nam incident

Japan will beef up its immigration controls following the attempt by a man believed to be the elder son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to enter the country on a forged passport, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday.
JAPAN
May 7, 2001

Koizumi to explain high-profile North Korean detainee

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he intends to explain in the Diet the deportation of a man believed to be the elder son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his family from Japan.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
May 1, 2001

Moriyama eyes judicial reform, backs death penalty

It is important to carry out judicial reforms in order to ensure that the public has better access to legal services, according to newly appointed Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2001

Yamasaki eyes draft to revise Article 9

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Taku Yamasaki has drawn up a tentative draft for constitutional revisions that include changing the wording of Article 9 to clarify that Japan will maintain land, sea and air forces and has the right to self-defense, political sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 30, 2001

A real chance for change?

LONDON -- Is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi so different from other Japanese politicians that he can succeed in enforcing radical change in the political and economic system of the country?
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

Yanagisawa ready to mend emergency economic plan

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will carefully review an emergency economic package adopted in early April to repair shortcomings, if there are any, according to Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Koizumi floats popular vote for nation's prime minister

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has broken the norm in his Cabinet lineups, on Friday called for revising the Constitution to introduce a popular vote for the nation's top leader.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Kan urges removal of war criminals from shrine

Naoto Kan, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Friday that Class-A war criminals enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead, should be enshrined at a different location.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Incoming economic ministers promise to work hard

Economic ministers in the newly formed Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that they will try hard to pull the nation out of its long economic downturn and help accelerate the disposal of banks' bad loans.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

'00 yearend growth cut down to 0.7%

Economic growth for the October-December quarter has been revised to a real 0.7 percent from the previously reported 0.8 percent, the government said Wednesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat