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Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2010

Sengoku backtracks on exit hint

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, considered the most influential politician in Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration, created a stir Friday when he hinted he may step down.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2010

Nakaima presses Kan to move U.S. Marine base out of Okinawa

Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, who was re-elected Sunday, urged Prime Minister Naoto Kan Thursday to relocate the U.S. Marine base at Futenma outside the prefecture, rather than to the Henoko district of Nago as agreed upon by the U.S. and Japan in May.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 28, 2010

NPB looks to trim deficit by having third All-Star Game

You no doubt saw the news item whereby the Nippon Professional Baseball authorities are asking the Japanese players union to have a third All-Star game in 2011, in order to blot a portion of its reported ¥60 million of red ink. Two All-Star games are scheduled so far next season: at Nagoya Dome July...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2010

Opposition: Kan lacks crisis-management ability

Opposition lawmakers spent Thursday badgering Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet for "lacking crisis-management ability" and "being late" in responding to news of North Korea's shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2010

Always expect the unexpected in politics

LOS ANGELES — Sometimes truly strange things happen in life. For those of us on America's West Coast, who would have thought that Jerry Brown would become governor of California again? His first time out as our chief state executive (in his 30s, and full of rather unconventional ideas), they called...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2010

Yanagida resigns over gaffe

Justice Minister Minoru Yanagida resigned Monday amid the fallout over his joking about his Diet duties, and after Prime Minister Naoto Kan effectively pressured him to step down.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2010

U.S. forecast from November

STANFORD, Calif. — November's midterm elections were a sharp rebuke to the vast expansion of government spending, deficits and debt in the United States. Elected in the midst of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership of Congress seemed surprised...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Foreign media search for signs of future stance on TPP

YOKOHAMA — Foreign journalists who gathered Saturday in Yokohama to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit are closely watching for indications of Japan's future stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, with the government having deferred a decision amid strong opposition...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 7, 2010

Noriko Hama: Scholar brings economics to life

Clouds of gloom have been shrouding Japan and its economy for quite some time. The bursting of the asset- inflated economic bubble in the early 1990s, and the failures of banks, insurers and other big corporations later in that decade, has put a huge dent in Japan's collective self-confidence. That is...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2010

Senkaku collisions video leak riles China

A video apparently taken by the Japan Coast Guard of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and patrol vessels off the Senkaku Islands has shown up on YouTube, prompting China to express "concern" over already strained bilateral relations.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2010

Diet takes up stimulus package; kingpin stays mum

As the Diet began a plenary session on a ¥5.1 trillion emergency stimulus package Thursday, Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Katsuya Okada said his efforts to persuade Ichiro Ozawa to appear before an ethics panel to explain his involvement in a political money scandal did not bear fruit....
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2010

Medvedev isle trip spurs envoy recall

Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday he will recall the Japanese ambassador to Moscow in the wake of President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Kunashiri Island, one of the four Russia-held islands that Japan wants returned.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2010

Taiji-activists showdown staged

OSAKA — Members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and other animal rights activists met Tuesday morning for the first time with the mayor and other officials of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, in a carefully stage-managed discussion of the port's contentious annual dolphin hunts.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2010

Hearing China's take on Senkakus

The most recent territorial dispute over the Senkaku (Japanese name)/Diaoyutai (Chinese name) Islands, located southwest of Okinawa (or north of Taiwan if you prefer), was triggered on Sept. 7 when a Chinese trawler attempted to ram two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The blurry details of the collision...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2010

NGOs urge biodiversity parties for ambitious plan

Domestic nongovernmental organizations on Tuesday urged parties participating in the three-day high-level Convention on Biological Diversity beginning Wednesday to adopt ambitious targets in the new strategic plan for beyond 2011.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Oct 26, 2010

LDP by-election win may be slap at DPJ but little else

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Nobutaka Machimura's victory Sunday in the Lower House by-election in Hokkaido for the Hokkaido No. 5 constituency has dealt another blow to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which suffered a huge setback in the July Upper House election.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Oct 25, 2010

Veteran guile, wisdom aided Dragons in CL Climax Series clincher

The Chunichi Dragons have their fair share of youth on the roster, but it was a group of veterans who helped them reach the Japan Series with a 4-3 win over the Yomiuri Giants in Game 4 of the Central League Climax Series on Saturday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2010

JAL chief touts 'amoeba' style of management

Japan Airlines Corp. CEO and Chairman Kazuo Inamori voiced confidence Wednesday in turning the ailing airline around, saying it is improving financially and will achieve restructuring goals through his "amoeba" management style.

Longform

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