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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 30, 2013

Rescues of South Koreans abducted by North come with controversy

In divided Korea, even the homecomings can be bitter.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 16, 2013

NSA broke privacy rules repeatedly, audit finds

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2013

Dangers of constitutional revision

If the LDP and and its allies win at least two-thirds of the Upper House seats on July 21, watch for Shinzo Abe to push constitutional revisions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2013

Iijima's North trip ups hope for progress on abductions

Tokyo authorized and is in charge of the surprise trip to Pyongyang by special adviser Isao Iijima, a senior government official indicated Wednesday, while Cabinet members all remained tight-lipped in public amid speculation the government hopes to resume direct talks with North Korea to resolve the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 23, 2013

The stalking cure: rehabilitating an all too common menace

When forensic psychiatrist Frank Farnham first meets a stalker, he doesn't judge. Some of his clients have done awful things. They have intimidated, pursued and terrified their victims.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2013

Missteps bedevil U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa

The U.S. military was closely tracking a one-eyed bandit across the Sahara in 2003 when it confronted a hard choice that is still reverberating a decade later. Should it try to kill or capture the target, an Algerian jihadist named Moktar Belmoktar, or let him go?
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 24, 2012

An ominously familiar Japanese contemporary

Things do sometimes go backward.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2012

Lower House OKs ¥90 trillion 2012 budget but deadline delays loom

The Lower House passed a ¥90.3 trillion budget for fiscal 2012 on Thursday, ensuring the legislation will be enacted, but the opposition camp could still prevent it from entering into force before the new fiscal year starts.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2012

How to push reform forward

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has stated he would stake his political life on realizing integrated reform of the tax and social security systems. Japan's financial structure is worse than those of other advanced countries and even that of Greece, which was responsible for the euro crisis. Therefore it...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Feb 18, 2012

Fiscal ills not DPJ's doing but it's holding the bag

The tax and social security reform outline adopted by the Cabinet on Friday indicate the government has run out of options and must finally address welfare costs and public finances that have been spiralling out of control for years.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Noda team faces rocky Diet session

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says his partially reshuffled Cabinet is the best lineup ever, but it will need to be to face the turbulence expected in the Diet session that started Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2012

Picks mirror more pragmatic tack, bid to exert leadership

With a minor but crucial reshuffle Friday, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda prepared to tackle his most important and difficult task — raising taxes.
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.
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2011

Tepco pensions may be tapped for redress

Tokyo Electric Power Co. may need to cut pensions to acquire ready cash to compensate people affected by the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis if a government panel examining the utility's assets deems this necessary, Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2011

A modest proposal for sustaining growth

BEIJING — In March, at a meeting in Beijing organized by Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue and China's Central University of Finance and Economics, scholars and policymakers discussed how to reform the international monetary system. After all, even if the system did not directly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2011

Government shutdown in June?

As battles rage in the Diet between the ruling and opposition camps over fiscal 2011 budget-related bills, one dreadful scenario has emerged: The debt-ridden government may run out of funds by around June.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2011

Another DPJ metamorphosis

Japan and the United States signed an agreement last month on a five-year extension of Japan's host-nation financial support to help cover part of the costs of stationing U.S. forces in Japan under the bilateral security arrangement.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 6, 2011

Yang Sok Gil: Writing about wrongs at home and abroad

Yang Sok Gil is renowned for his novels describing, with remarkable humanity and humor, people's wanton desires and the problems they cause, often from the viewpoint of minorities in Japan or elsewhere.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 18, 2011

Up the prosecutor's road

Public Prosecutor General Hiroshi Obayashi was forced to resign after being in office for only six months in the wake of a series of scandals involving the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad, including the tampering of evidence by one of its prosecutors.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2010

U.S. may up child custody pressure

NEW YORK — Japan and India are among America's key allies. Yet to scores of embittered parents across the U.S., they are outlaw states when it comes to the wrenching phenomenon of "international child abduction."
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 26, 2010

Highhanded prosecutors get judicial pat on the back

The arrogance and self-complacence of public prosecutors have been exposed with the acquittal of a high-ranking former welfare ministry official who had been indicted on a charge of forgery, and the subsequent arrest and indictment of two prosecutors accused of hiding evidence of data tampering. The...
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2010

Record budget request

Government ministries and agencies have submitted a record-high budget request of ¥96.75 trillion for fiscal 2011, topping by 1.8 percent the corresponding ¥95.04 trillion figure for fiscal 2010, which was also a record. Election pledges by the Democratic Party of Japan, automatic increases in social...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2010

Taiji mayor defends dolphin hunt

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. — As kids in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 250-kg dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of squid tossed out by a trainer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 19, 2010

Tale of the tape: shoplifiting solution or just a band-aid?

Shop-lifting is becoming a growing problem in Japan and using a piece of tape as proof of purchase is probably not the most effective way to stop it.
JAPAN / Media
Jun 6, 2010

The timing behind yakuza crackdown

The media has been filled with revelations of ties between professional sumo and organized crime. Since late May, the tabloids and gossipy "wide shows" on TV have made a huge flap over Sehei Kimura and one other stable master for allowing senior gang members to obtain box-seat tickets to the Nagoya Grand...
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2010

Yubari set on reconstruction

The assembly of Yubari, a bankrupt city in central Hokkaido, on March 2 adopted a financial reconstruction plan to pay off accumulated debts of ¥32.2 billion over 17 years. The plan also features 74 new projects to resuscitate the city and improve services for residents. To persevere through a long,...

Longform

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