Search - cabinet

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2011

TPP could open $48 billion market to foreign exporters

Japan's participation in a free-trade group led by the U.S., if it agrees, could open up the country's agriculture markets worth $48 billion to foreign exporters of rice, sugar and beef, boosting global prices.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2011

Tohoku recovery bond redemption put at 25 years

The Democratic Party of Japan yielded to the opposition camp Tuesday and agreed to redeem the bonds for financing the reconstruction of the Tohoku region in 25 years.
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2011

Divided DPJ is Noda's biggest obstacle to backing TPP talks

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda risks sparking the deepest split in his party since taking office two months ago as he determines whether to join trade talks led by the U.S., Japan's No. 2 export destination, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2011

Wrong timing by the Euro-skeptics

For Britain's Euro-skeptics, the current eurozone crisis has an air of inevitability and opportunity. The crisis validates their view of the single currency as a straitjacket forcing disparate economies into an unworkable union.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2011

Noda will call snap poll if Diet OKs sales tax hike

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Thursday in France that he is willing to dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election provided the Diet first approves a bill to raise the consumption tax.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2011

Taxation alone won't save Japan from its public debts

Jun Azumi has joined the chorus of those promising the imminent prospect of a rise in Japan's consumption tax. As finance minister, one would think — hope, perhaps pray — that Azumi should know what he is talking about.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2011

More lawmakers hit by cyber-attacks

Several House of Councilors members have received emails carrying Trojan horse programs designed to breach the security of computer systems, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tsuyoshi Saito said Wednesday, revealing the cyber-attacks.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 3, 2011

Undressing the myth behind Goya

On first appraisal, it might seem that the organizers have brought the wrong Maja to Japan for the exhibition "Goya: Lights and Shadows" at Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2011

Strengthening primary industries

The government headquarters for resuscitation of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and including all Cabinet members on Oct. 25 adopted a basic action plan to strengthen Japan's primary industries. It worked out the action plan with a view to the possibility...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2011

Noda takes flak in Diet over extra budget, free trade

Opposition lawmakers lashed out at Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday over what they said is the administration's unclear stance on whether to join free-trade talks, criticized components of the third extra budget for the Tohoku region reconstruction and called on him to dissolve the Lower House...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2011

Japan needs a 'fresh start' to resolve lingering issues

Post-March 11 Japan faces the challenge of not just rebuilding from the damage of the massive earthquake and tsunami, but also tackling the nation's structural economic and political problems that have largely been left unresolved over the past two decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2011

'Fair Game'

The Japan release of "Fair Game" comes nearly 12 months after the U.S. opening and a week after the death of Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi. For a story all about U.S. involvement in Iraq and that other infamous depot, Saddam Hussein, the timing could be right on the money. Still, a sense of discomfort...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2011

Reconsider Futenma relocation

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa told U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Tokyo on Oct. 25 that the Japanese government will take an official procedural step by the end of this year to push the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Okinawa Island's densely populated Ginowan city...
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2011

A call for improved national crisis management policy

More than seven months have already passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. Industrial production in the affected areas has bounced back to pre-disaster levels, but the recovery of agriculture and fishery is lagging and nearly 70,000 people remain in evacuation facilities. On top of that,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2011

Time for more decisive action

A 51-day-long extraordinary Diet session started Oct. 20 — the second extraordinary Diet session under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. In the first session, Mr. Noda, who had been in power only for a short period of time, adopted the tactic of "driving safe," avoiding going deep into details in discussions...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2011

Minister attacked for challenging the 'family system'

Yoko Komiyama is the first woman to ever occupy the post of Japan's minister of health, welfare and labor. As a mother, she may have more insight than her male colleagues into issues her ministry addresses, and from the start of her appointment in August she has stirred up controversy, mainly with her...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2011

Telling time with animals

There are many ways to tell time: the sundial, the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock. But there is a much more interesting way to tell time too, one the Japanese used in ancient times: by animal.
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2011

The ethics of compensation

On the evening of Sept. 10, I watched a NHK "Special" television program titled "The Ultimate Choice: Michael Sandel's global classroom." The theme of the 75-minute program was who should pick up the bill for reconstructing areas devastated by natural calamities like earthquakes and hurricanes, and especially...

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