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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 28, 2010

It's time Japan shook off its past and stopped toadying to the U.S.

Allow me to introduce a Japanese word to those unfamiliar with it. It is the verb kobiru, which means "to flatter"; "to curry favor with"; "to play up to"; "to toady to." In more up-to-date parlance, it may be rendered as "to suck up to."
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2010

Stimulus budget wins Diet passage

The Diet late Friday enacted the supplementary budget to fund a ¥5.1 trillion stimulus package even though the opposition rejected the package in the Upper House.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 25, 2010

Showa Women's University President Mariko Bando

Mariko Bando, 64, is the president of Showa Women's University in Tokyo. She is also a best-selling author with more than 30 books under her belt, including "The Dignity of a Woman," which has sold over 3 million copies. An advocate of women's rights, Bando is director of the Japan National Committee...
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2010

Bolster waste-cutting effort

The Kan administration's Government Revitalization Unit on Nov. 18 ended the second part of a third round of budget screening. In the first part held in October, the body screened 48 programs in eight special account budgets, which are almost unknown to the public. In the second part, it re-examined...
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2010

Surviving the currency competition

The yen's exchange value is considered likely to top the rate of ¥79.75 to the dollar registered in 1995 for an all-time high sooner or later. At a meeting that ended Oct. 23, Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors managed to contain the confrontation between the advanced economies...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2010

Yanagida prospects looking grimmer

Pressure mounted Friday on Justice Minister Minoru Yanagida to resign over his remarks scoffing at his Diet duties, as members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan-led administration gradually distanced themselves from him and the opposition camp pledged to slap him with censure motions.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2010

Kan says he won't seek Yanagida's head over Diet gaffe

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Thursday he has no plans to replace Justice Minister Minoru Yanagida over remarks disparaging his Diet duty despite mounting calls from the opposition camp that he step down.
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2010

Looking less like a secret

The Metropolitan Police Department and public prosecutors decided Monday not to arrest a Japan Coast Guard member who has allegedly confessed to having leaked video footage onto YouTube of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and two JCG patrol ships off the Senkaku Islands of Okinawa Prefecture....
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2010

Uphill on trade policy, diplomacy

As its relations with China and Russia are deteriorating over territorial issues and its domestic opinion is sharply divided on further opening of its markets, Japan hosted and chaired the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit on Saturday and Sunday in the port city of Yokohama — the first...
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2010

Funds for stimulus get Lower House OK

A ¥5.1 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2010 aimed mainly at financing an economic stimulus package cleared the Lower House on Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Kan holds talks on disputes with Hu, Medvedev

YOKOHAMA — Prime Minister Naoto Kan finally managed to hold bilateral meetings Saturday with his Chinese and Russian counterparts in Yokohama, giving him a chance to sort out diplomatic tensions that have emerged over separate territorial rows.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Kan thanks Obama for U.S. siding with Japan

YOKOHAMA — Prime Minister Naoto Kan expressed gratitude Saturday to President Barack Obama for Washington's support during Japan's territorial tensions with China and Russia.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2010

Leaked video raises secrecy-law questions

It was Wednesday when a coast guard officer dropped a bombshell on his skipper and sparked a national sensation.
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2010

Address trade barriers involving key markets soon, Keidanren says

Japan should start early talks with the United States, European Union, China and South Korea on abolishing trade barriers so it doesn't put itself at a competitive disadvantage, the head of a panel at the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2010

Japan's push for open trade

The 2010 APEC forum meetings started in Yokohama on Monday and an APEC leaders summit will take place on Saturday and Sunday. As host and chair, Japan faces the task of leading the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members to agree on steps to push for further liberalization of trade and investment....
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2010

Ministers unite against new trade barriers

YOKOHAMA — Foreign and trade ministers meeting in Yokohama on Wednesday agreed to fend off protectionism by extending an existing ban on new trade barriers among member states by at least three years, until 2013.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2010

Senkaku video leak probed as a crime

Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologized in the Diet Monday as prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into how sealed video footage of the Sept. 7 collisions of a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard cutters near the Senkaku Islands ended up on the Internet last week.
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2010

The life and times of an American 'mentor'

LOS ANGELES — As far as I know, Nebraska-born Theodore "Ted" Sorensen, who died last week at 82, disagreed with me only twice. He was right both times.

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