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JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Emperor will meet China's Xi Tuesday

Emperor Akihito will meet Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, waiving a customary rule that he be notified a month in advance of such visits, the Imperial Household Agency said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2009

Revise the whistle-blower law

More than three and a half years have passed since a law to protect whistle-blowers went into force in April 2006. The law was enacted in response to the courage demonstrated by corporate whistle-blowers in bringing irregularities to light. Revelations in publicized cases have included allegations that...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2009

The child allowance

An allowance for each child up to the third grade at middle school is a main promise in the Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto. The party plans to make the monthly ¥26,000 allowance a permanent measure. The Hatoyama administration plans to give half the amount, or ¥13,000, in fiscal 2010,...
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2009

'Clean energy' plan may jump start NGK's sales

Japan's plan to use more renewable energy to fight climate change hinges on another technology — batteries as big as London buses to be hooked up to the power network at a cost of as much as ¥6 trillion.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Hatoyama playing risky game over Futenma

properly, the Hatoyama administration may not be able to survive, in addition to seriously straining Japan-U.S. relations." Hatoyama and his government have been caught between its coalition partner Social Democratic Party, which is demanding that Futenma be relocated outside Okinawa, and the U.S.,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2009

Record ¥53.5 trillion in debt to be issued

Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said Tuesday the government will issue a record ¥53.5 trillion in debt this fiscal year, causing bond sales to exceed tax revenue for the first time in 63 years.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2009

Takenaka says administration lacks policy control

Heizo Takenaka, the former economy minister credited with guiding Japan's longest postwar expansion, on Monday attacked the coalition government for lacking policy direction as it haggles over the next stimulus package.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2009

Coalition freezes Japan Post share sale

The first extraordinary Diet session held under the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama adjourned Friday after the ruling bloc used its majority to ram through the Upper House a law to freeze the state's planned sale of shares in Japan Post Holdings Co. and its banking and insurance units.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2009

Wishing the science away

LONDON — Ahead of the Copenhagen conference on climate change (which starts Monday), those who have argued that there is no conclusive proof that climate change is man-made were encouraged by the recent leak of e-mails from the archives of the University of East Anglia. The exchanges suggested that...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2009

Defense minister may visit U.S. over Futenma

Okada and I will join it, if necessary, to hold ministerial-level discussions," Kitazawa said in a speech at the National Defense Academy in Japan in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. "It would not be difficult (for the two countries) to share how things should be during the course of last-minute negotiations,"...
COMMENTARY
Dec 2, 2009

Commonwealth reaches out

Every two years the heads of government of the 50-plus states of which the Commonwealth consists, embracing almost a third of the planet's entire population and several of its most dynamic economies, meet to discuss issues of common concern.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2009

BOJ antes up ¥10 trillion for bank system

Amid mounting pressure from the government to rein in deflation and the surging yen, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday it would pump some ¥10 trillion into the banking system to keep the economy on a recovery track.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2009

Amano faces defiant Tehran, Pyongyang

, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks with Malaysia's Mohd Arshad bin Monzoor Hussein, chairman of the IAEA's Board of Governors, as departing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei looks on at Vienna's International Center on Friday. AP PHOTO
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2009

Hepatitis redress legislation clears Diet

A comprehensive bill to support people with hepatitis B and C, along with an attached statement recognizing the government's liability in spreading infections via tainted blood products, cleared the Diet on Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

Bringing Japan to Britain

When she looked at the floor plans for Oxford's redesigned Ashmolean Museum and saw that her two Japanese galleries formed an L-shape in one corner of the building, curator Clare Pollard didn't see an awkward space. "I saw a tea-house," she explains. And there it sits, in the crook of two beautiful and...
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2009

Patching up a Diet rift

Diet affairs have followed a tortuous course since the Democratic Party of Japan last week rushed a bill for helping small and midsize enterprises overcome cash flow problems through the Lower House Financial Affairs Committee. The DPJ then railroaded passage of the bill at a plenary session of the Lower...

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