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JAPAN
Jul 26, 2008

Okada declares DPJ ready to take charge, reform the public sector

Long viewed as content to live in the shadow of the entrenched Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition force is now ready to seize the reins of power and carry out a thorough reform of the public sector, Democratic Party of Japan Vice President Katsuya Okada said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2008

What's the beef with Seoul?

NEW YORK — At the outset of the violent protests in South Korea over imported beef from the United States, the entire Cabinet of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak offered to resign. Last week, Lee fired three of them. But beef, it turns out, represents just the tip of the iceberg of grievances against...
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Seoul rejects offer of talks in Singapore

Seoul has rejected a proposal to meet on the sidelines of an international security forum starting Tuesday in Singapore to discuss the diplomatic row that has erupted over Tokyo's claim to South Korea-held islets in the Sea of Japan, Japanese officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Life without parole finding support in Diet

With less than a year before Japan embarks on the lay judge system, some lawmakers are raising concerns that having to choose between the death sentence and the second most severe punishment — life with the possibility of parole after 10 years — will be too daunting a burden for the nonprofessionals...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 15, 2008

Keidanren hedging bets on LDP

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) is showing signs of changing its unflinching support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as it seeks closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 13, 2008

When it's not quite convenient to protect the planet

"They work all day but still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat / Alas! Their lives are incomplete — Warren Zevon.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

Home front baggage cramps leaders

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The Group of Eight leaders headed for home Wednesday evening after wrapping up their three-day annual summit.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2008

Merchant sentiment falls as inflation weighs on consumers

Sentiment among Japanese merchants fell to a six-year low in June as higher food and oil prices discouraged consumers from spending, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 8, 2008

Ainu artist, activist has spent a lifetime fighting prejudice

Shizue Ukaji was born in March 1933 in a small southern coastal area of Hokkaido known as Urakawa.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2008

Ministry urges nation take steps to woo sovereign funds

Japan should adopt measures aimed at attracting more of the almost $3 trillion managed by sovereign wealth funds, a trade ministry report said.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2008

Education plan without guts

The Cabinet has approved the basic education promotion plan on basic education policies for the coming decade and on high-priority measures to be tackled over five years. To nurture the human resources needed for the nation's development, the plan pledges to make Japan an "education- oriented country"...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2008

Still 'efficient' G8 faces new realities

The 19th-century historian and political analyst Walter Bagehot divided affairs of state between what he called the dignified and the efficient. In the dignified category were great formal meetings of state, the pomp and ceremony surrounding heads of state and monarchs, and all the symbolic parades and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2008

Exorcising Musharraf's ghost

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Following its recent free elections, Pakistan is rebounding politically. But the euphoria that came with the end of the Musharraf era is wearing off, as the new government faces stark choices.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2008

One small step for stability

HONG KONG — The June 18 announcement of the Beijing-Tokyo agreement to jointly develop gas fields in the disputed waters of the East China Sea should help ease tensions between the two countries as they try to forge a new, forward-looking cooperative relationship, but it may cause internal difficulties...

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