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JAPAN
Jun 15, 2008

Japan brings North back to bargaining table

In-mid April, a senior Foreign Ministry official in charge of Asian affairs looked confident. Although bilateral talks with North Korea had been suspended for more than half a year, the official predicted Pyongyang would have no choice but to come back to the bargaining table to discuss the abduction...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2008

Pyongyang to reopen abduction probe

Pyongyang has promised to reopen its investigation into the missing Japanese its spies abducted, and Tokyo will partially lift economic sanctions in response.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2008

'Anyone' was a target

Sunday's brutal indiscriminate slaying of seven people in Tokyo's Akihabara district is both a tragedy and a horrific crime. It took a 25-year-old man about five minutes to commit the crimes as shoppers were enjoying Sunday afternoon in a temporary vehicle-free zone in the world's largest electronics...
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2008

Wholesale prices jumped 4.7% in May

Wholesale prices in May rose at their fastest pace in 27 years, signaling soaring energy costs may erode corporate profits and bring an end to the economy's longest postwar expansion, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 10, 2008

Where did all the babies go?

Last Wednesday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that Japan's total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of babies born to women during their reproductive years — rose slightly to 1.34 for 2007, even though about 3,000 fewer children were born last year than in 2006. Two years...
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2008

Reintroducing the Ainu

Both chambers of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution last week urging the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. It says the fact that many Ainu people suffered discrimination and poverty during Japan's modernization should be taken seriously. Noting that the Ainu have their own...
Reader Mail
Jun 8, 2008

Invest in counseling, not weapons

Regarding the May 30 article "Japanese found hanged on KAL jet": It's a sad statement of a country's culture that so many Japanese people's ultimate form of expression is suicide. It must be hard for many non-Japanese to understand why this anomaly has persisted for so long.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2008

Protection from a Web of harm

The Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Communist Party have worked out a bill aimed at shielding children from harmful Web sites. The Education Resuscitation Council had called for restricting the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren to direct calls and GPS...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2008

Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous

The Ainu celebrated a historic moment Friday as the Diet unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes them as indigenous people of Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2008

South Korea's 'bulldozer' stalls

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak must wonder whatever happened to his honeymoon. His first 100 days in office were marked by the sharpest plunge in popularity ratings of any democratically elected Korean leader. The fault is not Mr. Lee's alone, but the majority of the blame is his. Only he can stop...
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2008

Energy-cost issue boils over

Is the green party over? Is the ferocious rise in energy costs worldwide, driven by the soaring price of oil, undermining all the enthusiasm for saving the planet in the longer term via cutting carbon emissions and penalizing all forms of fossil-fuel consumption?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 1, 2008

Generic drugs? Brand-name drugs? Any old drugs will do

On April 1, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare notified local governments that from now on welfare recipients entitled to free medical care must only use generic pharmaceuticals rather than more expensive brand-name drugs. Almost immediately the plan was attacked in the media, which implied that...
JAPAN
May 31, 2008

Japan joins effort to ban cluster bombs

Japan will agree on a draft convention to immediately and completely ban cluster bombs in principle, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Friday, marking a shift in Tokyo's position on the controversial munitions.
JAPAN
May 31, 2008

SDF quake-relief airlift to China is ruled out

Acknowledging apprehension in China, Japan has dropped plans to send Self-Defense Forces aircraft to China to transport emergency supplies to earthquake survivors, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2008

Prime ministers in trouble

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda face a sea of troubles. Neither looks likely to keep his job long enough to make a significant contribution to solving the problems in Britain or in Japan.

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