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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 6, 2005

Say 'cheese' and snap out of such fanciful thinking

Foreign-ministers-in-waiting don't drop clangers for nothing. When the then Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso spoke last month at the newly-opened Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, he fully expected his clanger to resound and reverberate when it hit the ground....
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2005

Tsushima named to head former Hashimoto faction

The Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto chose ex-health minister Yuji Tsushima on Friday as its new chief, ending a leadership vacuum that existed since July 2004 in the wake of a political donation scandal.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 5, 2005

Nakagawa hints at WTO compromise

Newly appointed farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa says Japan needs to make compromises where it can to contribute to progress in market-opening talks under the World Trade Organization.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

Make English mandatory for elementary pupils, Kosaka says

The new education minister believes English education should be made mandatory for elementary school students.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2005

Abe backs off sanctions for N. Korea

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe softened his stance Wednesday on the possibility of imposing economic sanctions on North Korea to apply pressure over the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2005

Aso, Ban agree to mend relations, meet this month

New Foreign Minister Taro Aso and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon agreed Wednesday to work on improving strained bilateral ties and to meet later this month in South Korea, Foreign Ministry officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2005

A sign of Japan's decline

LONDON -- He didn't clap his hands, he did not wear a frock coat and he did not sign the visitors' book as "prime minister." So what?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Abe deflects politicians' responsibility on judging Yasukuni war criminals

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe argued Tuesday that only historians -- and not contemporary politicians -- will eventually make the correct call on how Japanese Class-A war criminals should be judged.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2005

Lawmakers wonder how to dress

The government is following up its summer "Cool Biz" campaign with "Warm Biz" this winter to save energy and combat global warming, but bureaucrats and lawmakers already are having trouble finding the right clothes.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2005

Diet adopts first petition against administrative branch

The House of Councilors voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt the first-ever petition on a complaint against the administrative branch, by a man asking police to account for the 1993 death of his 65-year-old sister who he says was run over by a car.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Iraqi minister seeks continued SDF deployment

A visiting Iraqi Cabinet member asked Japan in a meeting with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura on Monday to extend the Self-Defense Forces' humanitarian and reconstruction mission in southern Iraq beyond the current deadline of mid-December.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Nonaka denies involvement in donation scandal

The mystery over a 100 million yen political funds scandal deepened Monday as a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appeared in court claiming an alibi: He was not at a meeting where the covert donation was allegedly handed over to an LDP faction on July 2, 2001.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Issues involved in U.S.-Japan base talks

The following questions and answers deal with the deadlock between Japan and the United States over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture -- the main topic of bilateral working-level talks that began Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2005

U.S. Futenma plan gaining traction

The government is moving toward accepting the U.S. proposal for relocating the heliport operations of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, according to government sources.
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2005

How clear is Japan's future?

The editors of three leading British journals (The Times, The Financial Times and The Economist) have recently visited Japan and reported positively on Japan's economic prospects. They noted that Japan had largely recovered from "the lost decade." The Economist was bullish, heading its recent supplement...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2005

Germany must be determined on reform: expert

Unless the forthcoming German government of conservative leader Angela Merkel bites the bullet and carries out painful reforms in a determined way, there will be no real domestic demand-led growth in the country, and its leadership in Europe will be limited, a German expert told a recent symposium in...
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2005

Look for change next year

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's determination to visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine needs to be seen in the perspective. The visit was not necessarily, as Beijing and Seoul seem to believe, a final proof of prime-ministerial evil.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2005

Press curbs infuriate media body

The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association urged the government on Friday to reconsider proposed legislation that would give police the discretion to withhold the identity of crime victims, saying this information is essential for reporting.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2005

U.S. realignment talks in danger

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Friday that Japan and the United States might not hold realignment talks next week if the two sides fail to agree on where to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2005

Chemical weapons tally in China may be cut

Japan is considering lowering its estimate of the number of chemical weapons the Imperial Japanese Army abandoned in China at the end of the war, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2005

50 million yen cap on political donations makes it through

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a ruling coalition-sponsored bill that puts an annual 50 million yen cap on party donations made by political groups and voted down a bill from the Democratic Party of Japan that set the cap at 30 million yen.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2005

Envoys overseas get 2.9 million yen for housing; here they get 200,000 yen

Foreign Ministry officials stationed overseas are granted an average of 2.9 million yen in housing benefits a year while ministry officials in Tokyo get only 200,000, yen according to a document endorsed Tuesday by the Cabinet.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2005

Postal bills become law

The hotly contested postal-privatization bills that have been at the center of a political firestorm this year were finally approved Friday, passing through a House of Councilors plenary session with relative ease.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2005

Japanese trio still missing in wake of Pakistan quake

Three Japanese tourists in Pakistan remain missing following the devastating earthquake that hit the country last weekend, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2005

Diminishing role of LDP factions

Factionalism has often been said to be the hallmark of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled the nation for most of the past 50 years. The LDP landslide in the Sept. 11 Lower House election, however, has dramatically altered the party's internal structure. In particular, its factional politics...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Hashimoto still can't recall check

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto took the witness stand Tuesday over his party faction's unreported donation from the Japan Dental Association, but the 100 million yen question is: Who was controlling the purse strings at the time?
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2005

Ruling on benefits for hibakusha abroad stands

The government will not appeal last week's Fukuoka High Court decision upholding a lower court ruling that hibakusha living abroad do not have to come to Japan to apply for health-care benefits, the health minister said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2005

U.S.-favored Futenma base relocation plan gets OK

The government is set to yield to a U.S.-preferred plan for relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa to break the deadlock in talks over the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2005

Ships spotted taking pipes toward disputed gas fields

Japan has confirmed that vessels carrying pipes are sailing in the East China Sea toward two gas fields at the center of an energy and border dispute between Japan and China, the trade minister said Friday.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?