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JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Koizumi tells acolytes to stay away from factions

Despite the Liberal Democratic Party's overwhelming victory in Sunday's Lower House election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to want to exert even more control over the LDP.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2005

Spare us a DVD war

DVD discs are as popular as VHS videotapes at video shops. A Cabinet Office survey shows that about half the households in Japan now have DVD-capable machines. DVD discs are also used in game and car-navigation consoles. Thus DVDs can truly be called a success story that has taken root in our daily life....
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Position on North Korea unchanged

Tokyo will maintain its stance of demanding complete abolition of North Korea's nuclear arms program during the six-party talks that are to resume next week, but is not yet sure whether the new round will lead to any substantial developments, the top government spokesman said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2005

Try again with rights bill

The government was to have submitted a human-rights protection bill during the most recent session of the Diet. Various reasons are cited for the bill's failure to reach the Diet floor, including government leaders' obsession with other hot-button issues such as postal-service reform. Still, legislation...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Japan to release 7.3 million barrels of oil

Japan will release 7.3 million barrels of reserve oil kept by 66 private-sector refiners over a 30-day period beginning Wednesday in a concerted action by the International Energy Agency to help stabilize the world oil market in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2005

Koizumi's bare-knuckle power play may soon haunt him

Sunday's election for the Lower House stands out as abnormal, but not because of its abruptness. Many surprise elections have been held before. On March 14, 1953, for instance, then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who was president of the Liberal Party, dissolved the Lower House following the passage...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2005

Postal plan no cure for spiraling debt, critic says

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to privatize the giant postal system will not resolve Japan's ballooning fiscal debt, which is hampering plans to create a smaller government, according to outspoken critic Yasuyo Yamazaki.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2005

Japan to host African peace confab this year

Japan will host an international conference as early as this year to promote consolidation of peace in Africa, government officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2005

Upcoming election to put LDP-Komeito cooperation to test

Ominous clouds hung over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, on the eve of Tuesday's start of official campaigning for the Sept. 11 general election.
Sep 1, 2005

Defense Agency wants 5 trillion yen

The Defense Agency on Wednesday requested 4.89 trillion yen in the fiscal 2006 budget to increase the capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces to counter threats to national security, including acts of terrorism, missile attacks and natural disasters.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2005

More than postal reform at stake

As the Lower House election campaign goes into full swing, Japanese voters face an important decision: whether to endorse the reform politics of Liberal Democratic Party leader and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, or a different kind of reform politics pushed by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan....
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2005

Japan's green economic edge

There are two meanings to the axiom that the 21st century is the century of the environment: (1) Global environmental problems will become more serious, and (2) environmental problems will be the driving force of economic development.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2005

New chief chamberlain for prince

Takashi Suetsuna, an official at the National Police Agency, will assume the post of chief chamberlain to Crown Prince Naruhito on Sept. 6, the Cabinet said at a meeting Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2005

No U.S. realignment this year

Tokyo has given up on concluding talks with the United States over military realignment by the end of this year, citing expected delays stemming from the upcoming general election, according to government sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2005

Asian chance after Annan

The term of Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary general (SG) expires Dec. 31, 2006. Countries and individuals have begun to position themselves to succeed him. If Asians are to have a credible chance of filling what should rightfully be their turn at the job, their discussions and negotiations in the next six...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2005

LDP rebels launch another new party

Koki Kobayashi and three other rebels from the Liberal Democratic Party formed a new party Sunday, with Yasuo Tanaka, the outspoken governor of Nagano Prefecture, taking the top position.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2005

First step of the peace process

Israel has begun its unilateral withdrawal of troops and evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. This is the first time that settlements have been dismantled from land that Israel occupied in the third Middle East War (1967). There have been reports of small-scale clashes between settlers...
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2005

An uneven economic recovery

It appears that Japan's economy has emerged from a "soft patch" and entered a new period of moderate growth. In April through June, the nation's gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.1 percent, the Cabinet Office announced last week. That marked the third consecutive quarter of positive...
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2005

DPJ's platform vows troop pullout

The Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday unveiled its platform for the Sept. 11 election, pledging to pull the Ground Self-Defense Force out of Iraq by December if it comes to power.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2005

Kamei trying to form new party

Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Shizuka Kamei held talks Tuesday about forming a new party with several lawmakers who lost LDP backing for the Sept. 11 general election by opposing postal privatization.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Abe, ministers, Diet members visit shrine

Amid heightened attention on Japan's wartime past, 47 Diet members visited contentious Yasukuni Shrine together Monday, the 60th anniversary of the nation's surrender.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Honoring the war dead is a hot, heated affair

Tens of thousands of people braved a sweltering Monday in Tokyo to pay their respects to the nation's war dead on the 60th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2005

0.1% salary cut sought for government workers

The National Personnel Authority asked the government Monday to cut the basic annual salary for central government workers by 0.1 percent, or 4,000 yen, for this fiscal year through next March.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Koizumi repeats apology

Marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed regret Monday for Japan's past deeds against its Asian neighbors and vowed to make sure they never happen again.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Koizumi secretary quits post to run in Sept. 11 election

Jiro Ono, a secretary to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, quit his National Police Agency post Monday to run in the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election in support of Koizumi's structural reforms centering on postal privatization.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2005

Soul-searching for peace in Asia

As the nation marks the 60th anniversary of its surrender to Allied Powers in World War II, the Japanese face the unfinished task of squarely looking at Japan's colonialism and modern war and seriously considering a nonmilitary path that Japan must take to contribute to world peace and stability.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

LDP rebels mulling new party

Liberal Democratic Party rebels who voted against the government's postal privatization bills in the House of Representatives are still considering forming a new party ahead of the Sept. 11 election, a key dissenter said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."

Longform

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