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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2004

DPJ cleans up as LDP falls shy

The Democratic Party of Japan scored big gains in the House of Councilors election Sunday and was poised to outperform Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party in the number of seats won.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Japan may go Dutch with pension plan

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The high-profile battle over pension reform during the last Diet session was a rude awakening for the public, which had largely been oblivious to how precariously close the system was to collapse.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Is Pyongyang trying to win the election for the coalition?

North Korea's surprise live broadcast Friday of Hitomi Soga's kin at Pyongyang airport may constitute another indication that the country is apparently trying to back Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration ahead of Sunday's House of Councilors election, government officials claimed.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Civil servants now face performance-related pay

The National Personnel Authority, the government body that supervises public servants, has decided to introduce a performance-based wage system for civil servants, abolishing automatic annual wage hikes based on seniority, government officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2004

Machinery order results for May raise hopes for quarter

Core private-sector machinery orders marked a smaller-than-expected fall of 2.1 percent in May from the previous month, stirring hopes of good results for the April-June quarter, the government said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2004

DPJ rethinks New Komeito alliance

The Democratic Party of Japan is reconsidering its plan to form an alliance with New Komeito to gain power, DPJ lawmakers said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2004

Former U.N. bureaucrat wants bigger SDF role

The Self-Defense Forces should be allowed to maintain security in conflict zones, even if those activities are not authorized by the United Nations, former U.N. undersecretary general Yasushi Akashi said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2004

Private-sector exec's appointment seen as last-ditch attempt by LDP

In another apparent effort to win support for the ruling coalition before Sunday's election, the government said Tuesday it will appoint a private-sector executive as head of the Social Insurance Agency.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2004

Defense report pats SDF on the back for Iraq duty

The Self-Defense Forces troops deployed in Iraq have served Japan's national interests, strengthened the Japan-U.S. alliance and enabled the nation to carry out its responsibilities as a member of the international community, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said in an annual agency report released...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 6, 2004

Barely managing

In a country with few real careers for women, a job in an energetic internationally-oriented service industry would surely be a dream come true for many.
JAPAN / ELECTION '04
Jul 3, 2004

Pension issue strikes chord with voters

It's always tough to draw the attention of apathetic voters when stumping.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2004

'Tankan' logs best reading in 13 years

Confidence at Japan's large manufacturers improved to its highest level in 13 years in the three months to June, underlining the most powerful economic recovery since the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, according to the Bank of Japan's key business survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2004

SDF striving to become global partner

Among the 550 Ground Self-Defense Force troops in the first deployment to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah were five men in green fatigues armed with musical instruments.
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2004

Postal services effort to get more staff

The government will boost the number of people working for the office in charge of privatizing Japan's postal services to around 80 by late July, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2004

Bringing science and society closer

The connection between science and technology, on the one hand, and our daily life, on the other, is growing closer and increasingly wide-ranging. To see that relationship, we have only to think of the example of advanced medicine, in which information and images obtained via cell phones or the Internet...
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2004

Manufacturers foresee big capital spending rise

A strong business outlook has translated into a 19.8 percent year-on-year rise in fiscal 2004 spending forecasts for manufacturers, according to a government survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2004

Nakagawa confirms existence of China gas project complex

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa on Wednesday confirmed that a complex tied to a natural gas project being carried out by a Chinese consortium has been built near Japan's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, government sources said.
Japan Times
Features
Jun 20, 2004

Japan's war machine that isn't

In March 1999, when P-3C Orion aircraft from the Maritime Self-Defense Force dropped warning bombs near two suspicious trawlers in the Sea of Japan, it was the first time weapons had been used "in anger" by any SDF unit. The action followed the MSDF receiving its first-ever Cabinet order permitting it...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2004

Reconciliation under house arrest

Defying international opinion, Myanmar's military government continues to rule the country with an iron hand. It is hard to understand why the ruling generals, despite their increasing isolation at home and abroad, maintain such a hardline stance. They should know that genuine democratic reform is the...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2004

Strike a balance on defense

As the Self-Defense Forces prepare to greet the 50th anniversary of their founding next month, the prime minister's advisory panel on security and defense is updating Japan's "national defense program outline."
Japan Times
Features
Jun 13, 2004

Sea changes on sex crime

Tokyo office worker Kyoko Igarashi, in her 20s and living alone, noticed that a man who'd been hanging around her neighborhood had started to loiter outside the door of her second-floor apartment -- just beyond the peep-hole.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2004

Experts warn that Japan isn't out of deflationary woods just yet

Although wholesale prices have logged their highest rise in almost seven years and Japan's economy logged an annualized growth rate of more than 6 percent in the first quarter, some experts are skeptical that the nation is winning its long battle with deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2004

Australians sense vulnerability

SYDNEY -- How safe is sleepy Australia from terror within? Very unsafe, it seems, from the belated jailing of the first person convicted under Canberra's new antiterror laws. Moreover, if it takes four years after Australian police were warned about him to catch this convert to Islam and would-be bomber,...
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2004

3 trillion yen target set for tax transfer to regions

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki and home affairs chief Taro Aso agreed Wednesday to set a target of transferring 3 trillion yen in tax revenue sources from the national government to local governments between April 2005 and 2007.

Longform

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