Search - cabinet

 
 
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2003

No law to aid North Korea escapees: Abe

The government is not likely to enact a law to provide support for Japanese women who flee North Korea, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

How long must the guilty wait to hang?

Sentenced to death for killing a farmer to claim an insurance payout in 1963, Tsuneki Tomiyama played his last card in early December when he and his support group filed a clemency plea.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Bond buying spree expected to continue

The recent buying spree of Japanese government bonds that has pushed the key long-term interest rate to a record low will continue for at least several months, as an end to the deflationary trend is nowhere in sight, economists and analysts say.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Jobless rate returns to 5.5%

A drain on retail and restaurant jobs that hit women particularly hard pushed the unemployment rate in December back up to a record 5.5 percent for the third time in a year.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

Kawaguchi criticizes Iraq over violations

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi condemned Iraq on Friday for failing for more than a decade to carry out its obligations under United Nations resolutions, and urged Baghdad to clear suspicions over its possession of weapons of mass destruction.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Key consumer-prices gauge slides for third consecutive year

The key gauge of consumer prices fell a record 0.9 percent in 2002 for the third straight year of decline, the government said Friday in a preliminary report.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 1, 2003

Sakae Ishikawa

"Since my work is theoretical, I like to think I am part of the academic world," Sakae Ishikawa said. "Whether I can call myself a scholar or not is a delicate question."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Hiroshima island may host night drills

The government may shift noisy night-flying drills by U.S. Navy warplanes to an uninhabited island in Hiroshima Prefecture and away from the Atsugi air base in Kanagawa Prefecture, defense sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Escapee from North Korea stirs refugee debate anew

The high-profile case of a Japanese woman who returned to Japan on Wednesday after fleeing North Korea has rekindled debate over the government's lack of adequate support measures for others in similar circumstances, as well as its reluctance to accept refugees.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Ship conveyed 1974 assassination order

A North Korean ship that makes irregular visits to Japan may have been used to convey orders from Pyongyang for the attempted assassination in 1974 of then South Korean President Park Chung Hee in Seoul, sources close to police investigations said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Japan agrees with conclusion drawn by U.N. inspectors

Japan agrees with the conclusion of the United Nations inspectors that Iraq has failed to cooperate sufficiently with their probe into its suspected weapons of mass destruction program.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Panel members at odds over Monju ruling

Members of the Atomic Energy Commission on Tuesday voiced mixed views over a high court ruling the previous day that nullified the government's approval in 1983 of the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2003

Court sends LDP a message

Two recent moves by judiciary and law-enforcement authorities are a grave warning against the Liberal Democratic Party's pork-barrel politics. One is the Supreme Court rejection of an appeal by former Construction Minister Kishiro Nakamura against a Tokyo High Court ruling that found him guilty of taking...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Protection of asylum seekers confirmed

Japan has placed under its protective custody dozens of people who have fled North Korea, including Japanese spouses of Koreans and former Korean residents of Japan, a senior Foreign Ministry official told the Diet on Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Monju ruling delights antinuclear activists

OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists were euphoric over Monday's ruling against the Monju reactor by the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court, saying the decision will have a ripple effect on similar lawsuits.
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2003

The war dead deserve better

I was stunned by news reports that Junichiro Koizumi recently made his third visit as prime minister to Yasukuni Shrine. After his two previous visits drew strong protests from China and South Korea, and after he struggled to justify the visits, officials in both countries must be amazed and angered....
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2003

Shiokawa unsure about inflation peg

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa expressed caution Sunday about adopting a strict inflation target that would set a time frame for achieving a certain price level.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2003

Koizumi shrugs off failures

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi caused a stir in the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Thursday by claiming his breaches of three key policy pledges were "no big deal."
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2003

Sick U.S. official cancels meetings

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton canceled his meetings Thursday with Japanese officials due to illness, according to Foreign Ministry officials.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2003

The next BOJ governor

The Bank of Japan's governor, Mr. Masaru Hayami, is to retire in late March when his five-year term expires. At the moment, who will succeed him is a matter of speculation. There is no question, however, that the next governor will face the same difficult challenge that has confronted the outgoing governor:...
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2003

Inflation-targeting: facts behind the hyperbole

Academics, central bankers and politicians are divided over the issue currently occupying the center stage of public debate: a monetary policy tool known as inflation-targeting.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2003

Genome research council launched

A council tasked with promoting genome research in the Tokyo area was launched Wednesday, seeking to make the capital an international center for genome-based life sciences.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2003

Japanese re-enters country after escaping North Korea

The adult child of a Japanese woman who accompanied her Korean husband to North Korea decades ago under a repatriation program secretly entered Japan last summer with the help of the Japanese government, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2003

Koizumi cautious on inflation target

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed caution Tuesday about the Bank of Japan adopting an inflation target to fight deflation at a two-day policy meeting that began the same day.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2003

Kawaguchi plans visit to Okinawa

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday she will visit Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine on Feb. 2 to introduce newly appointed Ambassador to Okinawa Sadaaki Numata.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2003

Economy, foreign attack bills lead new Diet session

The Diet convened its 156th session Monday, with the economy and a set of bills to give the government more powers in the event of an attack topping the agenda.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2003

Japan backs U.S. plan on North Korea

Japan reiterated its support Monday for a U.S. plan to strike a new deal with Pyongyang that would replace a 1994 U.S.-North Korea agreement for the North to scrap its nuclear development program.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2003

The folly of inflation targets

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said recently the next governor of the Bank of Japan must take aggressive action to fight deflation, giving rise to expectations of inflation targeting among government and ruling coalition officials. I doubt, however, that inflation targeting will cure deflation. In...

Longform

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