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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan failed again Thursday to coax indicted Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa into leaving the DPJ. In their 50-minute meeting, Kan asked Ozawa to relinquish his membership in the DPJ and to wait until a ruling is handed down ...
Sports minister Yoshiaki Takaki told the Diet on Thursday that three people in the sumo world have admitted bout-fixing, further disgracing the Japan Sumo Association and jeopardizing its status as a certified public interest corporation. Takaki told a Diet committee that Hanaregoma, chairman of ...
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday defended his remarks on the downgrade of Japan’s sovereign credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, saying he had yet to be informed of the news when he said he was “not familiar with the matter.” Kan’s remark Thursday ...
Senior opposition lawmakers demanded Thursday that Ichiro Ozawa testify under oath in the Diet over his alleged involvement in falsifying political funding reports. During a meeting of secretaries general and Diet affairs chiefs of both the ruling and opposition parties, Democratic Party of Japan ...
Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki pledged Sunday at his party’s annual convention to lead the fight to corner the ruling Democratic Party of Japan into dissolving the Lower House for a snap election. “This year’s goal is to drive the DPJ into a ...
An official prediction released Friday points to harder fiscal challenges ahead, with the combined primary budget balance deficit of the central and local governments predicted to grow to ¥23.2 trillion in fiscal 2020, ¥1.5 trillion more than was estimated in June. Prime Minister Naoto ...
Tax and social welfare reforms will be the administration’s priority this year, according to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. But a chasm has already emerged between the ruling and opposition camps, as well as between Kaoru Yosano, the new welfare reform and fiscal policy minister, ...
Key Cabinet ministers agreed Wednesday to map out comprehensive proposals on social welfare and tax reforms, with an eye to hiking the sales levy, by June as they met for the first time to explore ways to cope with the problems of a rapidly ...
Yoshito Sengoku, who was replaced as chief Cabinet secretary in Friday’s reshuffle, voiced frustration Monday with media reports portraying him as the power behind the throne in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. “(The media) like to put a label on me. Why do ...
Despite Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s pledge to create the “best lineup to overcome the crisis,” political pundits were skeptical that replacing Yoshito Sengoku with Yukio Edano as chief Cabinet secretary and taking on outsider Kaoru Yosano will help his team solve the ruling party’s ...
CHIBA — Prime Minister Naoto Kan was rumored Thursday to have two key changes in mind for his looming Cabinet reshuffle, sources said. One will replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku with his Democratic Party of Japan’s deputy secretary general, Yukio Edano. The other ...
Working mother Gudrun Skuladottir appreciates her life in Sweden, where her two small children can receive a good education for free. “In Sweden, schools are free. University is also free,” Skuladottir, 29, who works on a bank management support team in Stockholm, said in ...