National Topics

Koizumi takes up post for Tohoku reconstruction

by Ayako Mie

Shinjiro Koizumi’s appointment Monday as parliamentary secretary in charge of Tohoku’s recovery has generated much attention amid mounting criticism of the government for failing to speed up reconstruction efforts or end the radioactive water spill into the sea at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The 32-year-old son of popular ...

Sep 30, 2013

Japan, U.K. security wonks talk business

by Mizuho Aoki

Nearly 18 months after Japan and Britain struck a deal to jointly develop weapons and defense equipment, security experts from both nations gathered in Tokyo Monday to discuss ways to expand that to maritime security, cybersecurity and military equipment. The two-day conference on Japan-U.K. ...

Mayor of Sakai returned in fresh blow to Hashimoto

Sep 29, 2013

Mayor of Sakai returned in fresh blow to Hashimoto

Mayor Osami Takeyama’s victory Sunday in the Sakai mayoral election in Osaka Prefecture has cast a shadow over the political future of brash Nippon Ishin co-leader Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka. Takeyama, a 63-year-old independent, defeated former Sakai Assemblyman Katsutoshi Nishibayashi, his sole ...

Sep 29, 2013

'Convincing' search needed: Ishiba

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that a “convincing” effort must be made to find funds for disaster-hit Tohoku if it agrees to end the special corporate tax for reconstruction a year early. “The LDP is worried about whether it will be ...

Sep 29, 2013

Komeito fires warning shot at Abe

New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi said Sunday the debate over lifting the ban on collective self-defense may affect his party’s coalition with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who heads the conservative LDP, is intending to lift the ban by changing ...

Myanmar refugees arrive via U.N. resettlement plan

Sep 28, 2013

Myanmar refugees arrive via U.N. resettlement plan

Four families from Myanmar arrived Friday night in Tokyo on a pilot U.N. refugee resettlement program introduced in fiscal 2010. The families are from ethnic minorities in Myanmar and had been living in a refugee camp in Thailand, across the border. After a 180-day ...