Politics & Diplomacy
Hashimoto to retract sex suggestion for U.S. military
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto aims to retract his remark that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa should use the local adult entertainment industry to avoid committing sex crimes.
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 6, 2008
G8 blind to Africa's true needs, farmer says
by Janice Tang
Zambian farmer Joyce Mwanje landed in Japan after a long journey across half the globe, leaving her husband and seven children to tend to the fields where they till the land with hand hoes to grow maize, soybeans, vegetables and other crops. But Mwanje ...
Business | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 5, 2008
Leaders to face worst economic outlook in decade
by Malcolm Foster
SAPPORO (AP) Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that’s depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week. The outlook has ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 4, 2008
NGOs worried Africa will get short shrift
by Akemi Nakamura
When the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama drew to a close May 30, Sayaka Funada-Classen, leader of a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization, felt the years of engagement with the government had partly paid off. That was because Japan promised a significant ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 4, 2008
Japan scrambling for any summit progress
by Reiji Yoshida
With only a few days to go until the Group of Eight summit gets under way in Hokkaido, Japanese diplomats were still struggling to find ways to achieve progress — no matter how small — over last year’s G8 gathering. The central issue this ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 3, 2008
Persistent Japan green tech leader
by Hiroko Nakata
A technology that originates from an invention by Thomas Edison in the 19th century — a bulb filament made of carbonated bamboo — is now considered one of the keys to curbing global warming. Today, the extremely thin fiber is made of carbonated acrylic ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 2, 2008
Talks may heat up and go nowhere but global warming isn't waiting
by Jun Hongo
Eleven of the 12 years between 1995 and 2006 ranked among the 12 warmest years since 1850, and since 1993 the global sea level has risen by an annual rate of 3.1 mm. The average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere in the second half ...
Business | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 1, 2008
G8 leaders to urge more nuke plants
The Group of Eight leaders will agree at their summit next week on a new initiative to expand civilian use of atomic power to curb global warming with the principles of ensuring nonproliferation, safety and nuclear security, according to a draft of a postsummit ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 1, 2008
Academics talk going green in light of G8
The G8 University Summit began Monday discussing ways universities can help achieve eco-friendly and sustainable global development. The two-day gathering at a Sapporo hotel, drawing officials of 34 universities from 14 countries, including the Group of Eight major powers plus Tokyo-based United Nations University, ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 1, 2008
Foreign reporters covering G8 face harassment: media group
by Jun Hongo
When Chu Hoi Dick arrived at Narita International Airport last Thursday to cover events related to next week’s Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, he never imagined it would take nearly 20 hours to clear Immigration and set foot on Japanese soil. “We ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jul 1, 2008
¥60 billion G8 budget draws flak
by Takahiro Fukada
Japan plans to spend more than ¥60 billion in taxpayer money to host next week’s Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido and related events, prompting some to question if that sum could better be used to alleviate the national health-care and social welfare crises. ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jun 30, 2008
U.N. chief calls for leadership on setting midterm emissions cuts
by Eric Johnston
KYOTO — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said Sunday that while long-term goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are important, it is more critical that a post-Kyoto Protocol treaty with midterm targets be concluded in Copenhagen by next year. But he warned there ...
National | G8 COUNTDOWN Jun 28, 2008
Verifying North report crucial: G8
by Reiji Yoshida and Eric Johnston
KYOTO — The Group of Eight foreign ministers ended their meeting Friday in Kyoto by stressing the importance of ensuring that North Korea abandons its nuclear activities. “We have agreed that firm verification of the nuclear declaration is needed,” Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, who ...