Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
The Democratic Party of Japan, which suffered a severe setback in the Dec. 16 Lower House election, on Feb. 24 held a party convention aimed at laying the foundation for its resuscitation. Although it adopted a party platform and a seven-point declaration, it is ...
The Democratic Party of Japan together with the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito on Tuesday passed through the Lower House bills for the so-called unified reform of the tax and social security systems. In the voting for a bill to raise the consumption tax ...
The Supreme Court in March 2011 ruled that the 2009 Lower House election, which brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power, was held in an unconstitutional state because of great disparity in the value of a vote between depopulated rural areas and populated ...
The Diet on June 20 enacted a law to establish a nuclear regulatory commission. If the new body is established, it will end the current system, in which the authorities promoting nuclear power generation and the authorities regulating it are virtually integrated in the ...
Because of a deal between the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, bills incorporating Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s plan to raise the consumption tax are likely to be passed by the end of the current Diet session, ...
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Los Cabos, Mexico, prior to the Group of 20 summit and they agreed to “reactivate” talks on the long-standing territorial dispute over the Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan islands ...
The ruling and opposition parties have respectively submitted bills designed to allow prefectures and other local governments to set up “special wards” — similar to those that exist in Tokyo — to the Diet. Behind this is a move by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, ...
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the two main opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, on Friday reached a basic agreement on raising the consumption tax. Although the tax raise is coupled with reform of the social security system, the agreement ...
The drafting of a bill to transfer the functions of regional bureaus of three central government ministries to federations of local governments is being delayed due to resistance from the ministries concerned and some Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers. Associations of city, town and ...
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled his Cabinet Monday — the second in nine months. His aim is clear: removing obstacles — Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka and infrastructure and transport minister Takeshi Maeda — to facilitate negotiations with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito ...
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa met on Wednesday to discuss Mr. Noda’s plan to raise the consumption tax from the current 5 percent to 8 percent from April 2014, and to 10 percent from October 2015. ...
It was reported Monday that Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ships and naval ships of the United States and a few other countries fired at and sank a decommissioned U.S. Navy ship during an exercise off Hawaii in July 2010. Apparently this was an exercise ...
