Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expresses his resolve at a meeting with Okinawa officials to allocate as much money as possible in next year’s budget to promote the prefecture’s economy.
The Abe administration said Tuesday it intends to boost military spending by 5 percent over the next five years, including a hardware splurge that will beef up defense of far-flung islands amid the Senkaku row with China. The Cabinet of hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo ...
The initial general-account budget for fiscal 2014, which starts April 1, is likely to total a record-high ¥96 trillion, according to government sources. The Cabinet planned to approve the fiscal 2014 draft budget Tuesday, after making arrangements with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed ...
Japan and Vietnam agree to discuss sending Japanese patrol ships to help the Vietnam coast guard counter China’s growing claims in the South China Sea.
Japan and Cambodia agreed Sunday to advance defense cooperation between and upgrade bilateral relations to a “strategic partnership.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen oversaw the signing in Tokyo by their defense ministers of a memorandum of understanding concerning the ...
Japan announces it will provide a ¥10.46 billion aid package to Laos to help it complete an airport and build other infrastructure.
The special session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that took place in Tokyo on Saturday was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Japan’s diplomatic relations with the Southeast Asian countries. But media attention has been dominated on themes involving one country ...
Journalist Toshihiro Yamanaka characterizes the TPP talks as "the most secretive trade negotiations to take place since the end of the 19th century," an observation supported by classified documents recently released by WikiLeaks showing how the U.S. is pressuring all countries involved in TPP ...
Former U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, one of America’s most influential politicians of the late 20th century, had some sage advice for those who thought about national or international politics. “All politics,” O’Neill warned, “is local.” It’s a lesson Tokyo’s political ...
Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Saturday to bolster cooperation on ensuring “the freedom of overflight and civil aviation safety,” alluding to the risks posed by China’s new air defense identification zone over the East China Sea. In a joint statement ...
The government will promulgate the contentious state secrets law Friday, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet will be tested in its ability to create viable independent overseers to check how the state classifies and declassifies information before the law takes effect within a year.
The Abe administration says it will double agricultural exports to \1 trillion by 2020, strengthening the farm industry despite the threat of fierce competition once Japan opens its markets more to foreign products under free trade accords.
