For Hisane Masaki's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A recent resurgence of terrorist attacks by suspected Islamic radicals in Algeria and its surrounding areas has dealt a blow to resource-poor Japan's efforts to lubricate long-creaky relations with the oil-and-gas rich North African country. Since taking office nearly three years ago, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ...
Japan and Mexico should begin formal negotiations as soon as possible on concluding a comprehensive pact aimed at shoring up a bilateral economic partnership, including a free-trade agreement. This will be a conclusion of a long-awaited study report to be released later this week, which ...
Widely known as a feverish operagoer, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may politely but disappointingly tell an exasperated Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, "Please wait patiently until the fat lady sings." The two wouldn't be talking about an opera, of course, but about a free-trade agreement that ...
To go or not to go -- that may be the question for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Earlier this year, Koizumi declared his intention to join other world leaders at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. But concerns within the government about Koizumi's planned trip ...
The World Trade Organization has yet to come up with a ruling on a steel dispute between the United States and an unprecedented number of economies, betraying initial expectations such a move would come as early as May. The delayed interim ruling on the legality ...
In what may be somewhat disappointing news for the domestic power industry, Japan will not be able to sign a long-awaited nuclear energy treaty with the European Union at a regular summit next month. When the landmark treaty, which is aimed at promoting cooperation in ...
Amid a rapid easing of political tension in Myanmar, a key joint economic panel of Japanese and Myanmar government officials and private-sector experts will hold what is supposed to be its last meeting next month. According to government sources, the joint panel will meet in ...
Japan may be replaced by Germany as the world's second-largest aid donor in 2006, only five years after losing to the United States its long-held status as No. 1, according to a Foreign Ministry document obtained Tuesday by The Japan Times. The document, a position ...
Japan and the United States are considering convening separate international environmental meetings on water and energy problems in the leadup to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, government sources said Friday. The sources said the meetings will be held in the summer either in Japan ...
Ecuador trade chief Richard Moss' eight-day visit to Japan beginning June 23 will be a sentimental journey. Moss, who last visited Japan in March with President Gustavo Noboa, will make the trip to hold talks with government and business leaders on ways to boost bilateral ...
