Will too many cooks spoil the broth? According to government sources, Japan and South Korea have selected members of a joint study panel that will look into the possibility of tying the two countries via a bilateral free-trade agreement, or FTA. The panel is scheduled to ...
When they met during an international business conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan in March, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Chinese counterpart, Zhu Rongji, agreed to inaugurate a high-level comprehensive forum for dialogue on economic topics. But more than two months later, ...
Japan and the United States will expand cooperation in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism to include closer aid-policy coordination for Afghanistan and other strategically important countries, government sources said Thursday. Top-level aid officials from the two countries — by far the world's largest aid donors ...
Banana paper may provide cash-strapped Caribbean countries with the best hope for a brighter future. Nine youths from Haiti, Jamaica, St. Vincent and Suriname are now visiting Japan at the invitation of the government to receive training in the utilization of banana fiber for making ...
Officials from six international organizations are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on a low-profile -- but nevertheless significant -- mission that could affect the course of future farm trade liberalization negotiations. The mission, mandated by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization's ministers in ...
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Japan has been forced to review its diplomatic strategy for gaining a long-coveted permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The first obvious result of this review has been Japan's ...
Japan and France will launch full-scale negotiations as early as the fall on the conclusion of a social welfare pact, government sources said Friday. The countries have already held several rounds of preparatory talks on the agreement, which would seek to prevent the double collection ...
With the clock ticking on the end-of-June deadline for a final agreement, the world's major industrialized countries appear to be nearing a compromise on fresh funding for the International Development Association. According to international financial sources, Japan, the United States and major European countries are ...
After nearly three years of preliminary research, Japan will dispatch a mission of aid experts to Cuba as early as this summer to begin full-scale work on the development of a project to clean up heavily polluted Havana Bay, government sources said Tuesday. The mission ...
In a rather belated move aimed at giving the languishing Japanese economy a badly needed shot in the arm, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's key economic panel has put yet another sacred cow on its reform agenda: agriculture. At a meeting earlier this month of the ...
