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JAPAN
Nov 27, 2004

34 sectors' CO 2 output up 1%: industry lobby

Carbon dioxide emissions from Japan's 34 major industrial sectors rose 1 percent in fiscal 2003 from the previous year to 502.39 million tons, for a second straight yearly rise, the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

WMD revelation has Japan scrambling for new excuses

The United States' recent conclusion that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has raised the question of whether Japan will now face up to the facts.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2004

Carbon tax should target users, not providers: official

Any new carbon tax should be imposed on consumers of fossil fuels, not their importers and processors, a senior Environment Ministry official indicated Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

U.S. forces chief defends right to bar cops from crash probe

The U.S. Forces Japan commander on Thursday defended the U.S. handling of the probe into the marine helicopter crash in Okinawa and refusal to allow local police to participate.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

U.S. forces chief defends right to bar cops from crash probe

The U.S. Forces Japan commander on Thursday defended the U.S. handling of the probe into the marine helicopter crash in Okinawa and refusal to allow local police to participate.
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2004

Global warming remains the deadliest foe

LONDON -- Perhaps philosophers have a name for it -- this modern phenomenon of continuing to enjoy life in a way that we know is leading to destruction because we feel that there is nothing we can do about it anyway.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

Kamei blasts IWC over its 'rigidity'

Yoshiyuki Kamei, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said Friday he was disappointed that the International Whaling Commission rejected a number of Japanese proposals at its annual meeting.
Japan Times
Features
May 23, 2004

Power and the People

North Korea is not the only country casting a long nuclear shadow over Japan and America. The citizens of both nations are right now under threat from precarious atomic programs -- ones which are being forced on them by their own governments.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Scrap rat-on-foreigners Web site: Hyogo

KOBE -- Hyogo Prefecture has become the first local government to call on the Justice Ministry to abolish a contentious Web site that asks Japanese to report via e-mail any foreigners they suspect to be illegal aliens.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2004

Stomach to cut government

LONDON -- A British government review, to be published shortly, has apparently suggested that some 80,000 civil service jobs could be cut and up to £14.5 billion ($28 billion) could be saved by 2007 if recommendations such as "streamlining" back-office functions and raising productivity in education,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2004

Revise the antimonopoly law

Experts agree that Japan must strengthen its Antimonopoly Act, push deregulation to promote economic reform, reactivate its sluggish economy and protect consumer interests.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2004

Koizumi OKs dispatch of main GSDF unit

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gave the final go-ahead Monday for the main contingent of Ground Self-Defense Force troops to be deployed to Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2004

Prospects dim for wage round

Japan's economy is showing increasing signs of recovery, yet there is nothing to cheer about concerning the job situation as labor and management brace for what promises to be yet another difficult bargaining season. Once again, wage restraint will be the main theme of negotiation in spring 2004.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2003

Diplomat deaths may stall approval of SDF dispatch

Cabinet approval of a plan to dispatch Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq will probably be delayed until next week at the earliest, in the wake of the fatal ambush Saturday of two Japanese diplomats.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 30, 2003

Our oceans' ecology is all at sea

For many years, I have been attempting to inform people that our life-supporting oceanic wildlife is being rapidly destroyed by human misuse and overuse.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2003

'Preemptive' bailout system in doubt

For at least the past six months, the Financial System Council, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has tackled a delicate question: Is it necessary to create a system for bailing out banks "preemptively" so that the government can supply cash to lenders with potential problems? The...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2003

End North Korea's drug-trade addiction

HONOLULU -- The recent seizure of the ship Pong Su off Australia and its cargo of more than $144 million of heroin has put North Korea's drug trafficking in the international spotlight. The attention is long overdue. There must be a strong response by the international community and concerted efforts...
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2003

Tax system for an aging society

With Japanese society aging rapidly, what kind of tax reform is needed to cover soaring social security costs? The government's tax panel answer is that taxpayers must assume a greater burden. In a report presented to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last week, the Tax Commission called for raising personal-income...
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2003

Trust in tatters

We've known all along we shouldn't believe everything we read in the newspapers, but this is getting ridiculous. First came the double blow to the credibility of the New York Times -- America's oft-proclaimed "paper of record" -- by disgraced reporters Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2003

Victim of prison guards angry at being ignored

After witnessing guards at Nagoya Prison frequently bullying inmates -- particularly the elderly or physically disabled -- a male prisoner sent a written complaint in October 2000 to then Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

Foreign Ministry unveils reform plan

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday unveiled a final reorganization report under which its consular department will be upgraded to a bureau.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2003

Gap unit collared for 16.8 billion yen in tax evasion

Gap International BV, a subsidiary of U.S. casual wear maker Gap Inc., failed to report around 16.8 billion yen in income from Gap's Japan subsidiary, sources said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2002

The larger, the better?

Japan has about 3,200 cities, towns and villages. The government and the Liberal Democratic Party, among others, think that is too many. They believe that small districts should be consolidated to improve administrative efficiency so that they can better meet the diverse needs of residents.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 29, 2002

Reluctance to accept refugees draws fire

Since October last year, there have been at least 34 cases in which asylum seekers at immigration facilities purposefully injured themselves, with some even going so far as to attempt suicide, the Justice Ministry has admitted.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2002

Fading concern over HIV poses threat

Alarmed by a rapid surge in people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, health officials and experts say warnings about the importance of prevention are no longer being heard.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2002

An alphabet soup of FTAs in East Asia

CAMBRIDGE, England -- There are so many summit meetings nowadays that it is difficult to keep up. Only a week after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit finished in Mexico, East Asian governments met at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus 3 summit in Phnom Penh. ASEAN plus 3...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

In pursuit of terrorists and oil

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President George W. Bush is taking a big gamble with his single-minded mission to get rid of a toothless but unsavory dictator, who, far from being a menace to U.S. security, is not a threat even to his neighbors. Bush, who accuses Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein of being "a homicidal...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes