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EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2012

Much to learn from crisis report

A report made public Feb. 27 by a private-sector independent panel set up by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation reveals in detail how the government handled the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2012

How to push reform forward

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has stated he would stake his political life on realizing integrated reform of the tax and social security systems. Japan's financial structure is worse than those of other advanced countries and even that of Greece, which was responsible for the euro crisis. Therefore it...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2012

Pragmatic Islamists of the Maghreb countries

Just over a year ago, the Arab Spring sparked dramatic change throughout the Arab world. Popular movements have brought a range of avowedly Islamist political parties to power, replacing the largely secular former regimes. What that will mean for these countries, and for the region, is one of today's...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Jan 28, 2012

Okada: Officialdom must sacrifice to sell tax hike

Winning the public's support to hike the consumption tax is the government's priority as their backing would force opposition parties to drop their stance against tax reforms, new Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada said.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2012

Talks to start on lowering voting age

The government will start talks next month on lowering the voting age from 20 to 18, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Noda team faces rocky Diet session

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says his partially reshuffled Cabinet is the best lineup ever, but it will need to be to face the turbulence expected in the Diet session that started Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2012

Noda to DPJ: Focus Diet on reforms

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called for support from his Democratic Party of Japan colleagues Monday to back his planned reform of the social security and tax systems and urged unity to weather what looks to be a stormy Diet session starting in a week.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2012

Machinery orders climb 14.8% as firms stay optimistic on investment

Machinery orders rebounded in November, signaling that companies are willing to invest even as the yen remains strong and the global economy slows.
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2012

GDP shrank last quarter on Europe debt woes: JCER

The rebound from the March 11 disasters was probably cut short in the fourth quarter as the impact of Europe's crisis outweighed the support from reconstruction spending.
JAPAN / NUCLEAR AWAKENING
Jan 3, 2012

Fukushima meltdowns set nuclear energy debate on its ear

The Fukushima nuclear crisis changed the national debate over energy policy almost overnight.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2011

DPJ members bolt party over Noda tax plan

In a show of defiance against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's policies, in particular a plan to raise the consumption tax, nine Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers submitted their resignations Wednesday to protest Noda's leadership.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2011

Conflict over handling nuclear crisis revealed

Masao Yoshida, general manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, believed the worst-case scenario — the "China syndrome" — might be near and he braced for death during the late-night hours of March 14, three days after the crisis started.
JAPAN / Media
Dec 25, 2011

The aftershocks of 2011 will be felt for many years to come

We made history this year. They'll be writing about 2011 a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now, seeing it more clearly than we can. We're too close for a proper perspective. We know what it feels like — not yet what it means.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2011

Ichikawa, Yamaoka censured in Diet

The Upper House passed nonbinding censure motions Friday against Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa and consumers affairs minister Kenji Yamaoka, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration on the last day of the extraordinary Diet session.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person