Search - politics

 
 
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2009

Rice to DPJ: Altering base plan ill-advised

The 2006 road map on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan was reached through complex negotiations and should not be changed unilaterally by either Tokyo or Washington, the commander of U.S. Forces in Japan told reporters Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 18, 2009

Duo weaves matchmaking magic with 'world of letters'

Dede Prabowo and Jim Wagner are telling stories about Alam Aksara, the organization that Prabowo started four years ago to find sponsors for Indonesian children who are unable to go to school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009

Enter the dance-rock dragons Shikari

"We were really worried before they came over 'cos England's so s--t," says Rob Rolfe, the drummer from British post-hardcore/metal/dance fusion band Enter Shikari of their anxieties before embarking on a 2008 tour with their friends, the Japanese punk-metal group Maximum the Hormone.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2009

Aso to call Lower House election Aug. 30

Just one day after a crushing defeat in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly race, Prime Minister Taro Aso played his ultimate trump card Monday and announced the Lower House election will be held Aug. 30 under his leadership.
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2009

Unbelievable remark on religion

Just read part of the first paragraph of Jan-Werner Mueller's July 5 article "The return of religion to Europe." Unfortunately, I could not continue after reading that "religion played virtually no role during the last American presidential election."
COMMENTARY
Jul 10, 2009

Wisdom of an Asia rising

SEOUL — According to conventional wisdom, the global economic crisis is accelerating the transfer of power and influence from the West to Asia. The United States has been particularly hard hit by the downturn and America's loss is China's gain.
JAPAN / G8 ITALY SUMMIT
Jul 8, 2009

G8 leaders' profiles

Italy Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 7, 2009

NHK a fount of info, a lot of it from the government

Sometimes compared with the British Broadcasting Corporation or America's Public Broadcasting System — and by its fiercest critics even to the state-run media in China and North Korea — NHK boasts two terrestrial television services, three satellite television services, three radio networks and the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2009

Battles with racism in India's own backyard

CHENNAI, India — It has long been known that India has its own brand of racism, manifested in a number of ways. Largely out of sight from the rest of the world, the malaise needed the gutsy chief minister of India's northeastern state of Mizoram, Pu Lalthanhawla, to get dramatic exposure.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 5, 2009

The Shanxi trilogy: films that never made it back home

Sometimes called the most significant of the current generation of Chinese film directors, Jia Zhangke (b. 1970) enjoys the distinction of never having had some of his finest work commercially shown in his own country.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2009

Those pestiferous donations

Irregularities over political donations continue to annoy main political parties. The Democratic Party of Japan was rattled by the arrest in March of then party leader Ichiro Ozawa's chief secretary on suspicion of illegally handling political donations from two political bodies linked to Nishimatsu...
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2009

LDP slams Hatoyama on funds scandal

The ruling bloc lambasted Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama over the political funds scandal he's embroiled in, but the opposition chief held his ground Thursday and said he had fulfilled his duty to explain the details.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2009

Hitachi delivers high-speed rail in U.K.

LONDON (Bloomberg) Britain's first bullet trains entered service in London this week, bringing high-speed travel to the world's oldest rail network, but government spending cuts prompted by the global recession may stunt plans to extend the project.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2009

Propeller puts an old spin back on the Bard

"Propeller may be another English group of actors doing a play by their compatriot, Shakespeare, but this is something quite different. How different? . . . Well, you will understand what I mean if you see it!"
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2009

Move reveals Aso's lack of power

Prime Minister Taro Aso's decision to bolster his depleted Cabinet appeared to be strategy as usual and his apparent inability to change the Liberal Democratic Party leadership is a sign party bigwigs still hold sway, but neither may matter in the looming general election, pundits said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2009

Aso adds to Cabinet but LDP execs stay

Prime Minister Taro Aso gave up an apparent plan to rejigger the Liberal Democratic Party's top posts Wednesday as strong opposition from LDP heavyweights only left him leeway to fill two Cabinet posts concurrently held by other ministers.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2009

Election is about local issues, not a national litmus test: Aoyama

Political parties and the media widely see the July 12 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election as the last and biggest litmus test before a Lower House election that may see the Democratic Party of Japan unseat the ruling bloc.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2009

Political clash in Iran

The situation in Iran is tense as security forces have clashed with protesters over the June 12 election whose results — announced within two hours after the polls closed — gave incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the win over Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate reform candidate.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2009

Admission of illegal donations

The hearing in the trial of Mr. Mikio Kunisawa, the former Nishimatsu Construction Co. president charged with violating the Political Funds Control Law, began and was concluded on the same day last Friday. Mr. Kunisawa, who was indicted on a charge of providing ¥5 million in illegal political donations...
COMMENTARY
Jun 24, 2009

Iraq war is a tipping point

The British are to hold an inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Iraq war, and how Britain came to be so closely involved with the Americans in the 2003 Iraq invasion.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jun 23, 2009

Vested interests to blame for reliance on imported food

Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso,
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 22, 2009

Factional beat of the LDP

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party could very well be in for a bitter power struggle among three of its principal intraparty factions following the general election expected by September. The outcome of that struggle could also be a harbinger of a broader political reorganization involving not only...
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2009

Position that should be refuted

Regarding Paul de Vries' May 26 article, "Expat life in Japan: the good, the bad and the meaningful": I have a number of concerns with this article's position that racial discrimination can be acceptable. First, "misbehaving Russian sailors" were not the ones barred from Otaru bathhouses, though that...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

Both Japan, U.S. must improve their 'soft power': experts

The world's two largest economies should reinvigorate their collaborative use of "soft power" to influence other countries as they approach a milestone year in their security alliance, participants said at a recent symposium that included key U.S. commentators on diplomacy.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years