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Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Fujii tells hearing he's being axed over politics

Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii blasted transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara in a hearing Friday for trying to sack him for what he called political motives.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2003

Beijing's political reform has yet to get off the ground

EDMONTON, Canada -- While China is celebrating the successful launch of its first manned spacecraft into orbit, there is indication that its political reform program is grounded for now.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2003

Japan praises China's spaceflight

Government officials, astronomers and other interested parties in Japan welcomed China's success in putting a manned spacecraft into orbit Wednesday, though some fretted over its military and diplomatic implications.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2003

South Africa's challenge

We were in Pretoria in August. That month, a baby, its mother and grandmother were shot to death and their car stolen; a man visited his wife in the hospital only to be "carjacked" and shot dead when he came back to the car park; a woman was critically wounded when she was shot in her car as she visited...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2003

47 lawmakers decide to call it quits

With the dissolution Friday of the House of Representatives in the leadup to a general election in early November, 47 Lower House members have announced their intention to retire from politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2003

Charming the IMF in Dubai

HONG KONG -- James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, made the most powerful speech of his career at the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund in Dubai last month. It was full of sharp sound bites driving toward a vital central theme that Wolfensohn enunciated...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2003

Japan's diplomatic needs

In his second Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retained both Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba. This promises continuity in Japan's foreign and defense policy, at least for the next three years in which Koizumi is likely to serve as...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Tanaka delays declaring, disappointing supporters

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, despite the strong urging of her supporters, stopped short Sunday of officially announcing her candidacy in a general election to be held in November.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Japan's priority: offsetting pull toward jobless recovery

U.S. President George W. Bush's military unilateralism has destabilized the world order to such an extent that, facing a dearth of low-risk, high-return investments, Western investors have descended on the Japanese stock market.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

SDP's scandal-hit Tsujimoto rules out run for old Diet seat

Kiyomi Tsujimoto, an outspoken former opposition lawmaker indicted on charges of defrauding the state, indicated Saturday that she will not stand in the House of Representatives election expected to be called next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 5, 2003

World's first ghetto is a place apart

Mention Venice, and thoughts inevitably turn to St. Mark's Square and the golden mosaics of the basilica there, the Ca' d'Oro palazzo with its view over the Grand Canal, or a handful of other great landmarks that recall the cultural vibrancy of this once-independent city-state that dominated Mediterranean...
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2003

Angst builds over next round with North

Japanese diplomacy appears to be in a lull with the situation in Asia centered on the problem with North Korea. Immediately after the six-nation talks were held in the first half of September, reports from Moscow suggested that the next round of six-nation talks would take place in Beijing in early November....
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2003

Cooperative Ukraine left out in the cold

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration continues to press for assistance from other nations in Iraq, but without notable success. Both Germany and Russia now indicate a willingness to help, but not with troops. Said Russian President Vladimir Putin in advance of his summit with his American counterpart...
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2003

DPJ's uphill road to power

The birth of the new Democratic Party of Japan -- the largest opposition party to debut since 1994 -- promises to create more constructive tension in Japanese politics. The DPJ, which has absorbed the smaller Liberal Party, is looking to the coming general election as an opportunity to snatch power from...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Peruvians divided over Fujimori

OSAKA -- With Japan facing mounting international pressure to extradite disgraced former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, the nation's Peruvian community is divided on the matter.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2003

Business lobby looks to guide party donors

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) unveiled a 10-point policy priority list Thursday for member firms to use to gauge how political parties pursue reforms, including a corporate tax cut and consumption tax hike.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2003

Lee's intensity hardly dulled by age

HONG KONG -- A rare and remarkable Asian leader passed a milestone on Sept. 16. Former Singapore Prime Minister, now Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew celebrated his 80th birthday. He has been running Singapore, in substance if not in title, since his People's Action Party swept the polls in 1959.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2003

Confessions of a foreign correspondent

These are not happy times for people who make a living writing about Japan. With the country apparently having become, as one magazine put it, the "Switzerland of Asia," i.e., rich but boring, foreign newspapers are shuttering their Tokyo bureaus as fast as they can move their correspondents to cover...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2003

Profiles of top LDP executives

Following are profiles of the three Liberal Democratic Party executives appointed Sunday by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a shakeup of the LDP executive lineup:
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2003

Decentralization will finish road to democracy in Japan

Some independent or reformist prefectural governors have come out with their own plans to revitalize local politics and economies. Their ultimate goal is to end the centralization of administrative power that dates back to the Meiji Restoration and establish real local autonomy. To achieve the goal,...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2003

LDP election contenders struggle on despite forecasts of Koizumi victory

The three contenders facing off against incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race battled on Friday, the final day before the vote, despite widespread forecasts that they would lose by a wide margin.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2003

Economic policies confused

In his campaign for re-election as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has made much of the current mild economic revival. He sees it as vindicating his economic policies.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

From West to East: Ian Buruma casts his light on the making of modern Japan

INVENTING JAPAN: 1853-1964, by Ian Buruma. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, 194 pp., $19.95, (cloth). This is a satisfying hors d'oeuvre that awakens readers' intellects while whetting their appetite for more substantial fare. It is a quirky, opinionated and selective narrative redolent of what is...
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2003

Political donations sink to record low

Political donations plunged to a record-low 24.3 billion yen in 2002, down 24 percent from the previous year in a reflection of the ongoing economic slump, according to a government report released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2003

LDP race should enliven policy debate

Campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party's Sept. 20 presidential election started on Monday with three men challenging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The winner will become the prime minister, since the LDP holds a majority in the Lower House. The next president, who has an extended term of three...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

Koizumi comes up with a faction all his own

The 20 endorsements Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi collected to cement his candidacy in the LDP presidential election underscore his tendency to operate outside factional lines.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

Contenders for LDP president's crown

Shizuka Kamei For 66-year-old former LDP policy chief Shizuka Kamei, the past 2 1/2 years have been filled with betrayal and frustration.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2003

Ishihara could form new party if Koizumi loses

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is likely to form a new political party should Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lose in the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, Ishihara's son said Sunday.

Longform

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