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JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 14, 2012

Older voter glut helps politicians avoid long-range problems

Japan faces structural problems that threaten future generations, including snowballing government debt, swelling social security costs, a low birthrate and a rapidly aging population.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Dec 13, 2012

Significant leap for Pyongyang missile tech

North Korea's successful launch of a long-range rocket, in the face of international opposition, indicates Pyongyang has taken a major step in its effort to develop a missile capable of reaching the U.S. West Coast, which would give the hermit nation a significant bargaining chip to use against Washington....
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2012

North Korea remains defiant

North Korea on Wednesday morning launched a long-range multistage rocket and claims to have put a satellite into orbit. In a preliminary assessment, the United States also said that an object carried by the rocket went into orbit. Pyongyang's action must be condemned in the strongest terms. It ignored...
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2012

Changing how Japan is governed

One reason for the Democratic Party of Japan's victory in the 2009 Lower House election was its call for stronger devolution. Apparently taking a cue from the DPJ's gains three years ago, many political parties now call for establishing a doshu system, which would divide Japan into several administrative...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2012

Kan's plight encapsulates DPJ's plunge from grace since '09

Two days into the campaign for the Lower House election, former Prime Minister Naoto Kan made a stump speech last Thursday at Fuchu Station in his western Tokyo constituency.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 11, 2012

Is Shintaro Ishihara the most dangerous man in Japan? Readers discuss

Parallels with wartime general
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 11, 2012

Some election campaign rules outdated, quirky

From Hokkaido to Okinawa Prefecture, 1,504 candidates are campaigning for the 480 seats up for grabs in Sunday's Lower House election.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 11, 2012

'Changed' Abe makes case for fresh chance

In an article published Monday in the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine, Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe apologized for abandoning the prime ministership a year into his term in 2007 but insisted he is a changed man and deserving of another chance.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 7, 2012

Many voices but no clear messages

With so many parties — and their seemingly mix-and-match policy positions — vying in the Dec. 16 Lower House election, voters are facing a difficult choice. Even so, all the sudden mergers and policy rejiggering suggest the new parties would be no better than their predecessors at breaking the tradition...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2012

Aimless Romney tends wounds in seclusion

The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 2, 2012

Abe's rightism: Campaign ploy or governance plan?

The main election slogan of the Liberal Democratic Party, which polls say will prevail in the Dec. 16 general election, is "Restoring Japan," underlining its determination to reclaim the power it lost three years ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Nov 27, 2012

I have a dream: a 'young first' Japan that works for all

It is a political season. Barack Obama was recently re-elected president of the United States, China has anointed Xi Jinping as its new leader, and Japanese politicians are jockeying for position in advance of a general election to be held on Dec. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2012

Something new for China?

Political leadership transitions typically signal either a change in direction or continuity. But the mere prospect of such a transition usually postpones some important political decisions and freezes some economic activity, pending the resolution of the accompanying uncertainty.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Nov 24, 2012

U.S. ties depend on Tokyo's initiative, leadership

Japan-U.S. relations during the second four-year term of U.S. President Barack Obama will depend much on the stability of political leadership in Tokyo, a leading American expert on Japan said during a recent seminar in Tokyo.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight