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BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2012

Morgan Stanley to move Tokyo office

Morgan Stanley is planning to move its Japan operations to Tokyo's Otemachi business district because rents are "attractive," according to a recently obtained memo.
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2012

BOJ board votes to keep interest rates near zero

The Bank of Japan Policy Board unanimously agreed Tuesday to maintain the current virtually zero interest rate policy while revealing details of a new lending arrangement in dollars worth the equivalent of ¥1 trillion.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2012

Japan, U.K. agree on arms development

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and British leader David Cameron agreed Tuesday in Tokyo to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation, including joint weapons development, in what will be the first such case since Japan eased its de facto ban on arms exports.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2012

New airport management model

New Kansai International Airport Co. was established on April 1 and the operations of Kansai and Itami airports will be integrated. It is hoped that the new firm will succeed so that it can serve as a model for privatizing the operations of other airports such as Shin Chitose (Hokkaido), Sendai and Kumamoto....
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2012

Issues Mr. Noda must tackle

The ¥90.33 trillion fiscal 2012 budget was enacted April 5. If a special budget for the reconstruction of areas hit by the 3/11 triple disasters is included, its size expands to ¥93.55 trillion. Because the budget failed to be enacted by March 31, the end of fiscal 2011, the Noda administration had...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 9, 2012

Consumption tax increase: Fairness is in the eye of the beholder

How will the proposed sales tax increase really affect the average household?
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Apr 8, 2012

Japan's strong showing at worlds bodes well for future

Though much attention was placed on Mao Asada's disappointing sixth-place finish at the world championships in Nice, France, it was still a fine showing for Japan.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2012

Consumption tax tizzy

The March 30 submission to the Diet by the Noda Cabinet of a bill to raise the consumption tax from April 2014 has led some lawmakers of the ruling bloc to express their opposition to the bill. On March 29, Mr. Shizuka Kamei, head of the New People's Party, a minor party forming a coalition with the...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Mar 31, 2012

Passage hinges on Ozawa, opposition

Despite the Cabinet's approval Friday of a sales tax hike bill that sparked months of dissent and resistance from the ruling party's ranks, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may find that in the deadlocked Diet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2012

Cabinet OKs bill to double sales tax by '15

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his ruling Democratic Party of Japan-led government managed to submit the contentious bill to the Diet on Friday to double the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, while junior coalition partner Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) was on the verge of collapsing over...
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2012

Experts: 10% tax too minor to dent deficit

The Cabinet on Friday made good on its vow and moved forward on doubling the consumption tax by 2015, but some experts and lawmakers already see it as only a tiny step in cutting the ever-expanding fiscal deficit.
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2012

The symmetry of slaughter

After Mohamed Merah died in a hail of French police bullets last Thursday, people who had known him talked about "a polite and courteous boy" who liked "cars, bikes, sports and girls." His friends had trouble believing that he had murdered seven people, including three children, in a 10-day killing spree...
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2012

Bizarre logic of America's 'freedom' campaign

The Afghans are a proud people with a long and formidable history of resistance to foreign occupation. The fact that they have always prevailed should not distract from the horror they still routinely experience.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2012

JGBs, not tax hikes, way to go, Sakakibara says

Japan should issue more bonds to help boost the economy instead of attempting tax hikes, which might stifle a recovery, said Eisuke Sakakibara, a former Finance Ministry official.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2012

Foes to sales tax hike in DPJ impede bill

The administration and the Democratic Party of Japan failed again Thursday to form a consensus among party members on the contentious consumption tax hike, postponing until next week a planned Cabinet meeting to formalize the bill.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past