Search - cabinet

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2010

Don't just cut public spending — rethink it

LONDON, INTERNATIONAL POLICY NETWORK — The strikes in Greece against the government's austerity package must worry the leaders of any country running big budget deficits — which is most countries, including Japan. After all, the package was not particularly austere: minor trimming of Greece's notoriously...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2010

Emotionalized debate blurs valuable functions of Futenma

CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa Pref. — In recent months, the issue of the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma has gotten a great deal of attention in the news — so much so that it has almost overshadowed the significance of this year being the 50th anniversary of the revision of the U.S.-Japan...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 7, 2010

DPJ needs schooling on equality

When the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power last year, many people expected Japanese politics to become more rational. The Liberal Democratic Party had maintained a status quo that stifled meaningful change, and the DPJ supposedly won by promising to move forward.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2010

Funding scandals keep coming

Another political funds scandal linked to a Democratic Party of Japan figure has come to light. On March 1, four trade union members were arrested on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law with regard to donations allegedly received by the election campaign office of DPJ Lower House member...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2010

Zero tolerance for bullying

The British media have given prominence recently to allegations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a bully who intimidates those who work for him. It has also been alleged that some of his staff have briefed against Cabinet ministers with whom Brown disagrees. The government has dismissed these charges...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Mar 3, 2010

Decks cleared, DPJ focuses on poll

With Tuesday's Lower House passage of the fiscal 2010 budget securing the way for its enactment by the end of March, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan will now focus on passing as many key policies as it can to bring visible results to voters before the summer Upper House election.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2010

Dispatch of medical team to Chile called off

The government abruptly called off sending an emergency medical team to earthquake-hit Chile on Tuesday after Santiago declined the offer of assistance.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2010

DPJ-led bloc's vote passes 2010 budget

The Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition passed the fiscal 2010 budget in the Lower House on Tuesday evening, having survived relentless grilling from the opposition over a series of political funding scandals.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2010

Masuzoe issues reform ultimatum to ailing LDP

Veteran lawmaker Yoichi Masuzoe on Monday issued what could be taken as an ultimatum to his ailing Liberal Democratic Party, saying that a failure to restructure will not only push the public to abandon it but may force its ranks to split as well.
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2010

Futenma's closure will leave void

Regarding the Feb. 21 article "Futenma in the end may stay in Okinawa, (Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi) Hirano hints": I live right across from the U.S. Marine Corps air strip at Futenma. Sometimes I can see the pilots' faces during takeoffs and landings. I got used to the takeoffs after a while. I...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2010

Falklands war, round two?

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina's finest writer, dismissed the Falklands War of 1982 as "two bald men fighting over a comb," but it killed almost a thousand British and Argentine soldiers, sailors and airmen anyway. So what would happen if the bald men started fighting over something really valuable, like...
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2010

Poland's future looks bright

In the 20th century the very name "Poland" conjured up images of suffering, refugees, slaughter, terrible destruction and division. Here was a country that had been invaded, partitioned, endlessly fought over, defeated and conquered.

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