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JAPAN
Dec 22, 2009

Hatoyama support rate plummets

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Monday the sharp dip in the public support rate for his administration, as shown in opinion polls over the weekend, means he must work harder.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2009

Hatoyama one out of two on policy vows

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama decided Monday to stick with one of his key policy pledges but to abandon another, saying the government will not set an income cap on the child-care allowance but will maintain the current gasoline tax rate.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2009

No such thing as classless

According to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the taxation policies of the Tory (Conservative) Party were decided on the playing field of Eton (one of Britain's top private schools). Thus, Gordon Brown, whose Labour government trails in the opinion polls behind the Conservative opposition, seemed from this...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Dec 21, 2009

Press club system a domestic dilemma begging for change

In January, the European Business Council in Japan will launch a new magazine called eurobiz japan. This magazine will address topics of special interest to European firms here, including the press club system — an issue that continues to rankle foreign business circles.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2009

An abuse of intelligence

The U.K. government has been under pressure for some years to hold an inquiry into British participation in the Iraq war and on the events that led up to the decision to go to war. The various previous inquiries were seen by many as inadequate or whitewash. The government eventually conceded that once...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2009

Devolution via Mr. Hatoyama

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama held his first meeting with the nation's prefectural governors in late November and laid down the principle of devolution. Under the principle, local governments would decide on and carry out policies closely related to their residents and the central government would help...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2009

Futenma's fate back to the future

The coalition government of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and the New People's Party have put off until next year a decision on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in the central part of Okinawa Island. The government will seek possible alternatives...
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Moody's prods Japan on debt

Japan should set a "well-articulated" target to reduce government debt that is already the largest in the world, according to Moody's Investors Service.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2009

Politics and the Emperor

The government's decision to let Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping have an exceptional audience with the Emperor Tuesday made many people wonder whether the government, especially Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, has a correct understanding of the constitutional order with regard to the position of the...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2009

Futenma decision shelved till 2010

The Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling coalition said Tuesday it will put off resolving the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma until next year, effectively prolonging an issue that has raised tension between Tokyo and Washington as well as within the ruling coalition.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2009

Saving the U.K. economy

Frequent comparisons are made these days between the plight of the British economy and the state of the Japanese economy. But in reality the two situations are very different.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

Xi says he wants to improve ties

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping arrived Monday in Japan where he stressed the importance of the "friendly" ties between China and Japan and vowed to do his best to further develop the relationship.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Emperor will meet China's Xi Tuesday

Emperor Akihito will meet Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, waiving a customary rule that he be notified a month in advance of such visits, the Imperial Household Agency said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2009

Revise the whistle-blower law

More than three and a half years have passed since a law to protect whistle-blowers went into force in April 2006. The law was enacted in response to the courage demonstrated by corporate whistle-blowers in bringing irregularities to light. Revelations in publicized cases have included allegations that...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2009

The child allowance

An allowance for each child up to the third grade at middle school is a main promise in the Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto. The party plans to make the monthly ¥26,000 allowance a permanent measure. The Hatoyama administration plans to give half the amount, or ¥13,000, in fiscal 2010,...
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2009

'Clean energy' plan may jump start NGK's sales

Japan's plan to use more renewable energy to fight climate change hinges on another technology — batteries as big as London buses to be hooked up to the power network at a cost of as much as ¥6 trillion.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2009

Hatoyama playing risky game over Futenma

properly, the Hatoyama administration may not be able to survive, in addition to seriously straining Japan-U.S. relations." Hatoyama and his government have been caught between its coalition partner Social Democratic Party, which is demanding that Futenma be relocated outside Okinawa, and the U.S.,...

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