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BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2009

Rising social security outlays won't be reined in

Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet endorsed budget guidelines Tuesday that will not cut automatic growth in social security spending in fiscal 2010.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2009

GSDF officers to remain on Sudan peacekeeping mission

The Cabinet on Monday extended the dispatch of two Ground Self-Defense Force officers to Sudan taking part in U.N. peacekeeping operations.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2009

Caterer used fake ID to get into prime minister's office

One would assume the prime minister's office's state-of-the-art security system prevents unregistered individuals from entering the premises.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2009

Corporate confidence heads up

Business confidence improved for the first time in three quarters and demand for services rose, adding to signs the recession is easing.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 22, 2009

Factional beat of the LDP

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party could very well be in for a bitter power struggle among three of its principal intraparty factions following the general election expected by September. The outcome of that struggle could also be a harbinger of a broader political reorganization involving not only...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

80 in LDP said to favor change of leader

More than 80 Liberal Democratic Party members support a leadership vote to challenge unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso ahead of the general election this year, the campaign's organizer said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2009

Accessibility to official documents

During its current session, the Diet is expected to enact a bill to improve the system for managing and storing official documents, now that the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan have reached a compromise. The bill is the legacy of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who wanted...
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2009

The safety nets for would-be suicides

Every time the National Police Agency comes out with new suicide statistics, media reports tend to focus on the fact that the annual suicide count has reached a new high or has topped the psychologically significant 30,000 threshold for yet another year. (The latest figure available was 32,249 in 2008.)...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2009

Incoming ambassador Roos is right for the job

After months of speculation, U.S. President Barack Obama recently nominated John V. Roos to represent the United States in Tokyo. Roos, like several American ambassadors, earned his position as a top Democratic fundraiser during the U.S. presidential campaign. As the head of a major Silicon Valley law...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2009

Tokyo bolsters sanctions on Pyongyang

The Cabinet approved new sanctions Tuesday against North Korea that reinforce previous restrictions on financial and people exchanges with the hermit state.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2009

Public pension fund may sell bonds

The public pension fund may sell Japanese government bonds this year to cover payments to retirees.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2009

Green light for new expressways

The administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi froze proposed expressway growth at 9,342 km to halt unnecessary projects. But in a reversal of this policy, an advisory panel for the infrastructure and transport minister, which discusses national development and construction of main roads,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 16, 2009

'Discontinuous minds' block progress on discrimination

On the final day of the Golden Week holiday this year, I found myself face to face with a young Japanese man who had let himself into my apartment, presumably with the intention of robbing the place. The intruder, who was standing in my living room looking around, fled when disturbed. A chase ensued,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 16, 2009

Ozawa's residual influence

Even after being forced to resign as Democratic Party of Japan president because of a scandal involving his secretary, Ichiro Ozawa appears to exert strong influence over his successor, Yukio Hatoyama.
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2009

A vote for peace in Lebanon

The victory of the March 14th alliance in Lebanese parliamentary elections June 7 is a welcome surprise. For many, the election was a referendum on Hezbollah and the armed resistance movement it represents as well as on the continued influence of Syria and Iran over Lebanese politics.
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2009

A purge of Parliament is calling

LONDON — In British politics the familiar scenario is for the opposition to press for an early general election — there being no fixed-term provision in the very flexible British constitution — and for the government of the day to reject all such demands and sit tight.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2009

Household sentiment continues rise

Household sentiment rose to a 14-month high in May, adding to signs that the deepest postwar recession may be easing.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2009

GDP drop revised but still worst since '55

The economy shrank less in the first quarter than initially estimated, but the contraction was still the severest since 1955, revised data released by the government Thursday showed.

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