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JAPAN
Oct 4, 2008

Kawamura to show receipts for all office expenditures

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura repeated Friday that he has used his political funds legally and said his office is preparing to disclose receipts that back up his suspiciously high expenditures.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2008

Adjusting to a power shift

LONDON — Just as one picture can tell more than a thousand words, so also one event can tell more, and provide a bigger shock, than a thousand written messages.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2008

Aso sorry for past gaffes, pushes budget passage

Outspoken new Prime Minister Taro Aso, known for his slips of the tongue, faced Upper House lawmakers Thursday and apologized for his past verbal gaffes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2008

Justice Ministry should 'respect' rulings on executions, Mori says

Justice Minister Eisuke Mori supports the death penalty because it helps maintain the social order and eases the mental pain of crime victims' families.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2008

Kawamura under fire over office expenses

The political support groups of Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura logged about ¥22 million in expenditures over the past three years — with almost ¥15 million spent on office and personnel fees — even though the home of his secretary was registered as a rent-free office.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2008

Education remark on target

Regarding the Sept. 28 article "Nakayama to quit Cabinet after gaffes": It is interesting that former transport minister Nariaki Nakayama took heat because of his verbal gaffe about (among other topics) the teachers union in Japan. I'm a teacher in the United States and a member of a huge teachers union....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 1, 2008

North policy unchanged: Nakasone

Japan's policy on North Korea under Prime Minister Taro Aso will remain focused on resolving the abduction issue, new Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Tuesday.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 1, 2008

Shionoya embraces teachers union, 'morals'

Education minister Ryu Shionoya said Tuesday that the Japan Teachers Union (Nikkyoso) should cooperate with the ministry on improving education, dismissing critical remarks by short-lived transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, who resigned Sunday after attacking the union and calling it "a cancer."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2008

Kaneko vows no controversy

Newly appointed transport minister Kazuyoshi Kaneko stressed Monday he isn't like his predecessor, Nariaki Nakayama, who was forced to resign following a series of gaffes.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 28, 2008

Did Koizumi and Bush really destroy Japan?

CURING JAPAN'S AMERICA ADDICTION by Minoru Morita, Chin Music Press, Seattle, 2008, 224 pp., $15 (paper) Minoru Morita is one of Japan's most prominent and respected political analysts. And he's mad as hell at what he believes are the social and economic crimes committed by former Prime Minister Junichiro...
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2008

The world's new hot spot

BAKU, Azerbaijan — In this large Caspian city on the edge of Europe and Asia the problems of the Western world — shaky banks, financial upheavals, struggles with terrorism — seem far away.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 27, 2008

Primary surplus not top priority: Nakagawa

Achieving a primary surplus by fiscal 2011 is not the most important goal for Prime Minister Taro Aso's administration, finance and financial services minister Shoichi Nakagawa said in an interview Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2008

Kowa, Teva to form generic drug venture

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, and Kowa Co. have agreed to form a joint venture to gain a share of the growing market for cheaper medicines in Japan.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2008

Manufacturer sentiment stays near four-year low

Confidence among manufacturers has remained near a four-year low as the global financial crisis threatens to smother demand in Japan's export markets and higher raw materials costs erode profits.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2008

Aso elected LDP leader in landslide

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party chose Taro Aso as its 23rd president Monday, hoping to regain public popularity and win the next general election.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2008

Passing supplementary budget may take priority over snap election

Newly elected Liberal Democratic Party President Taro Aso vowed Monday to do his utmost to solve problems that range from revitalizing the economy to improving the health care system.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2008

The road to Yasukuni's survival

On Aug. 15, Japanese newspapers carried the obituary of an American citizen by the name of William Kenneth Bunce, who died in Chestertown, Md., at the age of 100.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2008

LDP looks to replicate media magic

The rules of the game are changing in Tokyo's Nagata-cho, the longtime epicenter of Japanese politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2008

Japan spinning its wheels

OSAKA — To lose one prime minister may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two in one year looks like carelessness. That paraphrase by Oscar Wilde aptly sums up the current state of Japanese politics, given the serial resignations of Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2008

Russian roulette with food supply

The tiny Sept. 13 Kyodo article "Inedible rice barred" -- about the tainted rice debacle -- includes the following gem: "Imported rice that fails to qualify as edible . . . is sold . . . for use in . . . animal feed." Where is the alarm in Japan? What kind of animals are eating it? Cows and pigs? The...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2008

AIG Japan unit safe for time being

The U.S. Federal Reserve's emergency $85 billion rescue of the U.S. insurer American International Group eased concerns Wednesday that its Japanese unit will survive, at least for the time being.

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