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JAPAN
Aug 6, 2008

Aso demands DPJ come to table

With an extraordinary Diet session expected to start later this month or in September, Taro Aso, newly appointed secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, challenged the Democratic Party of Japan Tuesday not to duck talks with the ruling bloc on its own policy proposals.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2008

LDP election chief cool to near-term campaign

The Liberal Democratic Party needs more time to promote its policies before entertaining any idea of a Lower House election, the chairman of the LDP Election Strategy Council indicated Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2008

Tough budget environment

The Cabinet last week adopted the guideline for fiscal 2009 budgetary requests — at a time when tax revenues are expected to decline due to sluggish economic activities. This is a completely different picture from when the fiscal 2008 guideline was adopted. Therefore, budgetary negotiations will not...
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2008

Ibuki tells LDP to draft tax hike scenarios

Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki said Saturday the ruling Liberal Democratic Party needs to propose a scenario on how and when to ask for a tax hike before it starts campaigning for the next general election.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2008

New team to seek tax hikes

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda brought in a new economic team Friday to show his commitment to reconstruct debt-ridden finances through higher taxes, but economists warn it will not be easy for the government to raise taxes when consumer sentiment is already on the skids.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2008

Wage drop in June ups chances of recession

Wages dropped in June for the first time this year, indicating slower consumer spending coupled with falling exports may bring on a recession.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2008

An outbreak of nationalism

The issue of Scottish nationalism has again come to a head, and is raising serious political issues for all of Britain. The situation has been sparked by the outcome of a recent parliamentary by-election which, to general surprise, the Scottish Nationalist candidate won.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2008

More good lawyers needed

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren) has made an emergency proposal to slow down the government's plan to increase the number of successful applicants in the annual national bar exam to 3,000 by around 2010. Nichibenren said that since the current system of nurturing legal professionals...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2008

Spending off the road

The ruling coalition partners Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito have started discussions on how to proceed with the plan to free up the use of revenues from road-related taxes. A consultative body, made up of officials from both parties, will serve as the ruling bloc's decision-maker on the issue....
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008

Was the 'Japanese Renaissance' lost at sea?

Last week, Japan celebrated Umi no Hi (Marine Day). First observed as a national holiday in 1996, Marine Day marks the anniversary of the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido on July 20, 1876.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2008

Okada declares DPJ ready to take charge, reform the public sector

Long viewed as content to live in the shadow of the entrenched Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition force is now ready to seize the reins of power and carry out a thorough reform of the public sector, Democratic Party of Japan Vice President Katsuya Okada said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2008

What's the beef with Seoul?

NEW YORK — At the outset of the violent protests in South Korea over imported beef from the United States, the entire Cabinet of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak offered to resign. Last week, Lee fired three of them. But beef, it turns out, represents just the tip of the iceberg of grievances against...
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Seoul rejects offer of talks in Singapore

Seoul has rejected a proposal to meet on the sidelines of an international security forum starting Tuesday in Singapore to discuss the diplomatic row that has erupted over Tokyo's claim to South Korea-held islets in the Sea of Japan, Japanese officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Life without parole finding support in Diet

With less than a year before Japan embarks on the lay judge system, some lawmakers are raising concerns that having to choose between the death sentence and the second most severe punishment — life with the possibility of parole after 10 years — will be too daunting a burden for the nonprofessionals...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...

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