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EDITORIALS
May 12, 2007

Mr. Abe's Yasukuni offering

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has not visited Yasukuni Shrine since he came to power in September 2006 (although he visited it in April that year while he was chief Cabinet secretary). Now it has surfaced that he recently donated 50,000 yen to dedicate evergreen "sakaki" trees for the war shrine's annual...
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2007

Lawmakers' spending still opaque

Until about a month ago, questions on the use of political funds and the accuracy of mandatory reports on such funds had been a hot political issue. But efforts to dispel public suspicions about issues involving money and politics are not moving fast enough. The fault mainly lies with political leaders,...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2007

The pursuit of decentralization

The decentralization and reform promotion committee, recently set up in the Cabinet Office, has started discussions with the aim of submitting proposals to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe within three years. The committee, inaugurated under a law enacted in December 2006, will work out concrete proposals to...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2007

Who will defend Japan's Constitution?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at the beginning of April that the government was establishing a "panel of experts" to examine the question of whether to "revise the current interpretation of the Constitution," in order to permit Japan to engage in collective self-defense activities.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2007

Improving consumer lifestyle choices key to meeting CO2 goals

Consumer behavior holds the key to Japan's ability to fulfill its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming, as rising greenhouse gas emissions in the household and transport sectors make it increasingly hard to achieve the nation's goals, said participants in a recent symposium...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 24, 2007

Getting a handle on earthquakes

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan. In the past month alone, the country has been hit by a huge quake in Ishikawa Prefecture and another in Mie. Following are questions and answers dealing with basic information on earthquakes:
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2007

Restoring the military's honor

I was disappointed by two recent moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to whitewash Japan's war responsibility, although I was not really surprised. After all, Abe comes from the most conservative faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as did his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi....
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2007

Civil-service reform falls short

As part of their efforts to reform the civil service, the government and the ruling coalition have agreed on a new system to regulate the future employment of retiring national public servants. In the upcoming Upper House election, the ruling coalition may use this agreement as proof of its earnest intention...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 21, 2007

Upcoming Man United-Chelsea trilogy should be great theater

LONDON -- Three vs. four. The Treble against the Quadruple. Manchester United and Chelsea are providing the mother of all finales to the English season.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2007

Preserving the countryside

LONDON -- In Britain we have not yet quite lost the battle to preserve the countryside, but it is far from won. In Japan, however, it looks to many outsiders as if preservation is a lost cause.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 15, 2007

It was 40 (very different) years ago today . . .

The re-election last Sunday of Shintaro Ishihara as Tokyo governor has demon- strated once again that the people of Japan's capital city remain attracted to the policies of this outspoken author-turned-politician.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 14, 2007

Hard to envision Mourinho leaving Chelsea, despite friction with Abramovich

LONDON -- I am not a billionaire. I do not own a number of hugely profitable companies. Unlike Roman Abramovich, I am not the owner of Chelsea Football Club.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2007

Machinery orders fall 5.2% for February

Core private-sector machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, fell 5.2 percent to 1.04 trillion yen in February, the Cabinet Office said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2007

Business sentiment dropping: 'tankan'

Big manufacturers grew less optimistic about business conditions as global stock markets fell and concern about the future of the U.S. economy grew, according to the Bank of Japan's latest "tankan" corporate sentiment survey released Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2007

Abe is petitioned to extend unequivocal sex slave apology

Appended with more than 14,400 signatures collected at home and abroad, Japanese peace activists handed a statement to the government Thursday calling on the prime minister to extend a fresh official apology and compensation to women exploited as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2007

Abe: '69 talks with Yasukuni not illegal

The government did not violate the Constitution's separation of religion and state by discussing the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine with shrine officials, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2007

New postal giant raises competition fears as birth approaches

The planned privatization of the postal system, which doubles as the world's biggest savings bank, was hailed around the globe as a watershed free-market reform that would streamline the world's No. 2 economy.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 25, 2007

NHK upholds freedom of the press so long as it doesn't annoy anyone with its content

It has been two months since the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of the Violence Against Women in War Network in its lawsuit against NHK regarding coverage of a December 2000 international people's tribunal, and while the verdict did not receive much press when it was first announced, it continues to...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2007

Gubernatorial poll campaigning starts

addresses supporters Thursday morning in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, as he opens his campaign for re-election in the April 8 poll, while former Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano, considered his main contender, waves as he appears before voters in front of the metro government building in Shinjuku. KYODO, SATOKO...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 20, 2007

Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros?

An international outcry has flared again after members of the U.S. House of Representatives submitted a resolution in January urging Japan to formally apologize for forcing young females across Asia into sexual slavery during the war.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2007

Abe should be looking forward, not back

HONOLULU -- What was he thinking? That is the question most Japan-watchers grappled with following Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's fumbled questions about the imperial Japanese government's role in recruiting "comfort women" during World War II. His responses came close to undoing the progress he...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami