Search - cabinet

 
 
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2007

Suicide that conceals facts

The suicide of farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka amid political funds scandals is both shocking and sad. It is regrettable that he chose to kill himself rather than sincerely answer questions over the suspicions surrounding him. Mr. Matsuoka's suicide should come as a political blow to Prime Minister...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2007

Strategic Economic Dialogue stumbles

The increasingly shrill dialogue between the United States and China over economic issues should sound familiar to many Japanese. A swelling U.S. trade deficit with China has led to demands by Washington for the revaluation of the Chinese currency, threats of trade sanctions from Congress, and angry...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2007

More compelling than common sense

The following statement appeared in an article on the opinion page of The Japan Times in July 2003: "The main result of the U.S. action (in Iraq) will probably be to turn a nation free from al-Qaida links into yet another hotbed of anti-U.S. 'terrorism,' and to push one of the few secular Middle Eastern...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2007

Baby hatch gives rise to empty moralizing

Every year the national Parent-Teacher Association conducts a survey to find out which television shows people either want or don't want their children to watch. Two programs always make it to the top of the disapproval list: "London Hearts," a variety show hosted by the coarse comedy duo London Boots,...
JAPAN
May 25, 2007

Survivors of WWII air raids begin case for compensation

Civilian survivors of U.S. air raids on Tokyo during World War II testified in court Thursday in a bid to win compensation for their suffering and, ultimately, to put the brakes on the government's drive to amend the war-renouncing Constitution.
JAPAN
May 24, 2007

Matsuoka tells Diet he won't talk about office expenses

in attendance. KYODO PHOTO
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2007

Appeasing Serbia hurts EU

This month has been a bad one for the cause of human rights in Europe, as Serbia was allowed to begin its six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, the Continent's oldest political body.
BUSINESS
May 24, 2007

Rules on U.S. beef stay: government

There are no immediate plans to relax the food-safety restrictions on imports of U.S. beef despite a decision by an international body that says some of them are not necessary, the government said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 18, 2007

Panel mulls lowering voting age to 18

A government panel that is expected to lower the voting age to 18 held their first meeting Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2007

Economy grew just 0.6% in quarter

The economy grew 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter for the ninth consecutive quarter of growth after corporate spending slowed, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2007

Politicians must come clean

The Tokyo High Court has given a suspended 10-month prison term to former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka for hiding a 100 million yen donation from the Japan Dental Association to the Liberal Democratic Party's then top faction headed by the late Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The crux of...
Reader Mail
May 16, 2007

Constitution paid for in blood

Sixty years after Japan's Constitution was promulgated, so many Japanese people, including the prime minister, seem to have no knowledge about how our compatriots felt when the war came to an end.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 12, 2007

Gang of Four holding out hope courts will drop West Ham

LONDON — Celebratory glasses will be raised by those who escape relegation from the Premiership, but a nasty whiff of sour grapes surrounds the final round of fixtures tomorrow Sunday.
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...

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