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EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2007

China acknowledges a gap

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's announcement at the National People's Congress that gross domestic product is targeted to grow by about 8 percent in 2007, down from at least 10 percent during the four previous years, not only reflects an attempt to prevent economic overheating but also points to the Chinese...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2007

Mr. Abe's trivial pursuit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent statements on the Japanese military's use of "comfort women" during the war years trivializes the real issue. By focusing on whether Japanese soldiers used physical force to recruit young Asian women into a form of sex slavery, he shifts attention from the government...
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2007

Thailand's troubles continue

It was expected that any instability that followed last September's coup in Thailand would be short-lived. Supporters even hoped that the military-led government would lessen uncertainty, end corruption and soothe the tensions that fuel a Muslim insurgency in the country's southern provinces. Those hopes...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 6, 2007

The prime minister's official hub

Kantei, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, is always a center of attention, particularly in times of national crisis, including when a big earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture in October 2004 and when North Korea tested a nuclear weapon last October.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2007

Nonfinancial investment surges quarterly 16.8%

Capital investment by Japanese companies excluding the financial and insurance sectors rose a record 16.8 percent in the October-December quarter from the same period a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said Monday, signaling the corporate-led economic expansion remains strong.
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2007

To move without U.S. cues

In their talks Feb. 21, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney reaffirmed the "unwavering" Japan-U.S. security alliance. This raises a question: Why did Abe have to reaffirm an alliance that is said to have already benefited from the long honeymoon between former Prime...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 4, 2007

Opposition hasn't got a clue in battle against LDP

Last year was a bad one for the Democratic Party of Japan. Its troubles started when DPJ lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata implied that the son of Tsutomu Ta-kebe, a big shot in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was involved in a money-for-favors deal. Once it was revealed that Nagata's evidence was false,...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2007

Negroponte cool to U.S. call for sex slave apology

Issues pertaining to Japan's wartime sexual slavery should be dealt between Tokyo and the affected parties, not a third country, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2007

Beating the Yamato drum

With health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa's gaffe remark that women are "childbearing machines" still fresh in people's memory, yet another Cabinet member has put his foot in his mouth. This time, education minister Bunmei Ibuki has voiced objectionable ideas on the general character of the Japanese state...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 27, 2007

Death row: limbo of not knowing when

Japan is among 69 nations, including the United States, that have the death penalty.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Insider lashes 'lip service to human rights'

Written laws are like spiders' webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2007

Still stuck in the Middle East

A trilateral summit between the U.S., Israel and Palestinians held this week yielded no statement and no progress apart from a pledge to keep talking. In the diplomatic morass of the Middle East, even the United States is willing to consider the mere fact that a summit was held to be "useful and productive."...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2007

Reaffirming a commitment

Nothing dramatic happened -- no new demands or agreements -- during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with Japanese leaders this week. His visit should be interpreted as a U.S. effort to reaffirm its close ties with Japan and thus help enhance its image as a world leader as it faces difficult...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2007

Recognize us and apologize, ex-wartime sex slave tells Tokyo

Tokyo should officially recognize the women Japan forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial army in the 1930s and '40s and formally apologize, a South Korean former "comfort woman" demanded Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2007

Bank of Japan raises interest rate to 0.5%

Caught between growing voices in Europe for a rate hike and domestic politicians pressuring against it, the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.50 percent Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2007

Knocked back in Beijing

Tokyo tries to keep a brave face on the agreements reached at last week's six-nation talks in Beijing aimed at putting an end to North Korea's nuclear development plans. But no amount of strong talk about refusing any direct participation in aid or other concessions to North Korea unless Pyongyang accepts...

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