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JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Honoring the war dead is a hot, heated affair

Tens of thousands of people braved a sweltering Monday in Tokyo to pay their respects to the nation's war dead on the 60th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2005

0.1% salary cut sought for government workers

The National Personnel Authority asked the government Monday to cut the basic annual salary for central government workers by 0.1 percent, or 4,000 yen, for this fiscal year through next March.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Koizumi repeats apology

Marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed regret Monday for Japan's past deeds against its Asian neighbors and vowed to make sure they never happen again.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Koizumi secretary quits post to run in Sept. 11 election

Jiro Ono, a secretary to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, quit his National Police Agency post Monday to run in the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election in support of Koizumi's structural reforms centering on postal privatization.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2005

Soul-searching for peace in Asia

As the nation marks the 60th anniversary of its surrender to Allied Powers in World War II, the Japanese face the unfinished task of squarely looking at Japan's colonialism and modern war and seriously considering a nonmilitary path that Japan must take to contribute to world peace and stability.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

LDP rebels mulling new party

Liberal Democratic Party rebels who voted against the government's postal privatization bills in the House of Representatives are still considering forming a new party ahead of the Sept. 11 election, a key dissenter said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Government seeks to keep 3% cost cut target in budget

The government hopes to trim public-works spending by at least 3 percent in the fiscal 2006 budget, the same modest cost cuts made for this fiscal year, according to budget compilation guidelines submitted Wednesday to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Politicians begin plotting strategies for Sept. 11 poll

Campaigning for the Sept. 11 Lower House general election effectively got under way Tuesday, one day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the chamber on the heels of the House of Councilors' rejection of his postal privatization bills.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2005

2006 budget gets nudge forward

Work on the government's stalled fiscal 2006 budget got a push Monday when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki to set the budget guidelines for Cabinet approval by the end of the week.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2005

Snap Lower House election appears certain if postal reform dies in Diet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Saturday flatly rejected a plea from his predecessor Yoshiro Mori to avert a snap election even if his postal privatization bills are voted down in the House of Councilors.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2005

Legacy of tepid leadership

For Japanese, August is a gloomy month. In the Pacific War, which ended in August 60 years ago, more than 3 million Japanese troops died. In the final days of the war, U.S. forces dropped history's first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki following indiscriminate carpet bombings of Japanese cities...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2005

Opponent-free panel OKs thorny postal reform bills

A special committee of the House of Councilors passed a package of postal privatization bills Friday, pushing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi toward a final showdown with reform foes in his Liberal Democratic Party in Monday's plenary session.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2005

Postal privatization vote set for Monday

The long-awaited showdown vote on the postal privatization bills that could determine the fate of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration has been delayed until at least Monday, officials said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 4, 2005

Doubts over Tokyo Tribunal's legitimacy linger

Masahiro Morioka broke a taboo for government officials in May when, as parliamentary secretary for the health ministry, he disputed the legitimacy of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in which Japan's wartime leaders were tried.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

China buildup on Defense Agency radar

Tokyo is monitoring China's rapid military buildup and remains on alert in the wake of recent incidents, including the intrusion of a submarine into Japanese territorial waters and frequent operations by its marine research vessels nearby, according to an annual report on defense released Tuesday.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS,AND ONWARD
Aug 3, 2005

Youth here yet to pick up the peace torch

Their appearances belied the seriousness of their gathering on a hot Friday night last month in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Crown Prince to visit Saudi Arabia

Crown Prince Naruhito and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will visit Saudi Arabia to offer condolences over the death of Saudi Arabian King Fahd, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Asbestos probe chief exits over industry ties

Environment Minister Yuriko Koike said Tuesday the head of the ministry panel studying the asbestos problem has resigned due to his close ties to the asbestos industry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

Government to probe extent of asbestos woes

The government will begin an investigation into the spiraling number of asbestos contamination cases revealed in recent weeks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

15 abductees alive in '91, spy tells Diet

A former Pyongyang spy told a Diet panel Thursday that 15 abducted Japanese were alive in North Korea between 1988 and 1991 and suggested one of the five repatriated in 2002 has information about many of those still missing.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

Postal bill battle may doom LDP

The decisive moment for the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is approaching, and it is one that the Liberal Democratic Party's elders fear may shatter its decades-long grip on power.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

Japan eyes retaliatory tariffs for U.S. steel

Japan may impose retaliatory duties on U.S. steel products, including ball bearings, in September to counter subsidies paid out to steel firms by Washington under an antidumping program that has been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2005

End run around civilian control

The Diet last week passed a revision of the Self- Defense Forces Law to identify actions Japan would take if faced with an imminent ballistic missile attack. This simplification of the command procedure for firing interceptor missiles, however, poses several questions, especially regarding the issue...
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

New Komeito exec signals willingness to jump LDP ship

New Komeito's secretary general said Wednesday his party would entertain forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan if, in a snap election, the DPJ took a majority in the House of Representatives.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Court seeks Hashimoto, Nonaka, Aoki testimony in fund scam

The Tokyo District Court said Wednesday it will call former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and two Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights to testify in a trial over a political fund scandal involving a major LDP faction Hashimoto led when the funds were received.
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2005

Bolder way of thinking small

In June, the Cabinet Office's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy stressed the need for smaller and more efficient government in its 2005 basic guideline for economic and fiscal reform. Earlier this month the fiscal 2005 Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finances also called for smaller...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2005

Philippine crisis simmers

MANILA -- One and a half months after audio tapes surfaced allegedly showing President Gloria Arroyo cheated her way into office, the Philippines' political crisis is far from settled. There is a general feeling that the country has entered a period of political stalemate. While Arroyo's supporters declare...

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