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JAPAN
Apr 20, 2005

Ono scrubs press tour of Samawah, discounts concern

Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono sought Tuesday to downplay concerns over security in the southern Iraq city of Samawah, after the agency said the previous day that it had canceled a tour for Japanese reporters to cover the Self-Defense Forces' activities there slated for later this month....
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2005

LDP to seek new postal-reform deal

After two days of marathon talks, executives of the Liberal Democratic Party abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday night, saying the party had allowed them to negotiate more modifications to the government's postal privatization plan.
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2005

Move cautiously on Constitution

A Lower House panel on constitutional reform last week ended five years of discussions after presenting a final report to the Speaker. An Upper House panel is due to submit a similar report later this month. It is the first time since the Constitution was promulgated in 1946 that the Diet has conducted...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2005

U.S. team to visit in bid to end beef ban

The United States will send a team of scientific experts on mad cow disease to Japan next week to discuss with their Japanese counterparts ways to resolve a 16-month import ban on U.S. beef at the earliest possible date, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said Monday.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2005

'Livedoor shock' reviving Japan's cross-shareholding habit

When Internet services company Livedoor Co. announced its bid to acquire Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., the vulnerabilities of Japan's capital markets were suddenly laid bare, prompting domestic companies to scramble for ways to defend themselves from hostile takeovers.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2005

Japan, China wasting time

Recent mass anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities have plunged Sino-Japanese relations to their lowest since diplomatic ties were normalized in 1972. Stones thrown by demonstrators damaged the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on April 9. Japanese-owned businesses in other cities were likewise attacked,...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2005

Japan eyes restart to abduction talks

Japan wants to break the current impasse and resume bilateral talks with North Korea to resolve Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2005

Remorse oft repeated in past: Hosoda

Tokyo has repeatedly expressed its remorse to Beijing for Japan's wartime actions and recent anti-Japan demonstrations in China will not change its position, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2005

Tokyo to let Japan firms test-drill in contested seas

Japan said Wednesday it has begun processing applications that would allow domestic companies to test-drill in contested waters in the East China Sea where China plans to launch full-scale drilling for natural gas.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2005

Japan set to pitch for bigger UNSC

Japan is willing to try to persuade countries opposed to expansion of the U.N. Security Council to support the idea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2005

Prime minister's new quarters open after major renovation

The prime minister's newly renovated residential quarters in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, opened Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2005

Koizumi to go to Afro-Asia meeting

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Indonesia from April 21-24 to attend the Afro-Asia Conference in Jakarta and a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, the top government spokesman said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2005

Ono admits '94 pre-emptive strike feasibility study amid North tension

Yoshinori Ono, director general Defense Agency, on Friday confirmed a media report that the agency had studied in 1994 the feasibility of pre-emptive attacks on enemy states, but declined to reveal the details of the study.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2005

Red tape strangling deregulation efforts

Dr. Hirofumi Kawakita's plan to use the government's newly created special structural reform zones to launch a pediatric emergency medical service in Tokyo soon led him into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 5, 2005

Made in Japan

The Nintendo
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2005

Unstable bond unraveling

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's March 23 statement denouncing Japan for its colonial past is bound to seriously damage Tokyo-Seoul relations that have been improving in recent years. The statement reverses positive diplomacy Seoul has pursued on the basis of a 2003 agreement between Roh and Prime...
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2005

Emperor gets a new chief steward

The Cabinet on Friday approved the retirement of Grand Steward Toshio Yuasa of the Imperial Household and promotion of his deputy to the post.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2005

Municipalities disappear with merger rush

April 1 marks the start of another year for government bodies, companies and schools. But hundreds of towns, villages and cities disappeared on paper the same day, and many others are on their way to extinction.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2005

Laws to protect personal info kick in, criticized

Laws to protect personal information took effect Friday, banning the public and private sectors from using information on a person other than for its intended purpose and from providing it to a third party without permission.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2005

800,000 new grads begin life as workers

Some 800,000 new high school and college graduates experienced their first day as regular workers at Friday's start of the new fiscal year, with companies and public offices across Japan holding welcome ceremonies for them.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2005

Tokyo wants safety assurances for soccer team

Japan said Thursday it wants Japanese soccer players and fans to have their safety guaranteed when the national team plays a World Cup qualifier against North Korea in Pyongyang on June 8.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2005

Rules to survive by

The Cabinet has approved a set of ground rules for protecting the people in the event of a military, terrorist or missile attack on Japan. The rules, officially called "Guidelines Concerning the Protection of the People," state what protective measures the government will take in such an emergency.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2005

Testing Karzai's politics of inclusiveness

CANBERRA -- Whatever Washington's expectations, Afghan President Hamed Karzai is certainly instituting what he has called "Afghan-style democracy." His inclusion in the government of some individuals who in the past had been highly criticized as "warlords" might be prudent under present circumstances,...
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2005

Costs chill large firms' confidence

Business confidence among large companies in Japan plummeted in the January-March quarter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2005

A great selection from the Electors' finest treasures

Dresden -- from the Sorbish, meaning "dwellers in the marshy forest," was transformed in the late Renaissance from a Slav village to the jewel in the crown of the Duchy of Sachsen. This evolution had much to do with the art patronage of two monarchs, Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony (1670-1733)...
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2005

Iraq's Parliament convenes

Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and two and a half months after that country's historic elections, Iraq's Parliament held its inaugural session last week. Although the legislative session was more symbolic than substantive, the symbolism was important nonetheless. The convening of the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2005

Antisecession law may have opposite effect

HONG KONG -- The impact of the adoption by China of the antisecession law, widely criticized in Taiwan and in the West even before it was unveiled last Monday, may well be the opposite of what the drafters of the controversial legislation intended.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 21, 2005

Stock, flow of economy provide key insight into monetary policy

More attention is being focused on Japan's monetary policy, given the changing economic environment at home and overseas.

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