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JAPAN
Mar 11, 2004

Yen loans to China set to be reduced by 20%

China will slip from the top of Japan's yen-loan recipient list for fiscal 2003, as Tokyo plans to reduce aid to the country by 20 percent from the previous year to about 96.7 billion yen, according to a Foreign Ministry report unveiled Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2004

Consumer confidence up in Tokyo for second month

Consumer confidence in the Tokyo metropolitan area improved in February for the second straight month, reflecting brighter sentiment on employment, income growth and living standards, the government said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2004

Japan to sign global smoking treaty

The government said Tuesday it will sign the first global treaty aimed at reducing the health hazards from smoking.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2004

Manual on handling dead birds issued

Don't panic -- just look it up in the booklet.
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2004

Security bills merit deliberation

For all the talk about defending the country against possible armed attacks from abroad, Japan has no legal framework for protecting civilian populations in these national emergencies. Now, belatedly but necessarily, the government is seeking Diet approval of such legislation as a followup to the military...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2004

Municipal merger law to be updated

The Cabinet endorsed three bills Tuesday to update legislation to promote mergers of local administrations.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2004

TSE lauded for bypassing bureaucrats

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday praised a planned move by Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. to appoint people from the private sector -- and not former bureaucrats -- to top management, saying they are more likely to "energize" Japan's largest bourse.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2004

Northeast Asian safety valve

The six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons held in Beijing late last month ended without agreement on ways of achieving the complete abandonment of Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Little progress was made toward resolving differences between the North on one side and Japan, the United States...
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2004

Economy expanded again in January

The government said Friday that its key gauge of the state of the economy stayed above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent for the ninth straight month in January.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2004

Coalition readies bill to bar North Korea ships

The two ruling parties agreed at an executive meeting Wednesday to seek passage during the current Diet session of a bill aimed at giving Japan another tool to impose economic sanctions unilaterally on North Korea.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

DPJ lawmaker denies taking aide's pay

A senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan denied Tuesday he registered as his publicly paid secretary a woman who did not work for his office.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

22% say foreigners' rights secondary to locals'

Foreigners in Japan should not expect to have the same human rights protections here as Japanese, 21.8 percent of respondents in a fiscal 2002 survey said.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2004

Secret operations rock Blair's boat

LONDON -- From the moment Tony Blair let it be known that he had decided to send troops to Iraq, his days of smooth government were over. The decision unleashed all the dark forces of suspicion and a sense of illegality that are usually contained by democratic institutions. As the prime minister battles...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Northrop Grumman chief doesn't expect Japan competition

A U.S. defense industry leader said Tuesday in Tokyo that Japanese weapons manufacturers are unlikely to emerge as major competitors to their American rivals, even if Tokyo lifts its decades-old embargo on arms exports.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Koizumi eyes postal reform chief

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he will appoint a special minister this summer to oversee privatization of the postal services, hoping the appointment will help complete the reform by 2007.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2004

Six-nation working group to meet in March ahead of full talks

The six countries holding talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program are expected to set up a working group by the end of the month to prepare for their next meeting.
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2004

Asian tale of two technologies

MANILA -- Media developments influence not only our private lives, but also affect the way our societies and politics are organized. Before coming to the Philippines two years ago, I spent nearly six years in South Korea. In both countries, I observed the impact of media on political and social developments....
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2004

Ammo provision added to U.S. logistic support pact

Tokyo and Washington signed an amendment Friday to a bilateral agreement governing reciprocal provision of logistics support, supplies and services between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2004

Trial facts, figures make it one of biggest

The facts and figures surrounding Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara's almost eight-year trial are extraordinary.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2004

Rivalry threatens Sri Lankan ceasefire

COLOMBO -- There are growing fears that the recent political turmoil in Sri Lanka will seriously hamper the internationally supported effort to end the two decades of ethnic strife between the majority Buddhist Sinhalese and the minority Hindu Tamils.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2004

Japan set to play sanction card

Japan may impose economic sanctions on North Korea if the standoff over its nuclear threat and the abduction issue is prolonged, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2004

IMF exec backs yen intervention

Japan's yen-selling intervention against the dollar is appropriate due to the country's limited policy options to rescue the economy from deflation, Horst Koehler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

Final bills on attack response await OK

The government on Tuesday released the details of seven bills that would govern the legal procedures Japan must follow to respond to an armed attack.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2004

Japan's Iraq role wins praise of Annan

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday won a desperately needed endorsement from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for Japan's engagement in postwar aid missions in Iraq.

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