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JAPAN
Jun 20, 2001

Koizumi to commemorate Okinawa battle

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Okinawa Prefecture on Saturday to attend ceremony marking the 56th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa between U.S. and Japanese forces, the government's top spokesman said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2001

Japan urges China to drop special tariffs

Japan urged China on Tuesday to retract a decision to slap special tariffs on cars, mobile phones and air conditioners imported from Japan in retaliation for emergency curbs imposed by Japan on Chinese farm imports.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2001

Three challenges for Koizumi

Approximately 50 days have passed since the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was sworn in. Various opinion surveys have shown that its public approval ratings have climbed to nearly 90 percent from around 80 percent at the time of its birth, defying the usual pattern of approval rates declining...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2001

Mori tapped to attend U.N. AIDS meet

The government hinted Monday that it would send former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to the U.N. Special Session on HIV/AIDS to be held June 25 to 27 at the U.N. headquarters in New York, sources said.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Japan won't sign U.S.-less Kyoto: Tanaka

Japan will not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming if the United States stays out of it, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Missile plan, Okinawa top Tanaka trip agenda

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka heads for Washington today with the U.S. missile defense plan and issues related to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa topping the agenda for talks to be held on Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2001

Time for the suits to make way for dresses

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Japan is going through an interesting period of political change. Or is it? A Japanese colleague in Cambridge who was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago came back to say that it was only an interlude and that the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would only last a few months,...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

870,000 subscribers make Koizumi e-zine No. 1?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday launched the inaugural edition of his e-mail magazine, which, with more than 870,000 subscribers, perhaps makes it one of the largest e-mail magazines in the world. The number of subscribers is ballooning by the minute, the government's public relations division...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Ministry has wine bonanza on public funds

The Foreign Ministry spent around 30 million yen on 4,427 bottles of wine in the three years beginning fiscal 1997, according to documents revealed by the ministry Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 15, 2001

You're not leaving the table till you finish those vegetables

Some nights, I drift off to sleep feeling as smug as if I'd just outwitted the devil. My husband has clued in to my little G spot of contentment, so when he wants to get on my good side, he knows to whisper: "Rio ate lots of vegetables today."
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2001

Keidanren backs Koizumi's reform initiatives

The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) pledged its "full support" Thursday for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reform initiatives, even if such steps bring a negative impact on the economy.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

Launch date for spy satellites delayed until July 2003

The government decided Wednesday to postpone the launch of two of four domestically developed reconnaissance satellites by five months until July 2003, due to delays in parts procurement.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Yamasaki to ask BOJ for even easier money

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Wednesday he will ask Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami to ease monetary policy further to prevent the economy from decelerating.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Long road ahead for planned judicial reform

Following Tuesday's proposals by the Judicial Reform Council, which came after two years of strenuous deliberations, attention has shifted to how the government will introduce the sweeping changes in cooperation with judicial parties.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Kajiyama left behind 400 million yen estate

Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama, who died last June at age 74, left behind about 400 million yen in taxable assets.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2001

Low growth is the price of reforms

Japan will have to endure low economic growth over the next two to three years as the nation undergoes radical reforms, a key government economic panel said in the draft of a reform blueprint to be released later this month.
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2001

Discord in the Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry has been mired in an internal struggle between Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and senior ministry bureaucrats. The faceoff shows no signs of ending, although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has issued a warning to both Mrs. Tanaka and Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima. Mrs....
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Recession looms as GDP shrinks 0.2%

Japan's economy shrank during the last three months of fiscal 2000, according to government data released Monday, confirming fears that the world's second-largest economy is on the brink of another recession.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2001

Economists expect further deterioration

Private-sector economists said Monday the economy will probably shrink further during the current business year, falling short of the government's macroeconomic target of 1.7 percent growth.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Koizumi's reform foes entrenched

With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi firing off a barrage of reform proposals aimed at turning the ailing economy around, his foes, including fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and bureaucrats keen to protect vested interests, are drawing battle lines.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Tanaka threatens legal action

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Thursday she is considering taking legal action against bureaucrats in her ministry who she claims have leaked remarks she reportedly made about the U.S. missile defense program.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Tanaka's reported faux pas concern U.S., Yanai says

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has expressed strong concern over the confusion surrounding reports that Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has raised doubts about missile defense and the Japan-U.S. alliance, the Japanese ambassador to the U.S. said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2001

Will Koizumi play his trump card?

The idea of holding simultaneous elections for both Diet Houses persists among "not a few" Liberal Democrats. There is more than one reason for this. Despite the unprecedented popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Cabinet, his Liberal Democratic Party does not enjoy equally high approval...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Falling land prices lure crowds back to Tokyo

Falling land prices in central Tokyo's Chiyoda, Chuo and Minato wards encouraged more people to live in the heart of the capital this year, the land ministry said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Nonperforming ODA must be reviewed, Tanaka says

Japan needs to review the effectiveness of the aid it extends to developing countries and cut unnecessary official development assistance, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Advisory panel starts discussing postal privatization

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched an advisory panel Monday to discuss the privatization of postal services.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Tanaka knocked Bush, missile plan in talks with Australian diplomat, Fukuda says

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday that Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka criticized U.S. plans for a National Missile Defense system when she met with her Australian counterpart last week.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2001

The brass tacks of reform

Over the past month or more, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has told the nation time and again that he is determined to fight forces opposed to change. Now he is coming to the point where he must show he means what he says. The immediate challenge is to flesh out his vision of "structural reform with...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami