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JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Diet votes to continue session into summer

Despite threats from the opposition to boycott future Diet sessions, the House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to extend the current ordinary session by 40 days.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Diet votes to continue session into summer

Despite threats from the opposition to boycott future Diet sessions, the House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to extend the current ordinary session by 40 days.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2003

Diet votes to continue session into summer

Despite threats from the opposition to boycott future Diet sessions, the House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to extend the current ordinary session by 40 days.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Fueling U.S. planes that attack is legal: official

U.S. aircraft receiving fuel provided by the Self-Defense Forces and subsequently attacking Iraq would not constitute an act of collective defense, Osamu Akiyama, Cabinet legislation bureau director general, said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2002

Corporate whistle-blowers still left out in the cold

Prompted by a recent spate of corporate misdeeds, moves are afoot, albeit slowly, to provide legal protection for whistle-blowers.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Opposition parties to bring no-confidence motion to vote

The four main opposition parties agreed Monday to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Prosecutors seek warrant for Suzuki

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant Monday for lawmaker Muneo Suzuki for allegedly taking a 5 million yen bribe from a Hokkaido lumber firm in 1998.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2002

Koizumi determined to push four postal bills through Diet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed his strong determination Friday to clear all four bills on postal services deregulation in the current Diet session, braving fierce opposition from both the ruling and opposition blocs.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2002

National Oil reform plans face hurdle

An agreement seen as a test of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's promised reforms of inefficient government-linked corporations appears to be back on the negotiating table.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2002

'Secret' funds went to lawmakers in '91-'92: JCP

The early 1990s administration of Kiichi Miyazawa used 143.86 million yen in so-called discretionary funds to distribute to ruling and opposition party lawmakers and to cover personal expenses at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Japanese Communist Party revealed Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2002

No changes seen for January economic report

The government is considering leaving its gloomy assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report to be released by the Cabinet Office in mid-January, government officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

Tanaka isn't the true target

HONOLULU — Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has been engaged in a very public battle with Foreign Ministry officials since her appointment in April. While the controversy has focused on Tanaka's gaffes and her seeming inability to serve effectively as foreign minister, the real clash is more...
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

No trading for ministers, Fukuda says

The government has formally decided to give up a controversial proposal to remove a 12-year ban on Cabinet ministers engaging in stock transactions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 17, 2001

Can Koizumi avoid Hosokawa's fate?

It has been nearly eight months since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office, yet he remains hugely popular. Approval ratings for his administration are above 80 percent and show no sign of falling. How long will this continue?
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2001

Reform of state-linked firms encounters stiff resistance

A government proposal to drastically overhaul government-backed corporations is facing resistance from the ministries and agencies that control them, according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2001

Tanaka, Fukuda feud over top diplomats

A tug of war continued Wednesday over whether the nation's top diplomats would be removed, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda warning Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka that a prolonged stalemate could damage national interests.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2001

Avoid temptation of populism

The July 29 Upper House election is effectively a national referendum on the "reform without sacred cows" program of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. The central question is whether "Koizumi reform" will jump-start Japan's stalled economy and put it back on the long-term recovery course....
JAPAN
May 30, 2001

Koizumi initiatives debut in June

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet will launch an e-mail magazine June 14 and hold its first "town meeting" June 16 to boost dialogue with the public, government officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2001

Koizumi's 'no faction' call shunned before poll

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi failed Thursday to make his "no faction" policy an official party strategy for the upcoming House of Councilors election.
JAPAN
May 25, 2001

Tanaka puts reforms ahead of diplomacy

Staff writer Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took the nation by surprise in late April by appointing the key foreign ministry post to Makiko Tanaka, who despite her enormous popularity with voters obviously lacked experience in foreign policy.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2001

Economy gets fourth downgrade in a row

The government downgraded its assessment of economic conditions for the fourth straight month in its May report released Friday, saying the economy is "further weakening."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2001

Funny hair beats dark blue suits and bad teeth

One can gauge the emotions now churning through certain portions of the Liberal Democratic Party by a tearful comment made by a member of the Hashimoto faction following the unveiling of a memorial statue of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in Okinawa last week. The politician was not crying over...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2001

Koizumi tidal wave may crest

The past 10 days have been a tumultuous period in Japanese politics. I refer, of course, to the series of events from the resignation of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to the election of Junichiro Koizumi as Liberal Democratic Party president and prime minister and the inauguration of the Koizumi...
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2001

No more secret funds

The criminal complaint filed in January by the Foreign Ministry against the former official in charge of logistics for VIP trips overseas has led to his arrest on a charge of fraud. An internal investigation has revealed that Mr. Katsutoshi Matsuo, who was fired in January for embezzlement, had swindled...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Vote on Mori set for Monday

The opposition camp agreed Friday to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet on Monday morning, in the hope of securing the upper hand in the ongoing battle to remove the unpopular leader.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Embassies said to have fingers in pie

The Japanese embassies of countries officially visited by the prime minister customarily received part of the so-called secret funds controlled by the Cabinet Secretariat as a "bonus" for their services, informed sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

Receipts on secret diplomacy funds may have been improperly scrapped

The prime minister's office may have scrapped receipts for expenses paid with secret Cabinet Secretariat funds that a former Foreign Ministry diplomat at the center of an embezzlement scandal received from the office, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

Receipts on secret diplomacy funds may have been improperly scrapped

The prime minister's office may have scrapped receipts for expenses paid with secret Cabinet Secretariat funds that a former Foreign Ministry diplomat at the center of an embezzlement scandal received from the office, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2001

Scope of embezzlement probe widens

Tokyo police investigating the alleged embezzlement of government VIP travel funds broadened their inquiry and questioned a senior Foreign Ministry official who was once based at the Cabinet secretariat and involved in the fund's operation, sources close to the investigation said.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2001

Plagued by scandal yet again

Fukushiro Nukaga was forced to resign Tuesday as minister for economic and fiscal policy over allegations that he received 15 million yen from the mutual-aid organization KSD in return for favors. Nukaga denied accepting the money himself but admitted that one of his secretaries had received it. He said...

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