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JAPAN
Apr 6, 2012

Budget finally passed

The fiscal 2012 budget, at more than ¥90 trillion the biggest in history, was finally enacted by the Diet on Thursday as an earlier vote in the Lower House took priority after the opposition-controlled Upper House shot it down earlier in the day.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2012

Myanmar marching forward

The news from Myanmar continues to be positive. Parliamentary by-elections went ahead as scheduled, and despite some claims of vote irregularities, the results appear to be in line with most expectations. At the same time, the government is proceeding with economic reforms that could have even more widespread...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 3, 2012

Revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail: readers' responses

Some responses to Debito Arudou's March 6 Just Be Cause column, "Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 3, 2012

Polish envoy comes to terms with 3/11 via noh

Jadwiga Rodowicz-Czechowska, Poland's ambassador to Japan, says she was utterly heartbroken when she witnessed the catastrophe caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Tohoku last March.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 2, 2012

Noda's plan to increase sales tax

There's no such thing as a popular tax increase. Woe betide the leader who sees no other way out of a fiscal impasse.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 1, 2012

Naohiko Jinno: Master of public finance brings life to numbers

Born the grandson of a once-prosperous textile manufacturer in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, Naohiko Jinno says that when he was growing up he was told by his mother, over and over again, that money was not important.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2012

3/11 cast a spotlight on the importance of international cooperation: Sadako Ogata

The March 2011 disasters have increased Japanese awareness of international cooperation, says Sadako Ogata, and the departing president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency hopes this will lead the government to play a larger role in assisting developing nations.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2012

Cabinet OKs bill to double sales tax by '15

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his ruling Democratic Party of Japan-led government managed to submit the contentious bill to the Diet on Friday to double the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, while junior coalition partner Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) was on the verge of collapsing over...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2012

Singer finds fusion in Japan's cultural dichotomy

Japan's fusion of the traditional and modern fascinated musician Yara Eddine as a young child when she learned about the country at a school in Canada. Fifteen years later, Eddine witnessed this integration firsthand.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2012

Output fall clouds recovery

Industrial production unexpectedly dropped in February, undercutting signs of an economic rebound in the first quarter as policymakers assess whether to apply further stimulus.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2012

Politicians battle Tepco hike

With Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s rate increase for businesses looming from Sunday, politicians were trying to somehow stop the move or at least make sure the utility won't resort to drastic actions against those customers unwilling to go along with the hike, such as cutting off their power.
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2012

Surprising choice for World Bank

U.S. President Barack Obama has named Dr. Jim Yong Kim as his nominee to lead the World Bank. In the past, that would have been the end of the process — Washington spoke and the bank complied. It is still probable that Mr. Kim will assume the post in June when it becomes vacant, but old certainties...
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2012

Firms furious over Tepco rate hike

Businesses are displeased to say the least with Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s rate hike taking effect April 1, as it will put an extra burden on their operating costs, especially in those industries that use a large amount of power.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2012

DPJ leaders end acrimonious talks on tax hike, will move bill forward

The Democratic Party of Japan endorsed a bill Wednesday to double the consumption tax to 10 percent by October 2015 after forcibly ending discussions dominated by party members critical of the DPJ leadership.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 29, 2012

Serrao debacle leaves Gamba searching for stability

There was always a danger that Gamba Osaka would need time to adapt to life without former manager Akira Nishino, but no one expected things to turn out quite so badly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 29, 2012

Korean boy band F. T. Island still look to grow after release of 'Grown Up'

At an agency studio in southern Seoul, three of the five members of South Korean pop group F.T. Island are waiting; the missing two are still at the doctor. Of those present, bassist Lee Jae Jin looks at this writer with a curious grin but becomes alert when our eyes meet. Guitarist and so-called leader...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2012

Cultist who hid Aum fugitive gets 14 months

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Aum Shinrikyo member Akemi Saito to 14 months in prison Tuesday for harboring fugitive cultist Makoto Hirata for more than 14 years.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2012

Kansai politicians want new safety regime before Oi reactor restart

Politicians in the Kansai region are increasingly coming out against approving any early restart of two nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture unless the central government first issues new safety guidelines that would hopefully prevent another crisis like Fukushima No. 1.
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2012

The symmetry of slaughter

After Mohamed Merah died in a hail of French police bullets last Thursday, people who had known him talked about "a polite and courteous boy" who liked "cars, bikes, sports and girls." His friends had trouble believing that he had murdered seven people, including three children, in a 10-day killing spree...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2012

Choosing sides once again in Europe

Even as many European nations recoil from the obligations of economic union (because neither borrowers nor lenders are very happy these days), a radical cross-border European politics is being born.

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