National / Crime & Legal Jan 13, 2020
Former Syria hostage Jumpei Yasuda sues Japan for denying him passport
The journalist says denying him a passport is “a violation of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of movement abroad.”
National / Politics Jan 11, 2020
Motegi to discuss North Korea and other issues with U.S. and South Korean foreign ministers
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi will meet with his U.S. and South Korean counterparts in San Francisco on Tuesday to discuss their cooperation on the denuclearization of North Korea. Motegi's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is ...
National Dec 29, 2019
Funeral prep for Emperor Hirohito began seven years before his death: declassified documents
The Foreign Ministry began funeral preparations for Emperor Hirohito seven years before his death, holding secret talks with the Imperial Household Agency on the matter in 1982, recently declassified ministry records show. The late monarch, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, died in 1989. The ministry and ...
National / Politics Dec 19, 2019
Japanese officials and U.S. envoy agree to stay in step on North Korea
The top U.S. envoy for North Korea agreed with senior officials of the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to continue working closely together amid a standstill in denuclearization talks with Pyongyang. Stephen Biegun and Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba confirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation with ...
National / Politics Oct 28, 2019
Japan's Foreign Ministry to provide Korean-language explanation of Rising Sun flag on website
Japan's Foreign Ministry plans to provide an explanation in Korean on use of the kyokujitsuki Rising Sun flag on its website, in addition to the details currently provided in Japanese and English. The ministry hopes to counter moves by South Korea to have Japan stop ...
National Aug 31, 2019
Japan's Foreign Ministry seeks to double WTO budget after defeat in Fukushima food ban case
The Foreign Ministry hopes to more than double its budget for activities related to the World Trade Organization in fiscal 2020 after losing a dispute over a South Korean ban on imports of Japanese seafood.
National / Social Issues Jul 31, 2019
Passports, maiden names, brackets: Japan Foreign Minister Taro Kono wades into a minefield
by Hinano Kobayashi
When Foreign Minister Taro Kono wrote on Twitter that he would order his ministry to look into the contentious issue of maiden names on passports in response to a tweet in early June, he may not have been aware of the minefield he was ...
National / Politics Jul 25, 2019
by Reiji Yoshida
Tokyo and Washington revised a set of 2005 guidelines Thursday that deal with off-base U.S. military aircraft accidents in Japan to allow for the "expeditious early entry" of Japanese officials into an inner cordoned off area to be set up around the wreckage, the ...
National Jul 16, 2019
Ex-captive Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda denied passport by Foreign Ministry
Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who returned home last year after more than three years of captivity in Syria, said Tuesday the government has denied him a new passport, effectively preventing him from traveling overseas. The Foreign Ministry notified him on July 10 that it based ...
National Jun 28, 2019
Activist Rebiya Kadeer calls on Japan to highlight persecution of Uighurs as Osaka G20 begins
by Tomohiro Osaki
As the Group of 20 summit formally kicked off in Osaka on Friday, Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent political activist for China's Uighur ethnic minority, urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to highlight Beijing's alleged persecution of the majority-Muslim group in the country's far west, slamming ...
Business / Economy | G20 Osaka Jun 25, 2019
Can the G20 summit pave a path for the future of multilateral trade?
by Satoshi Sugiyama
Since it first convened two decades ago, the Group of 20 summit has been regarded as a forum for developed and developing countries to take collective action against economic uncertainties. Now, as Japan prepares to host the summit for the first time, multilateralism and global ...