National / Politics Sep 19, 2017
Abe eyes tax revenue for child-rearing support in election platform
Social security reform is expected to be a key policy for the ruling LDP if Prime Minister Abe calls a snap Lower House election in October.
National / Politics Sep 17, 2017
Abe poised to dissolve Lower House for snap general election
by Reiji Yoshida
Media reports say that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to dissolve the Lower House as early as Sept. 28 and call a snap election.
National / Politics Sep 15, 2017
Putin aide sees Japan-Russia talks moving steadily toward WWII peace treaty
Valentina Matviyenko, head of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, told a visiting Japanese ruling bloc official on Thursday that Tokyo and Moscow are steadily making progress in their talks to conclude a peace treaty to formally end their World War ...
National / Politics Sep 14, 2017
Komeito chief Yamaguchi says Abe's idea to amend Constitution 'difficult' without public support
The leader of Komeito, the junior coalition partner to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, expressed pessimism Wednesday about the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambition to amend the Constitution, including its war-renouncing Article 9, by 2020. "It would be difficult without significant public support," Natsuo Yamaguchi ...
National / Politics Jul 31, 2017
LDP mulls constitutional amendment to ensure equal education
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party may push to amend the Constitution to ensure financial factors do not deprive Japanese of the opportunity to get an education, party sources said Sunday. In May, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is also president of the LDP, embarked on ...
National / Politics Jul 24, 2017
Sendai elects opposition-backed Kori as next mayor, dealing another blow to Abe's LDP
An opposition-backed former lawmaker won the Sendai mayoral election on Sunday, a result certain to pile pressure on the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which is reeling from scandals and waning public support. Kazuko Kori's victory in Miyagi Prefecture is the second major local ...
National / Politics Jul 6, 2017
LDP lawmakers play it safe on revising Constitution after Tokyo election defeat
Some ruling party members urge putting the brakes on Abe-led bid to revise the postwar Constitution.
National / Politics Jun 30, 2017
Single-seat districts and turnout seen as key to Koike's prospects in Tokyo assembly race
Voter turnout and single-seat districts are expected to hold the key to success for Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's party in the metropolitan assembly election on Sunday. Koike’s Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First Group) aims to win at least a simple majority of the 127 ...
National / Politics Jun 22, 2017
Opposition parties compel Abe to reopen Diet for Kake probe, invoking Article 53
by Reiji Yoshida
Invoked Article 53 obliges Abe convene an extraordinary Diet session to deliberate on the brewing scandal, but still leaves room for the Cabinet to delay.
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Jun 3, 2017
Is Japan slipping into prewar politics?
by Michael Hoffman
"The recent flurry of legislation, including a proposed anti-conspiracy amendment to the organized crime law, recalls prewar Japan," Kobe University criminal law scholar Hirofumi Uchida told the Asahi Shimbun in an interview in March. "Prewar Japan" is a pregnant phrase. It suggests militarist fascism. The ...
National / Politics May 31, 2017
Abe's coalition ally warns military shift could rile neighbors
by Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition partner warned that a proposal to broaden the military's role to strike back against enemy attacks risks upsetting Japan's neighbors. "Japan has gained the trust of neighboring countries by adopting an exclusively defensive posture," Natsuo Yamaguchi, who leads the Buddhist-backed ...
National / Politics May 18, 2017
No-confidence vote falters, paving way for conspiracy bill to be rammed through Lower House
by Reiji Yoshida
The no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda was delaying the controversial conspiracy bill, which will likely be rammed through the powerful Lower House next week.