NEWSWORTHY
77% of Japanese town and village assembly members are elderly, and only 10% are female
Of the 10,956 town and village assembly members in Japan, 8,442, or 77.1 percent, were aged 60 or over as of July 1 last year, a survey showed Thursday. The survey by the national association of town and village assembly chairs covered 927 such assemblies ...
LDP to propose allowing lawmakers to vote online during maternity-related absences
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to propose allowing House of Representatives members to vote online if they are absent due to pregnancy or childbirth, LDP officials said Thursday. An LDP project team discussing Lower House reforms Thursday approved a plan to introduce online voting ...
Around 70 Japanese lawmakers visit war-linked Yasukuni Shrine for autumn festival
Around 70 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during its annual autumn festival Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine. Yasukuni Shrine, viewed by many as a symbol ...
LGBT people seek apology from Sugita after LDP lawmaker called them 'unproductive'
Members of sexual minority groups on Friday demanded an apology from a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who claimed in a magazine article that the government should not support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people because they cannot bear offspring and thus are "unproductive." LGBT ...
Nonbinding law to test Japan's political parties on gender equality
Political parties are being tested over whether they are earnestly committed to gender equality in Japan's male-dominated sphere of politics following a law enacted in late July. The legislation was an "important step" forward for encouraging women's participation in politics, said Fumio Kishida, chairman of ...
Japan's lawmakers' average income unchanged in 2017 at ¥24 million
Lawmakers' income averaged ¥24.12 million in 2017, unchanged from a year earlier, with the top three earning over ¥200 million each through stock sales, parliamentary data showed Monday. While Lower House members did not receive salaries during the dissolution of the Diet and general election ...
Aso's office admits deputy prime minister broke guidelines on golf club memberships
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso violated the ministers' guidelines recommending against the purchase or sale of golf club memberships while in office, a parliamentary report showed Monday. An official at Aso's office said the deputy prime minister "should have refrained from" buying ...
Danish lawmakers vote to seize asylum-seekers' valuables exceeding $1,500
Danish lawmakers voted Tuesday to let police seize valuables worth more than $1,500 from asylum-seekers to help cover their housing and food costs while their cases were being processed. After more than three hours of debate, the minority Liberal Party government's bill was adopted in ...
LDP lawmaker faces off against his party's old guard over child care leave plan
Liberal Democratic Party Lower House lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki wanted to do something to change the nation's declining birthrate, so he announced last month he planned to take child care leave after his wife gives birth. The representative from Kyoto's No. 3 district now has another ...
French lawmakers struggles with decision to join U.S. airstrike campaign on Islamic State
French lawmakers are debating the decision to join a military air campaign over Syria, raising new questions about what a year of U.S.-led bombing of the Islamic State group has accomplished. British, Australian and Belgian leaders are also considering expanding ongoing airstrikes in Iraq to ...
Lawmakers set up group to end killing of stray cats and dogs
A total of 53 lawmakers set up a nonpartisan animal protection group Thursday, with the aim of abolishing the killing of stray cats and dogs by local governments. Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party, who was named secretary general of the parliamentarians' group, told ...
