Tag - political

 
 

POLITICAL

EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2010
Critical labor negotiations
The annual wage negotiations have started amid difficult economic conditions, including a high unemployment rate topping 5 percent and a prevailing fear of a second recessionary dip. The Japanese economy is in such bad shape that the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor organization, has given up seeking an increase in basic pay. Instead, Rengo will concentrate on securing a periodic wage increase based on age or years of service. A guideline for wage talks issued by the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Japan's strongest business lobby, attaches importance to firm control of personnel costs and calls not only for the rejection a base-pay raise, but also for decreases in periodic raises in pay and allowances.
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008
Consider election consequences
Last month I read about (U.S. Democratic presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton's win in the Pennsylvania primary. Every Japanese newspaper put Clinton's exciting big face in their articles. She looked so happy, pointing her finger at supporters. Looking at these photos, I thought that Americans seem happy about selecting their own candidate for president.
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008
The Japanese view of ending life
Regarding David Quintero's May 4 letter, "High Japanese suicide rate mystifies," and the question he poses (Why do so many Japanese people kill themselves?): I don't have a definitive answer, but I have come up with a few theories:
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 4, 2008
Politics in game of never-ending musical chairs
A nearly unbroken line of Liberal Democratic Party politicians has headed the government since the party's 1955 formation. This dominance, however, was shaken by the stunning victory of the Democratic Party of Japan in the July 2007 House of Councilors election. In this reshaped political landscape, the two Diet chambers are controlled by different camps.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces