May 15, 2012
BEIJING--A joint declaration issued at the trilateral summit here deleted all references to North Korea and its nuclear program after Japan and South Korea objected to China’s “soft” wording about the country, sources said.
May 15, 2012
BEIJING--Chinese President Hu Jintao snubbed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on May 14 amid sharp criticism from Chinese officials against Japan’s hosting of an international conference of Uighur exiles.
May 14, 2012
BEIJING--An unusually contentious tone developed in talks between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on May 13 over what one senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official referred to as the “Ishihara shock.”
May 14, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar tightened security for a visit by President Lee Myung-bak on May 14, the first by a South Korean leader since an assassination attempt by North Korean commandos nearly 30 years ago.
May 14, 2012
OI, Fukui Prefecture--In rare good news for the central government, Oi Mayor Shinobu Tokioka has signaled his readiness to approve a resumption of operations at the Oi nuclear power plant, according to sources.
May 12, 2012
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said May 11 he could allow reactors to restart at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture even before the planned new nuclear regulatory agency is established.
May 11, 2012
Tokyo and Washington have decided to assign 12 MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft to a U.S. military facility in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, in mid-July, sources said, over the objections of local residents.
May 11, 2012
BEIRUT--Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on May 10, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago.
May 10, 2012
WASHINGTON--The first of a new class of U.S. coastal warships will be sent to Singapore next spring for a roughly 10-month deployment, the Navy said on May 9, spotlighting a move that may stir China's fears of U.S. involvement in South China Sea disputes.
May 09, 2012
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), Japan's biggest utility and the owner of the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant, will be taken over by the government after the country's trade minister on May 9 approved a $12.5 billion capital injection.
May 09, 2012
Lawyers serving as prosecutors on May 9 appealed the acquittal of Ichiro Ozawa, meaning that the political heavyweight’s legal battle will continue in the Tokyo High Court.
May 09, 2012
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda again put his political life on the line on May 8, when Diet deliberations finally started on legislation to raise the consumption tax rate.
May 09, 2012
A key subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings Co. will refrain from offering cancer insurance for the time being, removing a major thorn in Japan-U.S. talks on a prospective Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal.
May 08, 2012
Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada has set up a panel on administrative reform in an effort seen by some as a pretext for raising the consumption tax.
May 08, 2012
WASHINGTON -- The United States and China both have advanced cyber warfare capabilities and must work to avoid miscalculations that could lead to conflict, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on May 7 as he hosted the first visit by a Chinese defense minister in nine years.
May 07, 2012
PARIS--Socialist Francois Hollande swept to victory in France's presidential election on May 6 in a swing to the left at the heart of Europe and promised to start a pushback against German-led austerity policies.
May 07, 2012
Executives of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan on May 7 approved a plan for restoring the party membership of Ichiro Ozawa, its former president, who was found not guilty on April 26 on charges of falsifying political fund reports.
May 07, 2012
MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin took the oath as Russia's president on May 7 with a ringing appeal for unity at the start of a six-year term in which he faces growing dissent, economic problems and bitter political rivalries.
May 07, 2012
ATHENS -- Bailout-reliant Greece faces days, possibly weeks, of political instability after voters angry at crippling income cuts punished mainstream politicians, let a far-right extremist group into Parliament but gave no party enough votes to govern alone.
May 06, 2012
Japan has yet to chart a future energy policy although it hit the switch on its last operating nuclear reactor on May 5 following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.