October 01, 2012
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, citing pressing problems at home and overseas, reshuffled his Cabinet on Oct. 1 by filling the new administration with lawmakers who supported him in the ruling party’s presidential election.
October 01, 2012
GINOWAN, Okinawa Prefecture--Six Osprey aircraft arrived Oct. 1 at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma here as hundreds of islanders protested over safety concerns.
September 30, 2012
Japan's industry minister said the country must give up nuclear power plants as soon as possible because they pose too much risk in one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.
September 29, 2012
WASHINGTON--Two of the world's leading newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, printed double-page opinion ads in Sept. 28 editions titled "Diaoyu Islands belong to China."
September 29, 2012
Realizing it could not allow China to monopolize international discourse on the Senkaku Islands territorial dispute, the government has changed course and begun to aggressively speak out on Japan's legitimate sovereignty over the uninhabited islands.
September 29, 2012
From his regional base in Osaka, Mayor Toru Hashimoto finally has a political presence where it counts: Tokyo.
September 29, 2012
Whether Japan's idled reactors should resume power generation is a decision others must take, not the central government, the industry minister has said.
September 29, 2012
Anti-nuclear campaigners have demonstrated outside the prime minister's office weekly for six months now, bringing their message to the heart of government.
September 28, 2012
UNITED NATIONS -- China and Japan traded angry accusations in a late-night spat over a small group of islands in the East China Sea that both claim.
September 28, 2012
Japan's space agency is offering to use a high-resolution imaging satellite to monitor shipping near disputed islands, in the agency's first-ever maritime surveillance mission.
September 28, 2012
China indicated it might pay for damages to Japanese properties caused by the widespread protests that erupted after the Japanese government bought the Senkaku Islands earlier this month.
September 28, 2012
UNITED NATIONS--Myanmar's president on Sept. 27 called on the world to take a fresh look at his Southeast Asian nation as it undertakes reforms, emerges from decades of authoritarianism, poverty and isolation and sheds its former pariah status.
September 28, 2012
NEW YORK--South Korea's foreign minister said on Sept. 27 that Japan's wartime past will overshadow relations between the two staunch U.S. allies until Japan educates its people about crimes committed during colonial rule.
September 28, 2012
NEW YORK--U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sept. 27 urged China and Japan to let "cool heads" prevail in a festering dispute over a cluster of islands in the East China Sea that has soured ties between Asia's two largest economies.
September 27, 2012
BEIJING--China on Sept. 27 assailed Japan's prime minister as obstinate and wrong for saying his nation won't compromise in their island dispute, as Japanese lawmakers and business leaders visited Beijing with hopes of mending ties.
September 27, 2012
New Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe said he would allow Japan to come to the defense of allies that fall under military attack if he becomes prime minister for a second time, changing long-held government policy.
September 27, 2012
NEW YORK/BEIJING--Japan will not compromise on the islands at the heart of a dispute with China as Tokyo already has sovereignty over them, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Sept. 26 after China's foreign minister angrily declared the islets were "sacred territory."
September 26, 2012
The central government underestimated China's likely reaction to its Sept. 11 decision to purchase three disputed islands in the East China Sea and saw relations plummet despite a careful reckoning of the possible consequences.
September 26, 2012
TAIPEI--The flotilla of Taiwanese fishing boats that encroached on Japanese territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands on Sept. 25 highlighted a weak point in otherwise cordial relations between Japan and Taiwan: the unresolved issue of fishing rights in the surrounding areas.
September 26, 2012
VIENNA--United Nations nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano, a key figure in international diplomacy over Iran's disputed nuclear activity, will seek a new four-year term next year, the Vienna-based organization said on Sept. 26.