March 16, 2013
The government began work March 15 to overhaul Japan's energy policy. A panel discussed the value of alternative power sources but pointedly ignored a pledge by the previous government to pull the plug on nuclear power.
March 16, 2013
The announcement on March 15 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Japan would join negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership invites analysis of whether that free-trade arrangement would provide significant economic benefits. The government's estimates are far from compelling.
March 16, 2013
WASHINGTON--U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced plans on March to bolster U.S. missile defenses in response to "irresponsible and reckless provocations" by North Korea, which threatened a preventative nuclear strike against the United States last week.
March 16, 2013
SEOUL--North Korea, usually blamed for hacking others, has accused the United States of staging cyber attacks against its Internet servers after reports of disruptions to its main news services, the latest twist from an increasingly bellicose North.
March 15, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe congratulated new Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 14, but behind his diplomatic act were rising concerns in Tokyo about China’s military, maritime activities and the dispute over history perceptions.
March 15, 2013
WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama took mounting U.S. concerns about computer hacking straight to China's president on March 14 in a sign of how seriously the United States takes the threat of cyber attacks emanating from China.
March 15, 2013
A leading pachinko slot machine manufacturer paid at least 18 million yen ($187,520) to a business run by Diet member Hirotaka Ishihara's wife in hopes of securing political connections in the Philippines, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
March 14, 2013
LONDON--Asia's defense spending overtook Europe's for the first time last year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said on March 14, reflecting China's military rise and shrinking European economies.
March 14, 2013
In a possible violation of election laws, employees of a scandal-ridden casino developer assisted in the Lower House campaign of a son of former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara.
March 13, 2013
Japan plans to strengthen its maritime security alliance with Sri Lanka to curb China's growing influence on countries with Indian Ocean coastlines.
March 12, 2013
OSLO--Atomic bomb survivors and their supporters welcomed the first international conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, even though the two-day meeting made little tangible progress toward banning atomic arms.
March 12, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government decided on March 12 to hold a ceremony to mark the restoration of Japan's sovereignty seven years after defeat in World War Two, a sign of his drive to repair what conservatives consider dented national pride.
March 11, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed on March 11 to speed up rebuilding from the huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck Japan's northeast two years ago, promising that the nation would emerge stronger from its worst disaster since World War II.
March 08, 2013
Plans to honor the day Japan regained its sovereignty after the war have angered Okinawans, who see April 28 as the "day of humiliation" when their prefecture was forsaken by the Japanese government.
March 06, 2013
The government has called for greater "transparency" by China over its military amid word that Beijing's budgeted spending on defense will rise by almost 11 percent this year.
March 06, 2013
The Tokyo High Court on March 6 ruled that the December Lower House election was unconstitutional, but stopped short of invalidating the results, the first verdict handed down in a series of lawsuits over the election.
March 05, 2013
Japan will let the United States continue imposing tariffs on Japanese vehicles for now, a decision expected to help Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announce Japan's participation in talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade arrangement.
March 05, 2013
Japan's ruling party, while hardly a champion of environmental issues, is apparently rather touchy about any criticism of its policies in that area.
March 05, 2013
In a move that is bound to anger Beijing, the Japan Coast Guard is planning to use soon-to-be-mothballed Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to bolster patrols around the disputed Senkaku Islands.
March 04, 2013
Japan's concern over a standoff with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands is deepening as Beijing is dispatching helicopter-carrying vessels to the surrounding waters almost daily.