August 18, 2011
The Democratic Party of Japan has decided to leave the date of its presidential election to the discretion of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his secretary-general, Katsuya Okada.
August 17, 2011
The old guard of Japanese politics is dusting off their hair-dyeing kits and preparing for one last charge at power.
August 17, 2011
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, considered the frontrunner to succeed Naoto Kan as prime minister, has stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy in South Korea with a comment about Class-A war criminals.
August 16, 2011
Talk of forming a grand coalition with the two main opposition parties has had a strong ripple effect within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
August 15, 2011
As lawmakers jockey to become the next prime minister, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's upcoming leadership election is as much about what level of cooperation it will seek with the opposition camp.
August 15, 2011
The United States had a plan to construct a nuclear power plant on Okinawa when it was in charge of the civilian government of the islands in the 1950s, which would have preceded the first nuclear plant on Japanese soil, built in the early 1960s.
August 15, 2011
Instead of raising taxes, responsible politicians must fight vested interests to stoke economic growth and rebuild public finances, according to Shigeaki Koga, an industry ministry official who was sidelined for his reform-oriented stance.
August 13, 2011
After a period of being shunned by the prime minister, attacked by the opposition and even indicted, Ichiro Ozawa is moving toward recovering his influence within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
August 11, 2011
A new battle has erupted in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, this time over the timing of the party presidential election to replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
August 10, 2011
The United Nations is pressing Japan to send Self-Defense Forces engineers to South Sudan to handle road construction under a U.N. peacekeeping operation.
August 10, 2011
Ruling party lawmakers are stepping up moves to replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan and take over a country still reeling from the March 11 disaster and now struggling with financial and political turmoil.
August 10, 2011
Prime Minister Naoto Kan informed Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, on Aug. 9 that he would finally fulfill a promise made more than two months ago and resign immediately after two more bills that he had set as conditions passed the Diet.
August 09, 2011
With Prime Minister Naoto Kan expected to step down in the near future, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda will run in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election, sources said.
August 09, 2011
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is sending mixed signals about plans to visit the United States to give a keynote address to the United Nations in September on nuclear safety.
August 06, 2011
The United States considered building a nuclear power plant in Hiroshima in 1953, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower dismissed the idea, saying it would amount to indicating Washington's "sense of guilt" over the atomic bombing of the city in 1945.
August 06, 2011
LOS ANGELES--A training course using Christian ethics for U.S. Air Force officers in charge of nuclear missile launches, which was suspended in July, included references that seemed to justify the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
August 05, 2011
Japan's Self-Defense Forces opened their first overseas air base since the end of World War II in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, on July 1. The base is intended to beef up Japan's anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. This enhanced presence has been warmly welcomed by the host nation, the government of Djibouti, and U.S. and French armed forces, which have already been deployed there. But none of them thinks this new base will bring about a quick improvement of the situation--because the root cause of the piracy is not out at sea, but on the ground in the neighboring failing country of Somalia.