December 17, 2018
The central government plans to support municipal governments in Okinawa Prefecture so they can store necessary food, blankets and emergency toilets for three years from fiscal 2019, in a bid to impro...
KATOWICE, Poland — Japan failed to show its presence at the U.N. climate talks in Poland that ended on Saturday.
While Germany and France clearly pledged to increase contributions to the internat...
SEOUL (Jiji Press) — A suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers on Friday urged the South Korean government to handle the issue of wartime labor appropriately under international law. In a joint ...
SEOUL — Japan and South Korea were unable to mend a rift stemming from the issues of comfort women and lawsuits filed by former requisitioned workers when a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers...
Under the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law (see below) set to take effect in April next year, foreign workers in the nursing care business will be in supplementary roles such a...
The government on Friday started landfill work, depositing soil and sand in the coastal area of the Henoko district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where land will be reclaimed and used for the replaceme...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Foreign Minister Taro Kono, at a press conference Tuesday, did not answer any questions over the northern territories. Kono’s silence was apparently aimed at avoiding causin...
SEOUL (Jiji Press) — Seoul on Wednesday asked Tokyo to respond carefully to recent South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese companies to compensate for wartime labor, according to South...
The government plans to possess the capability to jam hostile communication satellites in outer space, a new policy stipulated in a draft outline of the next National Defense Program Guidelines set t...
The revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was recently enacted, allowing Japan to accept more foreign workers. Following is a look behind the scenes at how this historic policy chang...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Crown Princess Masako, who will become the country’s new Empress on May 1 next year when the crown prince accedes to the throne, expressed her resolve to make continued effor...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government on Monday set the policy of effectively excluding major Chinese telecommunications equipment makers Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. from procurement contra...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Self-Defense Forces is considering adding training units in response to an increasing number of female officers, informed sources told Jiji Press on Saturday. The SDF fin...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Diet enacted Saturday a bill to allow the country to have 10 straight days off from April 27 to May 6 next year, including the day of the crown prince’s accession to the ...
The House of Councillors approved a bill revising the immigration law during a plenary session before dawn on Saturday, with support mainly coming from the ruling parties.
The passage of the revise...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition is poised to push a bill to accept more foreign workers through the Diet on Friday, ahead of Monday’s end of the ongoing...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso raised ¥258.17 million in political funds in 2017, the highest amount in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a Jiji P...
To counter China’s growing maritime advances in the Pacific, the government intends to actively dispatch Air Self-Defense Force planes to Pacific island nations to promote exchanges with locals in ...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A government panel on Thursday recommended the introduction of a variable work hour system for public school teachers to tackle the problem of their overwork. The system is e...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The battle between the ruling and opposition parties intensified on Thursday over a bill aimed at allowing Japan to accept more foreign workers. At a meeting of the Judicial ...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed Russian President Vladimir Putin visit Japan next summer during the World Judo Championships in Tokyo, an aide to Abe said Wednesday.
A...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Diet enacted Thursday a bill to amend the water supply law aimed at promoting local governments’ outsourcing of water supply services to the private sector, amid concerns...
NEW YORK (Jiji Press) — The U.N. General Assembly adopted Wednesday a Japan-led resolution calling for united action toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The General Assembly adopted a...
The Liberal Democratic Party has decided to give up on presenting a four-item draft for constitutional revisions, which includes adding a clause stipulating the legal basis for the Self-Defense Force...
NAHA (Jiji Press) — A high court on Wednesday backed a lower court’s rejection of a petition from the Okinawa prefectural government to block the central government’s work to relocate a U.S. M...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller is set to give the first public insight into how much information U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has shared with p...
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) — Email accounts for a campaign group backing Republican candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives were hacked before this year’s congressional electio...
The government presented a draft of the new National Defense Program Guidelines, which are scheduled to be formulated in mid-December, to an expert panel on security on Wednesday. Based on discussion...
The government intends to announce the name of the new era to follow Heisei on or after April 1 next year, before the crown prince’s enthronement on May 1 and the subsequent change of the era name, ...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government’s regular budget is projected to top ¥100 trillion for the first time for fiscal 2019 from next April, informed sources said Monday. The fiscal 2019 budget l...
A suprapartisan group of Diet members has compiled a bill aimed at fostering Japanese education for foreign nationals, putting forward a policy stating that three sectors — the central government, ...
The government is considering allowing the Self-Defense Forces to respond to cyber-attacks even when such attacks are not accompanied by conventional weapons, if the country that launched the attack i...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill to allow the country to have 10 straight days off from April 27 to May 6 next year, including the date of Crown Prince Na...
With next year’s Group of 20 summit of major economies to be held in Osaka, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eyeing a successful conference that will see leaders from the United States, China, Russia an...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The National Personnel Authority started accepting on Monday applications for the first-ever unified examinations to hire people with disabilities as national government worker...
SEOUL (Jiji Press) — South Korean President Moon Jae In has called for avoiding any negative impact of history issues on bilateral relations with Japan, the presidential office said Monday. Histo...
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Monday the government will start the placement of soil in landfill work off the Henoko coastal district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Dec. ...
U.S. political scientist Ian Bremmer said on Wednesday that Japan, which has a functioning democracy, is serving as a good model for the world, and that it should further exercise leadership in the g...
Historian Ikuhiko Hata has been alarmed by the unbalanced availability of information on the thorny issue of wartime comfort women (see below) and is eager to reach more people with information that ...
