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 Topic: PoliticsThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
Posted by: Timmy on Thursday, December 06, 2007 - 10:56 PM
Politics
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The government is set to regulate the Internet by integrating current laws concerning information, telecommunications and broadcasting, it was announced on Thursday.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications unveiled its plan to submit a bill to the regular Diet session in 2010 aimed at unifying the Telecommunications Business Law, the Broadcast Law and other relevant laws.
The move is aimed at paving the way for the government to regulate the contents on the Net, which has enormous influence on society.
The new legal measures could also affect the distribution of newspaper articles on the Internet.
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 - 11:18 PM
Politics
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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda apologized on Wednesday to Japanese war orphans left behind in China for the delay in the government's response to their plight.
"I am sorry the government was slow to become aware of your situation," Fukuda was quoted as saying during a meeting with 15 representatives of plaintiffs for lawsuits filed against the government by the Japanese war orphans left behind in China and their lawyers.
"I want you to be happy with the (new) law," the prime minister said, referring to the recent revision to the law aimed at supporting the lives of the Japanese orphans who were left behind in China but have permanently returned to Japan.
The revised law was passed in the Diet and was enacted on Nov. 28.
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 10:32 PM
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Former top Defense Ministry bureaucrat Takemasa Moriya and his wife were arrested Wednesday for accepting bribes from a former executive of a defense contractor, prosecutors said.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office began on Wednesday morning to question Moriya, 63, former administrative vice defense minister, and his 56-year-old wife Sachiko and served arrest warrants for them later in the day.
Motonobu Miyazaki, 69, former senior managing director at Yamada Corp. spent nearly 3.9 million yen on golf outings as a bribe for Moriya and his wife, prosecutors said. In return, the bureaucrat used his authority to help the company win defense contracts, according to investigators.
Prosecutors are also investigating allegations that Moriya accepted about 4 million yen in cash from Miyazaki.
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 10:31 PM
Politics
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Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa mimicked the pose of popular cross-dressing makeup artist Ikko during an award ceremony for Dime magazine's trends of the year.
Attending the Shogakukan Dime Trend Award as a surprise guest on Tuesday, Ozawa appeared delighted as his party was awarded a special prize for winning the House of Councillors election earlier this year.
"I wonder if I did something worthy of a special prize," said Ozawa. "I'm delighted to receive a traditional prize. Thank you," he added.
When asked if he knows Ikko, he looked puzzled, but when asked about Ikko's signature phrase "Dondakee," Ozawa proudly said, "I've heard this phrase."
Flanked by Ikko, Ozawa pointed his right index finger in the air in doing the makeup artist's trademark pose. Ikko was also awarded the trendy person of the year prize.
The 20th annual ceremony gave awards to commercial products and services that were trendy this year.
This year's Grand Prix went to "White Plan," a relatively cheap monthly basic rate system for SoftBank Mobile phones, while "Billy's Boot Camp" won the award in the hobby and leisure category. McDonald's "Mega Mac" won the award for the life and health division.
Miyazaki Prefecture scooped a special prize after its comedian-turned Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru boosted the recognition of the prefecture through his nationwide popularity.
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Posted by: Timmy on Friday, November 16, 2007 - 01:44 AM
Politics
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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda arrived Thursday on his first visit to the United States as Japan's leader, planning talks with President George W. Bush on Friday that will touch on sensitive subjects.
One of the most sensitive is the Bush administration's apparent plan to remove North Korea from the U.S. State Department's list of terror-exporting states. The removal apparently was given as an incentive to the North to scrap its nuclear weapons program. Fukuda opposes the idea without a full accounting from North Korea of more than a dozen Japanese who Japan says were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
Before Fukuda landed Thursday, he picked up support from a member of Bush's Republican Party in the House of Representatives, Rep. Ed Royce. Royce is the senior minority member on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and trade.
In a statement, Royce said the Bush administration appeared ready to ignore Japan's position in favor of a North Korean government that cannot be trusted. "It is increasingly clear that the United States' approach is risking a key alliance for little in return from North Korea," Royce said.
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Posted by: Timmy on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - 02:29 AM
Politics
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Justice Minister Yukio Hatoyama caused ripples again over the weekend when he told a gathering here that "all my statements about public safety have been totally devoid of lies."
Among Hatoyama's recent statements have been the claim that he was warned about a terrorist threat to Japan "from a friend of a friend who is in al-Qaida."
Uproar greeted that claim made by Hatoyama at a news conference he gave to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
Following outcry from a group of bereaved relatives of terror victims, Hatoyama issued a written apology.
However, having told the Kurume gathering that he had "told no lies," the Justice Minister appears likely to come in for flak again.
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, November 07, 2007 - 11:50 PM
Politics
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The prefectural government punished 499 officials on Wednesday for their involvement in a slush fund scandal, the governor said.
"I understand the graveness of the incident," Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru told a press conference on Wednesday. "I believe we've got to the bottom of it. I'd like to take this opportunity to make a fresh start."
Of the 499 officials, two were suspended from duty -- one for one month and the other for 15 days -- while 19 others were slapped with wage cuts. The others have been reprimanded.
They were involved in the creation of slush funds totaling around 370 million yen by falsely reporting that their sections had purchased office supplies and through other methods.
About 1,550 senior officials and retired officials are set to voluntarily return a combined 67 million yen to the prefectural government's coffers by the end of this year.
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Posted by: Timmy on Monday, November 05, 2007 - 10:01 PM
Politics
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High-ranking officials with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) agreed to persuade President Ichiro Ozawa not to resign during an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon.
The move came a day after Ozawa abruptly announced his resignation as party president to take responsibility for the political turmoil he caused in connection with the botched plan for a grand coalition with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
DPJ executives confirmed that they would not make the issue of the grand coalition with the LDP a premise for persuading Ozawa to stay, but that they would accept policy debates with the LDP on such individual themes as security issues.
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 02:30 AM
Politics
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Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is poised to ask former defense administrative vice minister Takemasa Moriya to voluntarily return his retirement payout after he was lavishly entertained by a defense contractor, it was learned Tuesday.
Ishiba learned that the former managing director of defense contractor Yamada Corp. paid much of Moriya's golfing expenses, as well as treated him to meals at posh restaurants and played mahjongg together until at least the autumn of last year, a time when Moriya was still the ministry's top unelected official.
Moriya is apparently aware that his behavior has gone beyond the bounds acceptable under ethical guidelines set down for members of the nation's Self-Defense Forces.
"We had a private relationship and there was no way I could stop playing golf with him. I didn't think enough about being the administrative vice minister and I deeply regret that," Moriya has been quoted as saying.
Ishiba talked to reporters Tuesday morning after a Cabinet meeting, giving them the main points of a Defense Ministry investigation into claims that Moriya had been wined and dined by the managing director of Yamada Corp., a Tokyo-based trading company specializing in defense equipment.
Ishiba said Moriya told investigators he could remember playing golf until at least the autumn of last year, but could not comment on the number of times he had teed off. He said he paid the Yamada Corp. executive 10,000 yen per game. That would have left the remainder of the bill in the hands of the defense contractor, who also forked out for Korean barbecue meals and took on the Defense Ministry bigwig in mahjongg games after they had finished.
When Yamada's executive wined and dined top officials from the U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. Department of State on their visits to Japan, Moriya got invited along, with the contractor once again picking up the tab.
"It's pretty hard for people to accept the notion that it was fine for him to collect his retirement pay just because he didn't get caught while he was still in the position," the defense minister said, suggesting he will ask Moriya to voluntarily pay back the money into public coffers.
Ishiba also accepted he had to take some of the blame considering Moriya was being bestowed with favors while Ishiba was in charge of him in his previous stint at the helm when the ministry was still an agency.
"I've got to take responsibility for the fact that we didn't know what was going on at the time, but I just couldn't imagine someone in such an important position could be going around doing that kind of stuff," Ishiba said. "It's really sad."
Moriya was close friends with the Yamada Corp. executive for decades and their families often spend time together. Yamada Corp. records showed that Moriya and the managing director played golf as frequently as four times a month and sometimes up to 30 times a year.
The former top-ranking Defense Ministry bureaucrat has told the Mainichi a slightly different story to what he is supposed to have said to ministry investigators.
"I never played golf while I was the administrative vice minister, nor did I do any favors for anyone," he recently told a Mainichi reporter.
In other Defense Ministry related developments Tuesday, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda issued Ishiba with a severe verbal reprimand over the under-reporting of fuel the Maritime Self-Defense Force used in supporting the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Debate on whether Japan should extend the mission also began in the House of Representatives in an afternoon session.
From the Mainichi.
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Posted by: Timmy on Saturday, October 13, 2007 - 12:10 AM
Politics
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The largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the People's New Party (PNP) agreed Friday to jointly submit a bill to review the recent privatization of Japan Post to the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, party officials said.
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Read full article: 'DPJ, PNP move to form House of Councillors alliance' (640 bytes more)
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Posted by: Timmy on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - 02:39 AM
Politics
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Japan has extended economic sanctions on North Korea, citing a lack of progress in a row over Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang.The measures - which ban imports from North Korea and visits by its ships - will continue for another six months.
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Read full article: 'Japan extends N Korea sanctions' (2626 bytes more)
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Posted by: BillyBobJoe on Saturday, July 08, 2006 - 02:33 PM
Politics
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July 6, 2006- Japan's refusal to join the West in slapping sanctions against the Burmese military, responsible for gross human rights violations, has disappointed activists and development experts who say Tokyo's continued foot-dragging on Burma is wrong.
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Read full article: 'Japan's soft policy on Burma under fire' (5159 bytes more)
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Posted by: BillyBobJoe on Friday, January 27, 2006 - 08:54 AM
Politics
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The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is calling for a review of the government's stance on the peaceful use of space to enable nonaggressive development of the final frontier for purely defensive purposes.
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Read full article: 'LDP eyes new role for Japan in space' (2737 bytes more)
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Posted by: BillyBobJoe on Thursday, January 26, 2006 - 07:06 AM
Politics
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A 55-year-old municipal assembly member of Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, was given 29 days of penal detention at the Tsuru Summary Court on Thursday for insulting a female customer at a pub by calling her "fatso." Penal detention, in which the sentence is served at a police jail, is a rare sentence for defamation, the Kofu District Court said.
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Read full article: ' Assemblyman gets 29 days for calling woman 'fatso'' (1569 bytes more)
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