Japan

Last week, some 200 Chinese fishing boats were escorted by 13 coast guard vessels to waters just off Japanese-controlled islands claimed by both countries.

Japan realizes, irrespective of U.S. wishes, that it needs better relations with Russia in order to more effectively balance China within the region.

The International Monetary Fund said Japan should triple its consumption tax in order to cut the country’s massive public debt. At 5 percent, Japan’s consumption tax rate is one of the lowest in the world. Anoop Singh, IMF chief for Asia, said “It has been our sense… that raising the consumption tax gradually, not immediately, […]

The number of suicides in Japan surpassed 30,000 for the 14th year in a row in 2011, according to the National Police Agency. The numbers released this month show 30,513 people took their lives last year, down 1,177 from 2010. At a suicide rate of 28.3 per 100,000, Japan ranks third among OECD countries, and […]

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda retreated Friday from the strong assurances given by Finance Minister Jun Azumi the day before that Tokyo would cut oil imports from Iran. Noda said Azumi was expressing his “personal view” in supporting the U.S.’s attempt to isolate Iran over its nuclear program. “Japan’s basic stance is to resolve such […]

Japanese prosecutors indicted a Chinese fishing boat skipper for fishing illegally in Japanese waters, a local official said Friday. The arrest is the latest in a long series of events surrounding the tense Chinese-Japanese maritime relations. Zhong Jinyin was arrested in Japanese waters Dec. 20, the second arrest in the area in less than two […]

Japan is using 2.28 billion yen ($29.4 million) from its 12.1 trillion yen ($156 billion) extra budget passed last month to beef up security for its whaling fleet. This comes after Australia refused to deploy its own ships to protect Japan’s fleet as it does “scientific research” by killing whales in the South Ocean Whale […]

A committee of lawyers and an accountant appointed by Japanese precision technology maker Olympus said, “The management (at Olympus) was rotten to the core and contaminated what was around it, creating in the worst sense a group mentality of the typical salarymen,” in reference to the company’s practice of “tobashi,” making losses “fly off” the […]

Japan has voiced concern over the second trial of China’s first aircraft carrier, which started Tuesday. Even though the refitted Soviet carrier is technologically pretty much what you’d expect from a third-world country, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said, “I am concerned about their reinforcement of national defense power, which lacks transparency, and their acceleration […]

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan will offer Iraq $750 million in his meeting with visiting Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki Tuesday. The loans will go toward refurbishing oil refineries and other infrastructure and health care projects. Noda said: “We are proud of having contributed to the development of Iraq through yen loans and technical cooperation. […]

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has indicated that Japan will participate in U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks at the APEC summit next weekend in Hawaii. This has triggered emotional responses in both the U.S. and Japan, especially from farmers in Japan, and lawmakers in the U.S. Japan hasn’t been self-sufficient in food since 1920. Japan […]

Tokyo is planning to allow thousands of Thai workers employed by Japanese firms to come to Japan to work for six months as an “emergency and temporary measure.” This move is meant to offset the damage months of flooding have wreaked on Japanese companies in Thailand. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said, “Japan will accept […]