Japan
Japanese parliament votes for military role in Afghan war
By James Conachy, October 31, 2001
The Japanese government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has exploited public fears over the September 11 attacks to bypass the country’s post-war pacifist constitution and allow, for the fir...
Japan moving from recession to depression
By Joe Lopez, October 11, 2001
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, economic analysts are predicting the onset of a deepening recession in Japan, with some even referring to the possibility of a depres...
Japanese economy plunges
By John Roberts, September 18, 2001
The terror attack on New York, combined with growing evidence that Japan is entering its most severe downturn since the 1973 oil crisis, has produced a frantic call that the government of prime minist...
Mass layoffs underway in Japan
By James Conachy, August 27, 2001
With the domestic and global economy slowing down, major Japanese high-tech transnationals are announcing drastic falls in profitability and massive job cuts. Over the weekend, Toshiba, Japan’s ...
IMF fears Japan’s economic outlook is worsening
By Joe Lopez, August 25, 2001
The International Monetary Fund has raised concerns that Japan could be facing a cycle of slowing economic activity, rising bankruptcies and a deteriorating banking system.
Koizumi’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine legitimises Japanese militarism
By Peter Symonds, August 17, 2001
Despite his attempts to play down the significance of the ceremony, Monday’s visit by Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine for the country’s war-dead had a...
Massacre of Japanese school-children provokes questioning of society
By Angela Pagano, August 3, 2001
Few events have shocked Japan as much as the June 8 massacre at Ikeda Elementary, an elite primary school attached to Osaka Kyoiku University. In the course of a 15-minute rampage, 37-year-old Mamoru ...
Upper house election weakens Japan’s Koizumi
By James Conachy, August 2, 2001
Despite the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) successfully retaining control of Japan’s upper house of parliament in Sunday’s elections, the result has undermined the media fanfare of ...
Koizumi’s support to be tested in Japanese upper house elections
By James Conachy, July 28, 2001
Tomorrow’s elections for Japan’s upper house of parliament, the House of Councillors, will be the first significant test of the popularity of newly installed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizu...
Tensions heighten over Japan’s endorsement of nationalist textbook
By James Conachy, July 20, 2001
The Japanese government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi formally notified the governments of South Korea and China on July 9 that it had rejected their demands for revisions to a school history te...
Koizumi threatens ruling party factions in Japan with a split
By James Conachy, July 11, 2001
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi openly threatened on Sunday to call early lower house elections and split the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) if the party did not support his economic ...
A rape on Okinawa highlights fragility of US-Japan relations
By Peter Symonds, July 7, 2001
The alleged rape of a Japanese woman by a US soldier rapidly escalated over the last week into a major incident requiring the personal involvement of President Bush and Japan’s Prime Minister Ju...
