Marines eye $5.6 bil. construction cost for relocation from Okinawa
February 10, 2006The U.S. Marine Corps has come up with a $5.6 billion estimate and a four-stage process through its preliminary studies in Guam for constructing facilities necessary to relocate 6,000 Marines there from Okinawa by 2012, U.S. defense sources said Friday. The Marine Corps has sounded out Guam about the need to include outside contractors and workers to double the annual construction capacity there to $800 million, the sources said, meaning the project would cost some $5.6 billion under a 2012 completion goal targeted by Japan and the United States.
Japan, China hold subcabinet-level talks to mend soured ties
February 10, 2006Japan and China started subcabinet-level talks Friday evening in Tokyo to find ways to ease strained ties due to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine. Japan and China have declined to specify their agenda for the two-day talks between Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo to ensure candid exchanges.
Koizumi gives up bill for female monarchs in Japan
February 10, 2006Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi decided Friday not to submit a bill to pave the way for female monarchs in Japan during the current parliamentary session through June in the face of news of Princess Kiko's pregnancy earlier this week. He told reporters he ''is not sticking'' to the plan to submit to the ongoing Diet session the bill to revise the Imperial House Law, adding, ''It must take time to be understood.''
End to cremated remains dispute necessary to see progress
February 10, 2006North Korea proposed to Japan during the latest bilateral talks that it will deal with Japanese demands, such as the return of any surviving Japanese abductees, on condition that the dispute over the authenticity of a DNA analysis of the cremated remains of an abductee is concluded, negotiation sources said Friday. While Japan withheld from giving an answer during the talks in Beijing, suspecting that the proposal was made to receive concessions from Tokyo, it said it will carefully consider how to deal with the issue as it may be ''one of the most important points'' for the next negotiation, according to the sources.
2005 U.S. trade deficit hits record for 4th straight year
February 10, 2006The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services in 2005 rose 17.5 percent from the previous year to $725.76 billion, hitting a record high for the fourth consecutive year and topping the $700 billion mark for the first time, the Commerce Department said Friday. The rise came on strong imports led by the buoyant U.S. economy, sharply higher oil prices and more record red ink with China.
Japan, China hold subcabinet-level talks to mend soured ties
February 10, 2006Japan and China started subcabinet-level talks Friday evening in Tokyo to find ways to ease strained ties due to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine. Japan and China have declined to specify their agenda to ensure candid exchanges but Japan is expected to sound out China on resuming talks between Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao as well as their foreign ministers as all high-level meetings have been suspended since Koizumi's latest visit to the Shinto shrine in October.
Japan allows Myanmar woman, Japanese-fathered daughter to stay
February 10, 2006Japanese immigration authorities on Friday granted a woman from Myanmar and her Japanese-fathered daughter, who is stateless, special one-year permits to stay in the country, their supporters said. The mother, a Tokyo resident identified as Soesoemin, and her 11-year-old daughter Minsoeseet, who was born in Japan, had faced the threat of deportation. The daughter has no nationality as her father, who did not formally marry her mother, went missing before her birth.