Gender equality plan endorsed
December 26, 2005A basic plan to achieve gender equality in Japan was endorsed at a cabinet meeting Tuesday and features the goal of raising the rate at which woman are recruited for the top-level career track in the central government to 30% per year by around fisca...
Vote-weight disparity in single-seat districts more than doubles
December 26, 2005The disparity in vote weight among single-seat constituencies more than doubled in 48 districts for the House of Representatives in 17 prefectures, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications estimation showed Tuesday. The provisional calc...
Nukaga to visit Washington for talks with Rumsfeld
December 26, 2005Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga will visit Washington in late January to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss the planned realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, informed sources said Monday. It will be Nukaga's fir...
Koizumi asks city planners to restore Nihonbashi scenery
December 26, 2005Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi asked city planning experts who visited him Monday to draw up a plan by next September to restore the scenery around the old Nihonashi bridge in central Tokyo that is now overshadowed by an elevated highway. "If we...
Koizumi to visit Middle East, Turkey Jan 7-13
December 26, 2005Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi intends to visit Israel, the Palestinian region and Turkey from Jan 7-13 and hold talks with officials there in a bid to advance the peace process in the Middle East, government officials said Monday. The visit is...
Kanagawa governor wants U.S. base plan revised
December 26, 2005Kanagawa Gov Shigefumi Matsuzawa called on Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Monday to seek revision of the current plan to realign U.S. forces in Japan before its finalization in such a way that it is more acceptable for Japanese local communities, he sa...
Japan won't normalize ties with N Korea unless abduction issue resolved
December 26, 2005Japan will not normalize diplomatic ties with North Korea unless the abduction issue is resolved, Tokyo's top spokesman reiterated Monday, a day after the two sides agreed to resume normalization talks. "We do have a basic and well-established pri...