Japanese prime minister may go for early electionsTHE PRIME minister of Japan is fighting for his political life today after local elections in Tokyo yesterday appeared to hand…Mon Jul 13 2009 - 01:00
Living on a prayerEXIT STRATEGY - ASIAN LESSONS: Japan's procrastination during the so-called 'lost decade' of the 1990s has become an object …Mon Jul 06 2009 - 01:00
Left-leaning academic to head Japanese oppositionJAPAN’S MAIN opposition party has re-elected the left-leaning former academic Yukio Hatoyama to take on the nation’s conservative…Mon May 18 2009 - 01:00
Unemployed salarymen swapping white collars for medical coatsTOKYO LETTER : The government plans to turn thousands of unemployed men into carers for the elderlyThu Apr 16 2009 - 01:00
Japan pays foreign workers to leaveJAPAN HAS responded to a growing unemployment crisis at its recession-hit factories by offering thousands of foreign workers …Thu Apr 02 2009 - 01:00
Japanese lessons on burning issue of Ireland's wasteTOKYO: AMID THE birth pangs of Ireland's incinerators, spare a thought for Tokyo, home to 12 million people who generate over…Mon Mar 02 2009 - 00:00
As the sun setsFAR EAST: Can the world’s second-largest economy, Japan, innovate its way out of what one minister calls its worst crisis since…Mon Mar 02 2009 - 00:00
Bigmouth strikes againPROFILE TARO ASO: The resignation of his finance minister over a drunken G7 appearance highlighted the Japanese prime minister…Sat Feb 21 2009 - 00:00
Bigmouth strikes againPROFILE TARO ASO: The resignation of his finance minister over a drunken G7 appearance highlighted the Japanese prime minister…Sat Feb 21 2009 - 00:00
Trash StrappedRECYCLING: In Japan, increased competition - particularly from China - has made waste a pricey commodityMon Jan 05 2009 - 00:00
Japanese paper plane hopes for space launchJAPAN: Like any dedicated scientist, aeronautical engineer Shinji Suzuki loves showing off his workMon Jan 05 2009 - 00:00
History revision angers South Korean oppositionS KOREA: THE SOUTH Korean government has sparked a furious row by announcing that it will "straighten the facts" in school textbooks…Thu Sept 25 2008 - 01:00
Aso surrounds himself with nationalist alliesJAPAN: TARO ASO has been confirmed as Japan's new prime minister and immediately formed what is sure to be one of the country…Thu Sept 25 2008 - 01:00
Japanese premier in surprise resignationJAPAN: LESS THAN a year since taking office and just a month after a last-ditch cabinet reshuffle aimed at restoring his dismal…Tue Sept 02 2008 - 01:00
Demands for Japan to turn off its neon lightsJAPAN: What would Japan do without its convenience stores? Dispensers of food, booze and hundreds of other products and services…Mon Sept 01 2008 - 01:00
Cars running on H2OJAPAN: With petrol prices rocketing and the planet slowly cooking in its own carbon juices, a car that runs on water sounds…Mon Sept 01 2008 - 01:00
Getting a rare glimpse of the geishasWORLD CULTURES: AMONG THE star attractions at this year's Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire will be two silk-clad …Thu Aug 21 2008 - 01:00
Lavish wining and dining a PR disasterG8: THE LAST time Japan hosted a G8 conference, it shot itself in the foot by throwing one of the most expensive parties in …Wed Jul 09 2008 - 01:00
LEADING A NUCLEAR AGEENERGY POLICY: The world's second largest economy believes there is no alternative for powering industrial expansionMon Jun 09 2008 - 01:00
THE WORLD OF TOYOTAAfter toppling General Motors as the world's largest automaker last year, can Toyota avoid the apparent potholes and stay in …Mon Jun 09 2008 - 01:00
Celebrity scandal highlights Korea's adultery banSOUTH KOREA: WHEN FADING TV heartthrob Park Chul accused his actress wife of infidelity, he ignited an undignified row that …Sat May 24 2008 - 01:00
Samsung chief slips corruption chargeSOUTH KOREAN prosecutors have defended a controversial decision not to arrest the chairman of giant conglomerate Samsung on corruption…Fri Apr 18 2008 - 01:00
Co-operation or confrontation?POLITICS: Inextricably linked through shared history and geography, the relationship between China and Japan has always been…Mon Mar 10 2008 - 00:00
Japan leads in post-9/11 biometrics growth industryTOKYO: Last November, Tokyo became the second government in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting…Mon Mar 10 2008 - 00:00
Minister's passion for hanging is indulgedLetter from Japan: This time last year, Japan's minister of justice was preparing what cynics later dubbed his Christmas present…Thu Dec 27 2007 - 00:00
A real yen for sushiTokyo restaurants always knew they were the best, and now Michelin agrees, writes David McNeill.Sat Nov 24 2007 - 00:00
For the chopIt may have been slow to jump on the internet bandwagon, but Japan now has plans to take the lead - beginning with beating Google…Mon Sept 10 2007 - 01:00
The coolest gear in town is coming from JapanA small Japanese company has joined the fight against global warming by selling what it calls self-cooling apparel, a cheap if…Wed Aug 29 2007 - 01:00
Info transfer goes touchy feelyTOKYO in the Star Trek movies, Spock was famously able to download information directly from the skulls of friend and foe alike…Mon Jul 09 2007 - 01:00
The rise of the robotsA Japanese professor has invented what he says is the world's most advanced androidMon Jul 09 2007 - 01:00
Japanese tycoon found guilty of fraudJAPAN: Takafumi Horie, the young entrepreneur who built an empire of smoke and mirrors before losing it in a struggle with conservative…Sat Mar 17 2007 - 00:00
No mention of war as US, Japanese troops work togetherHiroshima Letter: The sight of American and Japanese soldiers on the same military facility in Hiroshima can be a surpriseSat Feb 24 2007 - 00:00
Writing the book on an epic battleJames Bradley wrote Flags of Our Fathers, the book on which the eponymous Clint Eastwood movie is based, writes David McNeill…Fri Feb 09 2007 - 00:00
The other side of Iwo JimaDavid McNeill reports from Tokyo on the reaction to Clint Eastwood's second film about the battle for Iwo Jima, told from the…Fri Feb 09 2007 - 00:00
Japan's rightward drift provokes fight-back from unlikely court jesterTokyo Letter: Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and in Japan the man of the hour is a rubber-faced comedianWed Jan 10 2007 - 00:00
Tokyo anthem ruling a setback for AbeJAPAN: A Tokyo court has ruled that teachers can refuse to sing the national anthem at entrance and graduation ceremonies, dealing…Fri Sept 22 2006 - 01:00
Japan likely to get PM who strains relations with N Korea and ChinaJAPAN: Japan's most important election in years will not be especially democratic - it will be closed to the general public …Wed Sept 20 2006 - 01:00
Japan's wives ready to divorce as workaholic husbands retireTokyo Letter: It should be a cause for national celebrationThu May 04 2006 - 01:00
Cowboy architect sends a tremor through earthquake-prone countryTokyo Letter: In Ireland, cowboy builders are the butt of endless jokes, but in a country struck by thousands of earthquakes…Thu Dec 01 2005 - 00:00
Bulgarian pin-up is the unlikely saviour of sumoLetter from Tokyo: At a shade over two metres tall and with the rippling frame of a bodybuilder and the face of a movie star…Wed Sept 28 2005 - 01:00
Splendid isolationHistory In accounts of the making of modern Japan, two key questions loom large: how did the country manage to avoid the humiliation…Sat Aug 23 2003 - 01:00
Powerful earthquake hits Japanese northern regionJAPAN: A powerful earthquake struck northern Japan yesterday, cutting off power to thousands of homes and forcing the authorities…Tue May 27 2003 - 01:00
No heir for Japan as princess is bornJapan welcomed its newest royal on Saturday with the birth of a girl to Crown Princess MasakoMon Dec 03 2001 - 00:00
Japan honours its three million war deadAs the fallout continues from Monday's controversial visit by the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, Japan yesterday…Thu Aug 16 2001 - 01:00
Koizumi visits shrine despite condemnationIgnoring protests and international condemnation, the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, pushed ahead yesterday with…Tue Aug 14 2001 - 01:00
56th Hiroshima anniversary is marred by PM's planned visit to war dead shrineThe 56th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was marred by continuing controversy over the proposed visit by the Japanese…Tue Aug 07 2001 - 01:00
Koizumi criticised for war shrine decisionJapanese Prime Minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi's post-election glory is increasingly being overshadowed by a dispute over his decision…Wed Aug 01 2001 - 01:00
Koizumi details reforms after party triumphs in Japanese electionFresh from his party's biggest electoral success in almost a decade, the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, yesterday…Tue Jul 31 2001 - 01:00
Koizumi pledges reforms after poll winIn A national Upper House election widely seen as a referendum on Japanese Prime Minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi's controversial…Mon Jul 30 2001 - 01:00
Where there's smoke, there's ireJeffrey Wigand does not look much like Russell Crowe, the actor who played him in the movie The InsiderFri Jul 06 2001 - 01:00
