Page 2 - Japan Parliament

Everyone in Japan will be called 'Sato' by 2531 unless marriage law changes

A study led by Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor of economy at Tohoku University, challenges a civil law from the 1800s in Japan that requires married couples to choose a single surname

BOJ survey finds less optimistic manufacturers, but happier service sector

A key Japanese central bank report said Monday that sentiment among big manufacturers has sagged but that optimism is at a three-decade high among large business outside the manufacturing sector. The Bank of Japan's tankan report said sentiment among large manufacturers, which include auto and electronics giants, declined in March for the first time in a year, standing at plus 11, down two points from December. The average market forecast by Japanese news service Kyodo was 9. The index for large-scale non-manufacturers, including the service sector, hit a 33-year high at plus 34 points, up two points from the last report in December. The tankan, carried out every three months, surveys about 9,000 Japanese companies and measures corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those saying they are positive. The optimism among the non-manufacturing businesses reflects the return of tourism, both overseas and domestic, which had

Bank of Japan ends its negative interest rate policy, first hike in 17 yrs

Japan's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, ending a longstanding policy of negative rates meant to boost the economy. The Bank of Japan's short-term rate was raised to a range of 0 to 0.1% from minus 0.1% at a policy meeting that confirmed expectations of a shift away from ultra-lax monetary policy. The interest rate hike was the first since February 2007. The BOJ had remained cautious about normalizing monetary policy, or ending its negative benchmark borrowing rate, even after data showed inflation at about its target rate of 2% in recent months.

Ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, Japanese High Court rules

The Japanese court said that it expected the Parliament to "institutionalise an appropriate same-sex marriage law" at some point

Japan PM vows no more fundraising parties at hearing over funds scandal

Japan's beleaguered prime minister was set to stand before a political ethics committee on Thursday at Parliament in a bid to showcase his leadership. Fumio Kishida has fought against plummeting support ratings since his governing party's corruption scandal rocked the government. The scandal, considered the biggest in decades, centres on political funds raised through party event tickets bought by individuals, companies and organisations. It led to 10 people lawmakers and their aides being indicted in January. While Kishida himself is not the focus of the scandal and was not even invited to the hearing, the surprise announcement of his personal appearance broke a deadlock between the opposition lawmakers and his governing party on Wednesday when the five implicated attendants refused to go public, holding up a hearing and further tarnishing the party image. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's resistance to have a fully open session fuelled public criticism that Kishida's party i

Japan's H3 rocket reaches planned trajectory after failed debut last year

A new Japanese flagship H3 rocket lifted off from a space station in southwestern Japan on Saturday, successfully reaching a planned trajectory and releasing one of the two payloads in a key second test flight a year after its failed debut launch. The H3 rocket blasted off from a launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center on time Saturday morning, two days after its originally scheduled lift-off which was delayed due to bad weather. The rocket's initial flight has been smooth as planned and it successfully released the first of two small payloads, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said. JAXA will have a news conference later in the day to provide further details. Officials are confirming the status of a second satellite. The launch is closely watched as a test for Japan's space development after H3 failed in its debut flight last March. JAXA and its main contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing H3 as a successor to its current mainstay, H-2A, which

Over 200 dead since Japan's New Year's quakes, seven died in shelters

As of Wednesday, 203 deaths were reported following the 7.6 magnitude quake that slammed the western coastline of Japan on New Year's. Seven of them were at evacuation centers, where rescued people died from injuries and sickness. Such deaths weren't directly caused by the quakes, fires and mudslides. They happened in alleged safety. The pressures and stress of living in a place you aren't used to lead to such deaths, said Shigeru Nishimori, a disaster official at Ishikawa Prefecture, the hardest hit region. Nearly 30,000 people whose homes were destroyed or deemed unsafe were staying at schools and other makeshift facilities. Even minor rain and snow can set off landslides where the ground is loose from the more than 1,000 aftershocks that rattled the region for more than a week. Half-collapsed homes might flatten. Deaths from the New Year's temblor centered on Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture have climbed daily, as rescue teams drew bodies from the rubble. Of the deaths, 91

Survivors found in homes smashed by Japan quake that killed 94 people

A woman was pulled carefully from the rubble 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan's western coast. Despite rescue efforts, the death toll on Friday grew to at least 94 people, and the number of missing was lowered to 222 after it shot up the previous day. An older man was found alive on Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture. His daughter called out, Dad, dad, as a flock of firefighters got him out on a stretcher, praising him for holding on for so long after Monday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake. Others were forced to wait while rescuers searched for loved ones. Ishikawa officials said 55 of those who died were in the city of Wajima and 23 were in Suzu, while the others were reported in five neighbouring towns. More than 460 people have been injured, at least 24 seriously. The Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo found that the sandy coastline in western Japan shifted by up to 250 me

Japan to accept earthquake relief from US only, refuses help from others

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said there were offers for help and messages of condolence from governments including Taiwan and China

Japan vice minister resigns over tax scandal; another setback for Kishida

A Japanese vice finance minister stepped down on Monday, amid criticism from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet, after admitting his company's repeated failures to pay taxes, a further setback to Kishida's unpopular government. Deputy Finance Minister Kenji Kanda, in charge of government bonds and monetary policy, is the third member of Kishida's Cabinet to resign within two months following a Cabinet shuffle in September. Kishida later told reporters that he takes responsibility for the appointment of Kanda. I must apologise to the people that a vice finance minister had to resign soon after he assumed his position," Kishida said. I'm determined to concentrate on our work more seriously, as I believe that's the only way to regain the people's trust. Kanda, a tax accountant-turned-lawmaker, admitted that land and property belonging to his company was seized by the authorities four times between 2013 and 2022 after failures to pay fixed asset taxes, in response to a weekly magazi

Japan's Defence Ministry seeks record 7.7 trn yen budget for FY 2024

The government through the National Security Strategy, vowed to obtain counterstrike capabilities and almost double its annual defense expenditure over five years through fiscal 2027

Japan PM Kishida to visit Fukushima before controversial water release

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday before setting a release date for its treated radioactive wastewater, as his government continues working to promote understanding over the controversial plan at home and abroad. The government has reached the final stage where we should make a decision," Kishida told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up his summit with US and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organisations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning it into a political and diplomatic issue. The government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., say the water must be removed to make room for th

US, Japan, S Korea denounce 'dangerous and aggressive actions' by China

The three nations expressed commitment to expanding cooperation trilaterally and raising shared ambition to a new horizon across domains and across the Indo-Pacific and beyond

Biden silent on decision to name special counsel in Hunter Biden probe

President Joe Biden is keeping mum about Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to name a special counsel in the investigation of his son Hunter Biden. Speaking at a news conference Friday at the conclusion of his Camp David summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Biden demurred when asked about the latest twist in his son's legal issues. The comments were Biden's first on the matter since Garland announced last week he was naming a special counsel into the probe of Hunter Biden's financial dealings. I have no comment on any investigation that's going on, said Biden. That's up to the Justice Department and that's all I have to say. Garland noted the extraordinary circumstances of the matter when he named David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who had already been probing Hunter Biden's financial dealings, as special counsel after a plea deal over tax evasion and a gun charge collapsed last month. The sudden turn of events

Kishida marks 78th year of WWII's end, doesn't mention Japan's agression

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida renewed a peace pledge Tuesday as Japan observed the 78th anniversary of its World War II defeat but did not mention the country's wartime aggression in Asia, while three of his former and current Cabinet ministers visited a shrine seen by neighboring countries as a symbol of militarism. Japan will stick to our resolve to never repeat the tragedy of the war, Kishida said at a solemn ceremony in a speech that was almost identical to what he read last year. The absence of any reference to Japanese aggression across Asia in the first half of the 1900s or its victims in the region followed a precedent set by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013, in what was seen by critics as a move to whitewash Japan's wartime brutality. Kishida stressed the destruction that Japan suffered from the war, including the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fire bombings across Japan and the bloody ground battle on Okinawa, and the suffering of Japanese ..

Heavy rainfall lashes western Japan, govt orders evacuation of 370,000

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Izumo in Shimane received 109 millimetres of rain over a six-hour period on Saturday

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida quizzed by ChatGPT in Parliament

Among the questions drawn up by ChatGPT were: "On the bill about Covid policy revision, do you think you have listened to the opinion of local government and health-care workers enough?"

G20 meetings: FM Sitharaman meets Japanese counterpart Shunichi Suzuki

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday met her Japanese counterpart Shunichi Suzuki, ahead of the first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting

S Korea-Japan ties improving after 'deep ordeal': Prez Yoon

Relations between South Korea and Japan have shown a clear trend of improvement recently following a period of "deep ordeal" in past few years, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a message

With sweeping defense buildup, financial burden unavoidable: Japan panel

A Japanese government-commissioned panel said in a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that drastic defense buildup including the use of preemptive strike is indispensable to counter growing threats in the region. It called for the public's understanding to bear the financial burden for the defense of the country. Kishida's governing party wants to double Japan's current defense budget to about 10 trillion ($70 billion) in the next five years. The recommendations in the report, compiled by 10 independent experts and submitted to Kishida on Tuesday, said Japan needs to strengthen its economy to pay for military spending, while reinforcing the arms industry and research and development of dual-use cutting edge technology. Japan should improve commercial infrastructure for military use in an emergency and beef up cybersecurity, it said. Kishida earlier this year pledged to drastically reinforce Japan's military capability and spending in the face of China's increasingly assertive .