Democratic Party News Archives

Japan set the stage for a huge bailout of Japan Airlines on Thursday, telling the struggling carrier to turn to a state-backed body for assistance - a move that ruled out a tougher stance by a new left-leaning government in Tokyo against the country's powerful corporations.

Reporting from Tokyo and Seoul - Several politicians in South Korea and Japan have begun exploring the possibility of a joint history textbook between their nations and China.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama faced questions in the Diet for the first time since his Democratic Party of Japan was elected to lead the nation on Wednesday, saying that he and his government would "take responsibility for any failings." Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama delivers his policy speech at Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Oct.

Recently Reuters reported about the information declassified at the national archives of George Washington University that the United States and Japan reached an agreement on allowing U.S.-made nuclear weapons into Japanese territory when U.S.-Japan Security Treaty was revised in 1960.

Finding financial sources for the bloated fiscal 2010 budget and solving problems related to the nation's security policy should top the to-do list of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet.

In his first meeting with the Taiwan news media last week, newly arrived American Institute in Taiwan Taipei representative William A. Stanton focussed on reemphasizing that there will be no change in Washington's policy toward Taiwan under the new Democratic administration of President Barack Obama in line with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act .

TOKYO: Japana s Democratic Party won two by-elections for parliamenta s upper house Sunday, media projections showed, a nod of voter approval in the first national polls since the party took power last month.

ABOARD THE JS KURAMA: Japan's navy held its triennial fleet review on Sunday, its first major demonstration of power under the country's new government, which has vowed to cut back on some of its already limited activities overseas.

THE ruling Democratic Party of Japan won two by-elections for Parliament's Upper House on Sunday, in a sign of voter approval in the first national polls since it took power last month.

A bell will sound Monday to mark the opening of the extraordinary Diet session and the legislative debut of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration.

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba said Friday the government plans to review the statute of limitations on serious crimes.

The government envisions submitting a bill to parliament to enable Japan to inspect ships suspected of carrying banned cargo to and from North Korea, most likely without the involvement of the Self-Defense Forces, government sources said Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama prior to their meeting at the latter's official residence in Tokyo October 21, 2009.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which has touted a "departure from a dependence on bureaucrats," surprisingly picked a former bureaucrat as the next president of Japan Post Holdings Co.

Afghanistan now faces a logistical nightmare, having just over two weeks to prepare for a second round of voting as the harsh and fast-approaching Afghan winter, which makes much of the mountainous country inaccessible, closes in.

Baby boomers have finally attained power through a historic change of government.

China hoped Japan would properly handle issues relating to the Yasukuni shrine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said here Tuesday.

Japan Post Holdings President Yoshifumi Nishikawa announced Tuesday he intends to resign amid mounting pressure from the Democratic Party of Japan-led administration.

FINANCIAL OVERHAUL Obama presses for financial industry overhaul NEW YORK - President Barack Obama is asking the financial industry to support his push for changes he says would help prevent another economic crisis and would be good for the country in the long run.

The new Japanese government is trying to make the size of the state budget for fiscal 2010 no more than 92 trillion yen, without increasing the issuance of deficit-covering bonds from the levels of its predecessor, Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said Monday.

TOKYO: The leader of Japan's struggling opposition Liberal Democratic Party , paid his respects at a Tokyo war shrine on Monday, Kyodo news agency said, in what could be a bid to boost support among conservatives.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is on his way to Japan, where he will discuss a broad range of defense issues as the first Cabinet-level U.S. official to visit the new Japanese Democratic Party government since it took office last month.

A Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker who was in charge of doing administrative work for DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa's fund-management body said it was his fault that the body neglected to state the expenses made for the purchase of land in 2004 in that year's political fund report.

Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa is aiming to introduce legislation next year that will prohibit political donations from companies and organizations, and lift the current ban on door-to-door canvassing during election campaigns, according to sources.

Toshimi Kitazawa, whose centre-left Democratic Party of Japan took power last month, was speaking ahead of a visit next week by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and a month before a trip by President Barack Obama.

No true democracy can develop without reform of the conventional Japanese political culture in which everything is decided at collusive meetings of bosses representing a seniority-based provincial community.

Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki on Wednesday criticized Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government for appearing to pursue socialist policies, pledging to confront it in the upcoming Diet session if that is indeed the case.

Budget requests for fiscal 2010 filed by ministries and agencies on Thursday looked set to exceed 90 trillion yen, making it the biggest ever.

A large number of Lower House members with Democratic Party of Japan affiliations are staking out positions calling for Japan to withdraw from beneath the U.S. nuclear umbrella, while a few of its members think just the opposite, that the U.S. nuclear umbrella should be strengthened and Japan's positions be reviewed in light of its North Korean ...

Nago City's mayor is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, now on the opposition side after losing Lower House elections last August.

Burmese pro-democracy activists on Wednesday met Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister in Tokyo and urged the Japanese government to pressurize Burmaa s military rulers to implement change in the Southeast Asian nation.

The rallying cry of the doomed McCain presidential campaign in the fall of 2008 was "Country First." The slogan insinuated that candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic Party did not put the country's interests ahead of their own, but that Sen.

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation , the nation's largest labor organization, is cozying up to the Democratic Party of Japan as it seeks to have its wishes reflected in government policy.

Istanbul: Europe meets Asia in Turkey's largest city Former capital of Byzantine, Ottoman empires 1930: Constantinople officially renamed Istanbul Population: 9.4 million 1928 - Turkey becomes secular: clause retaining Islam as state religion removed from constitution.

New education minister Tatsuo Kawabata says he will give more control of schools to local governments and increase practical learning, indicating a turn away from the conservative policies of previous administrations.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shock resignation sent his ruling party scrambling to find a new leader who could revive public support following an election defeat in July and a string of scandals.

Matthews said, "Bob Dole said today he thinks the Republican Party is out to defeat Barack Obama, period.

Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa addresses reporters after the G7 finance ministers meeting in Rome in February Former Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who was forced to resign over his apparently drunken behaviour at a meeting of world powers, has been found dead at his home, police said yesterday.

Taxes help finance the operations of the government. A flawed tax code strains the entire economy and negatively affects people's lives.

The yet fragile global economy demands a radical turn in its political paradigm.

After booting them from power in a landslide vote, many Japanese were hoping to forget about the Liberal Democratic Party and its 55 years of rule, at least for now.

This article is best viewed as a PDF . Policy Climate law: Democrats in the US Senate unveiled their climate legislation on 30 September.

Since its landmark victory in the Aug. 30 general election, the Democratic Party of Japan has continued efforts to shake up the power structure to make good on its promise to create an accountable administration.

Bureaucratic memos have no place in the new administration led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan.

Britain's business secretary urged Japan to ease restrictions on foreign investment and expressed hope in the new government's "internationalist stance." Wrapping up a three-day visit to Tokyo that ended Tuesday, Peter Mandelson said Japanese regulatory reform is key to expanding bilateral economic cooperation, which would strengthen both countries ...

The approval rating of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet remains high at 71 percent, while 21 percent of people said they disapproved of it, according to the latest survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Sex-industry reporters? Topless lawmakers? A new day has, indeed, arrived in Tokyo's Diet.

Support for Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, stayed above 70 percent more than two weeks after he took power, a newspaper survey showed on Monday, but tough challenges loom ahead for the novice government.

The difficulties Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is experiencing as he tries to overhaul the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget to secure funding for his key policies are the result of resistance and duplicity among the various ministries and agencies.

Japan's former vice minister Shoichi Nakagawa was found dead in a bed in his house in Tokyo, Japanese media reported on Sunday, citing Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

The contents of the political fund reports released Wednesday highlight the fact that the ruling Democratic Party of Japan is a motley collection of politicians who bolted from a variety of parties--a trait further evidenced in the diverse methods by which Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his 17 ministers collect donations.

The government's decision to scuttle plans for a national media arts center to promote manga and anime poses a grave threat to policy efforts to support this aspect of Japanese culture.

Shinichiro Furumoto, the parliamentary secretary for finance, received 97.5 million yen in donations in 2008 from a political organization of Toyota Motor Corp.'s labor union, which he used to work for, it has been learned.

Even as the grip of deflation tightens around an already-weak Japanese economy, experts are looking with renewed interest at the perennially slumping Asian giant.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, newly-elected president of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party , appointed Tadamori Oshima Tuesday as the party's new secretary general.

BEIRUT: Even before the "United Colors of Benetton," there was the United Red Army.