Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Eric Johnston

Meta

Eric Johnston

JAPAN

Jan 31, 2006

Homeless forced out of parks after standoff with Osaka cops

OSAKA -- Osaka forcibly ejected homeless men from two city parks early Monday, six days after they were given final notice to vacate to pave the way for upcoming events.

JAPAN

Jan 23, 2006

Base moderate elected Nago mayor

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- Voters here chose continuity Sunday over change and placed promises of economic prosperity over concerns about a new U.S. military base as Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, a ruling coalition-backed candidate and the handpicked successor of former Mayor Tateo Kishimoto, headed for victory...

JAPAN

Jan 23, 2006

Nago election about more than base issue

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- Voters went to the polls Sunday to choose a new mayor in an election with implications not only for the city of Nago but also the realignment of U.S. military bases in Japan.

JAPAN

Jan 6, 2006

Rokkasho tests break plutonium pledge, activists tell IAEA

OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists in Japan warned in a letter sent Thursday to the International Atomic Energy Agency that tests at the Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, reprocessing plant scheduled for early next month will violate the government’s policy of holding no surplus plutonium.

JAPAN

Dec 23, 2005

Media reports on China, South Korea hit

turns toward South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao looks away after a group photo at the East Asia Summit on Dec. 14.

JAPAN

Dec 15, 2005

Osaka mayor’s reforms may spark new battles

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki has unveiled his detailed proposal for reforming the city government.

JAPAN

Dec 9, 2005

Over decade after accident, Monju may be reborn

channel 9 and through 26 public address towers set up inside the city limits,” said Fumiyoshi Kato, an official in the municipal nuclear power safety section. The evacuation areas are mostly elementary schools and public halls. However, Kato said they do not contain much in the way of emergency supplies....

JAPAN

Nov 28, 2005

Seki returns as mayor of Osaka

OSAKA -- Junichi Seki was returned to office in Sunday’s Osaka mayoral election after he resigned amid clashes with the city assembly and bureaucrats over reform.

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2005

Beleaguered Bush receives warm reception from ally in Asia

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush doesn’t get many warm welcomes when he leaves the White House these days.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2005

Koizumi, Bush stress strong ties

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush, in reaffirming his close personal ties Wednesday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, praised the latter’s recent election win as a model for democracy and underscored that the close Japan-U.S. relationship is important for all of Asia and beyond.

JAPAN

Nov 16, 2005

Iraq, beef, bases, bird flu on agenda for Bush-Koizumi meeting

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Japan on Tuesday evening for a two-day visit that will include a summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on trade and regional security.

JAPAN

Nov 15, 2005

Rokkasho drawing proliferation flak

OSAKA -- As Japan moves forward with plans to conduct further uranium tests in the near future at the Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture in preparation for full operations in 2007, it faces growing pressure from the international community to give up some control of the process....

JAPAN

Nov 14, 2005

Osaka mayor race begins with promises of reform

OSAKA -- The Osaka mayoral campaign kicked off Sunday with all four candidates promising financial reform and a cleansing of a city bureaucracy racked by a year of scandals.

JAPAN

Nov 6, 2005

1905 treaty paving way to annexing Korea illegal: scholars

OSAKA -- While much of the world has been thinking of 2005 as the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, this year for Japan’s Korean community has more relevance as the 100th anniversary of a treaty that made Korea a protectorate of Japan and paved the way for eventual annexation and colonization....

JAPAN

Oct 18, 2005

Osaka’s scandal-hit mayor to resign, run again in snap poll

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki announced Monday he will resign his post and then run again in a snap election that he said will determine voter faith in his proposed reforms.

JAPAN

Oct 7, 2005

Osaka elementary schools hold record for violence, survey shows

elementary schools in Osaka, and probably as many or more in Tokyo, you have to wonder if Tokyo isn’t underreporting the problem.” In their response to parental and media inquiries about the survey results, prefectural education officials also cast blame for the violence on two recent trends.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Sep 26, 2005

Aichi World Expo comes to a close on a sunny note

NAGAKUTE, Aichi Pref. -- The Aichi World Expo ended Sunday with gorgeous weather, record crowds and a sense of a job well done among organizers and participants.

Japan Times

Features

Sep 11, 2005

What’s the Point?

Fabrice Blocteur may not be as well known as Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan or Sir Francis Drake. But like explorers of old, this French-Canadian resident of a rural Kyoto village is on a quest to rewrite the maps through new discoveries.

JAPAN

Sep 10, 2005

Family-bred politicians fan out

KURASHIKI, Okayama Pref. -- Japanese politics is often a family affair, with the offspring of Diet members winning seats originally held by their fathers, and in some cases, grandfathers.

JAPAN

Aug 19, 2005

Police wary as Yamaguchi-gumi prepares to fete sixth don

OSAKA -- With the late July emergence of Kenichi Shinoda -- also known as Shinobu Tsukasa -- as Yamaguchi-gumi’s sixth don, Japan’s largest and most notorious mob syndicate now has a boss with a violent past but a reputation as an organized leader and diplomat with strong connections to rival gangs,...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports