Politics
Abe nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize on U.S. request: Asahi
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe nominated U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize last autumn after receiving a request from the U.S. government to do so, the Asahi newspaper reported on Sunday. The report follows Trump's claim on Friday that Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace… Read
Russia refuses to rush Japan peace treaty in blow to Abe
Russia has no timeframe for agreeing a postwar peace treaty with Japan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday, after he and Japanese counterpart Taro Kono made scant progress in talks. It is a blow for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, believed to be setting his sights on reaching a… Read
Austrian chancellor visits Hiroshima, A-bomb museum
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz visited the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Saturday and laid flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims. Kurz also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and listened to a briefing by Yasuyoshi Komizo, chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation about the atomic bombing… Read
Japan, Russia foreign ministers meet over postwar peace treaty
The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia met Saturday hoping to make progress toward concluding a postwar peace treaty despite deep divisions over how to solve a decades-old territorial dispute. The meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Munich on the sidelines of… Read
Trump makes his case for Nobel Peace Prize; says Abe nominated him for it
U.S. President Donald Trump made the case on Friday that he deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on North Korea and Syria, but complained he probably would never get the honor. Trump, a Republican, capped off a rambling Rose Garden news conference with a well-oiled… Read
N Korea says Japanese abductee alive in Pyongyang
North Korea has confirmed that a Japanese man abducted by its agents in the late 1970s is living in Pyongyang with his wife, a Japanese official said Friday. Since 2014, North Korea has told Japan several times about the situation of the man, Minoru Tanaka, who went missing at age… Read
Kono looks to visit China in late March to enhance economic ties
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono is planning to visit China possibly in late March to discuss bilateral cooperation on economic and other issues, diplomatic sources said, in a sign of improving relations between the two countries. Kono is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other Chinese officials… Read
Japan to recognize indigenous Ainu people for first time
The Japanese government introduced a bill Friday to recognize the country's ethnic Ainu minority as an "indigenous" people for the first time, after decades of discrimination against the group. The Ainu people -- many of whom live in northern Hokkaido -- have long suffered the effects of a policy of… Read
S Koreans declare start of Japan firm asset sale over wartime labor
Lawyers for South Koreans who won a wartime forced labor case against Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp said Friday they will soon start the process of liquidating the Japanese steelmaker's seized assets in a move that is likely to raise tensions between the two countries over wartime issues. The… Read
Campaigning begins for referendum on Okinawa U.S. base relocation
Campaigning began Thursday ahead of a referendum in Japan's Okinawa on the controversial relocation of a US military base to a remote part of the island. The non-binding vote will be held on Feb 24, with Gov Denny Tamaki campaigning against the relocation of the Futenma airbase. The base is… Read
