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The Japan Times: News & Business

Where goes Palestine as Abbas withdraws?
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:10:00 -0800
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A political leader's decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, President Mahmoud Abbas' withdrawal from the Jan. 24 presidential election has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine — not because of a reluctance to mention possible successors, but because the presidency of the Palestinian Authority has become irrelevant. Abbas' withdrawal comes at a time when Palestinian frustration with the political process has rendered suspect the entire rationale behind the PA, established in the mid-1990s, following the Oslo Accords.
The state of criminal affairs
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:11:00 -0800
According to the National Police Agency's 2009 white paper on crime, the police recognized 1,818,374 crimes, excluding traffic accidents, in 2008. The figure is 4.8 percent less than in 2007, and has fallen six years in a row. A total of 36,153 people were killed or injured in those crimes, about 3,000 less than in 2007. The police recognized 1,297 cases of murder in 2008 — an 8.2 percent rise from the previous year and the first rise in five years — and identified or arrested suspects in 95.4 percent of those cases.
An able, nonpolitical civil service
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:12:00 -0800
LONDON — In Britain and Japan, civil servants are supposed to be nonpolitical and to give unbiased advice. But their independence is threatened by some politicians who want posts to be filled by what Margaret Thatcher used to call "one of us" — people who share the same aspirations as the governing party. They advocate that our countries should move closer toward the American system, where the higher posts of an administration are filled by people chosen according to political affiliation rather than by merit. Until 1855 in Britain, civil servants were recruited through a system of patronage. This was reformed as a result of the Northcote-Trevelyan report of 1854, which provided that civil servants were to be appointed on merit through open competition. The core values of civil servants were to be integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality (including political impartiality).
Next step toward budget
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:13:00 -0800
The waste-cutting panel of the Hatoyama administration's Government Revitalization Unit has finished its first round of work and now moves on to the second round. In the work completed, the panel reviewed funding allocations for some 240 projects included in the fiscal 2010 budgetary requests, which top ¥95 trillion in total, and managed to cut expenditure by some ¥450 billion. It also called for funds set up by independent administrative agencies and surpluses in special accounts, which total some ¥900 billion, to be returned to state coffers. The review of each project saw panel members, including Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers and experts from the private sector, spend about an hour listening to and questioning relevant officials. Projects were divided into categories, such as "abolish," "reduce," "freeze" and "conclusion postponed."
Tariff sinks Japan used car biz in Vladivostok
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:14:00 -0800
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Kyodo) Russia's used vehicle import business has been hit hard by an increase in the tariff on imported vehicles to protect the domestic automobile industry. In Vladivostok, where most Japanese used vehicles enter Russia — the secondhand vehicle business is regarded as the city's largest industry — unemployment and bankruptcies are mounting.
Southeast Asian economies look to return to growth in 2010
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:15:00 -0800
Southeast Asian economies hit hard by the global crisis expect to return to positive growth in 2010 as signs of recovery started to emerge in recent months following massive government stimulus measures, veteran journalists from the region told a recent symposium. With demands in the United States — a major export market for many of the southeast Asian nations — not expected to recover anytime soon, the countries need to boost domestic consumption with debt-financed spending to keep their economies going, they said.

Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Picture of the Day › Spaceman
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:27:00 +0100
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi takes part in a training session at Star City Cosmonaut Training Center outside Moscow, on Monday. Nouguchi will…
World › Bombings, shooting kill 12 around Afghanistan
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0100
Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four American troops and three children, as President Barack Obama convened his war council again Monday…
National › 3 of 4 Tokyo restaurant fire victims identified; fires claim another 4
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0100
Police have identified three of the four people who died in Sunday's fire at a restaurant in Tokyo's Koenji district, while at least four other…
World › EU urges U.S., China to deliver carbon targets
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:57:00 +0100
The European Union on Monday urged the United States and China to deliver greenhouse gas emissions targets at next month's climate conference in Copenhagen, saying…
World › Israel, Hamas near swap of prisoners for soldier
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:56:00 +0100
Hamas leaders went to Egypt on Monday amid signs of progress on a deal to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a captive Israeli soldier…
Crime › Ozawa's fund body allegedly hid Y2.3 million in donations
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:54:00 +0100
The fund management body of ruling party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa failed to report 2.3 million yen in political donations between fiscal 2004 and 2007, sources…

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