Japan Times :: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

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• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Hatoyama may visit island over base row
  Kyodo News
  Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama may visit Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture to brief residents on the possible relocation there of a unit from the U.S. Futenma air base in Okinawa Prefecture.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a2.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  'Double election' slip irks Hirano
  Kyodo News
  Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on Monday slammed national policy minister Yoshito Sengoku, without naming him, for mentioning the possibility of elections being held for both houses of the Diet at the same time.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a4.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Former state leaders kick off nuclear disarmament summit in Hiroshima
  HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Former government leaders from around the world have opened a plenary meeting of the InterAction Council to debate how nuclear weapons can best be eliminated.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a5.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Group seeks 'kisha club' shutdown
  By JUN HONGO, Staff writer
  A group of intellectuals including academics and journalists called Monday on the government and major news associations to open news conferences to a wider spectrum of media, saying the closed nature of the ministries' press club system has compromised the public's right to know.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a6.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Finance officials come up with work-habit ideas
  By KAZUAKI NAGATA, Staff writer
  A Finance Ministry project team compiled a set of proposals Monday to reform the ministry, focusing on achieving a more efficient working style and better work-life balance for its bureaucrats.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a7.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Gov. Hashimoto creates local party
  OSAKA (Kyodo) Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto set up a local party Monday in a move apparently unrelated to the Upper House election this summer but which nevertheless sent ripples through the national political arena.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420a9.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Parade marks warship's U.S. arrival
  SAN FRANCISCO (Kyodo) A samurai parade was held here Sunday to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Japan's first warship to cross the Pacific, an event that marked the country's emergence from more than two centuries of isolation.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100420b2.html
  
  
• [OPINION]
  Between the lines of U.S. nuclear policy
  By RALPH COSSA
  HONOLULU — I have attended a number of discussions in recent years about U.S. nuclear weapons strategy and policy. All invariably begin with a presentation by a U.S. official or expert who proclaims that the United States, in the past decade, has significantly reduced the role and importance of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy and will continue to do so. This is then followed by a foreign (normally Chinese) expert who states with equal conviction and assurance that U.S. national security strategy has placed increased importance on the role of nuclear weapons and that the Pentagon is determined to develop new and more lethal types of nuclear weapons.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20100420rc.html