Japan Times :: Monday, April 27, 2009

• 1. THE VIEW FROM EUROPE - JOCHEN LEGEWIE :: Blunders with North show Japan still child at handling media
  April 27, 2009
  By JOCHEN LEGEWIE
  Earlier this month, when many in Japan were enjoying the arrival of spring and the accompanying cherry blossoms, something else was in the sky, something much more dangerous than a warm breeze: a three-stage missile, launched from North Korea. continued ...


• 5. NATIONAL NEWS :: U.S. in '71: Let Japan join UNSC
  April 27, 2009
  WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States supported Japan's entry into the United Nations Security Council as a permanent member in a policy report in 1971 to curb the nation's growing nationalism, a declassified diplomatic document showed Saturday. continued ...


• 6. NATIONAL NEWS :: Fukuda exit snagged Nago overture
  April 27, 2009
  The government tried last year to heed local requests to build a U.S. Marine Corps air base runway farther out on a cape in Okinawa than was planned under a 2006 U.S.-Japan accord, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Saturday. continued ...


• 12. NATIONAL NEWS - KAZUAKI NAGATA :: Hereditary politicians a fact of life
  April 27, 2009
  Some in LDP call for curbs on blue bloods
  By KAZUAKI NAGATA, Staff writer
  What does Prime Minister Taro Aso have in common with predecessors Yasuo Fukuda, Shinzo Abe, Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori, and others who came before them?
  They are all political blue bloods whose fathers, grandfathers or other close relatives were political notables, some prime ministers. This trend is especially conspicuous in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. continued ...


• 14. NATIONAL NEWS :: DPJ pick next mayor of Nagoya?
  April 27, 2009
  NAGOYA (Kyodo) Takashi Kawamura, backed by the Democratic Party of Japan, won Sunday's Nagoya mayoral election.
  The win by Kawamura, a 60-year-old former House of Representatives member, is a relief for the DPJ and its leader, Ichiro Ozawa, who has been hit by a fundraising scandal, ahead of a general election that must be called by the fall. continued ...


• 18. SENTAKU MAGAZINE :: Investigation into DJP aide raises many questions
  April 27, 2009
  Were the public prosecutors politically motivated when they arrested and indicted a top aide to the leader of the No. 1 opposition party for seemingly minor charges? Why were the actions taken at a time when Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, is said to have a fair chance of leading his party to victory in the upcoming general election and becoming the next prime minister? continued ...


• 24. EDITORIAL :: 'We don't torture'
  April 27, 2009
  That was then U.S. President George W. Bush's emphatic response in 2005 when asked about how his government questioned terrorist suspects in U.S. custody. The release of four previously secret memos by the U.S. Justice Department reveals — in excruciating detail — just what U.S. interrogators were doing to get information from those detainees. It is not pleasant reading. The techniques that were permitted seem to meet most definitions of torture. Equally troubling, however, is the assertion that such behavior is justified if it provides needed information. That logic is a disturbing rationalization, and threatens to undo the principles that underpin our basic understanding of human rights and justice. continued ...