Latest Chief Cabinet Secretary Stories

The Japanese Cabinet endorsed a bill Friday that paves the way for raising the country's 5 percent consumption tax. A clause in the bill leaves the timing of the tax hike subject to further review, Kyodo News reported. Prime Minister Taro Aso had previously insisted the sales tax should be raised by the 2011 fiscal year, but opposition to the tax hike by members of his own Liberal Democratic Party led to a compromise, the news service said. Aso directed Akira Amari, in charge of...

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, Sept. 25 Kyodo - Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said Thursday that Japan and China should consider cooperating on space development as he expressed hope for success in China's upcoming manned space mission, which will include an astronaut carrying out the country's first spacewalk. "In our mutually beneficial strategic relationship with China...I think the time has come for us to consider cooperating in the area of...

Taro Aso was elected Japan's new prime minister Wednesday by the country's parliament, replacing Yasuo Fukuda, and he immediately announced his Cabinet. Aso, 68, president of the Liberal Democratic Party and a former Japanese foreign minister, won enough votes in the Diet to gain the premiership. At his first news conference, Aso unveiled a Cabinet that included both close allies and former rivals, the Kyodo news agency reported. Aso said he would concentrate on the faltering Japanese...

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, Sept. 22 Kyodo - New Liberal Democratic Party President Taro Aso appointed former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda as LDP secretary general while retaining those who held other key executive posts under his predecessor, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Aso, 68, who defeated four rivals in the LDP presidential election earlier in the day, named Hosoda, 64, the party's acting secretary general, as his successor in the No...

Tokyo, Sept. 2 (Jiji Press)--The ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided Tuesday to hold an election on Sept. 22 to choose its next president to succeed Yasuo Fukuda, who on Monday abruptly announced his resignation as its president and Japan's prime minister. The LDP's presidential election will be proclaimed on Sept. 10, the party's presidential electoral commission determined at its meeting. With the LDP controlling the all-important House of Representatives, its president becomes the...

Tokyo, Aug. 7 (Jiji Press)--A newly created Japanese government panel started discussions Thursday on possible restrictions on foreign ownership of Japanese airports. The 13-member panel, chaired by Seiichi Ochiai, professor at Chuo University's law school, will release the outcome of the discussions in November. The panel is supervised by Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Sadakazu Tanigaki. Some members told the meeting...

By Reiji Yoshida, Setsuko Kamiya And Kazuaki Nagata, Japan Times, Tokyo Aug. 2--To boost his acutely low popularity, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda reshuffled his Cabinet and Liberal Democratic Party executives Friday, replacing 13 of his 17 ministers. Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who last year vied against Fukuda for the LDP presidency, and thus the prime ministership, was again named party secretary general, a post he briefly held under Fukuda's predecessor. But whether Fukuda's bid...

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo [By Sarah Suk] Tokyo, Aug. 2 Kyodo - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made a major change to his 17-member Cabinet on Friday, retaining only four ministers and appointing veteran ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers for key economy-related posts. "I am resolved to steadily realize reforms based on the standpoint of the people and real feelings associated with life under the new Cabinet," Fukuda told a press conference after the...

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, July 22 Kyodo - Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura expressed hope Tuesday that "various" incidents taking place in China will not hamper a smooth holding of the upcoming Beijing Olympics, following fatal bus explosions in China's Yunnan Province. "Various forms of incidents seem to have occurred in these one to two months as dissatisfaction of people in China is directed (at such authorities as police)," Machimura...

Tokyo, July 14 (Jiji Press)--Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Monday that the government may take disciplinary action over improper Internet accesses by health ministry officials. The top Japanese government spokesman made the remark following the revelation that as many as about 122,000 accesses to such Web sites as chat rooms and game sites that appear unrelated to administrative services were made only on a single day from some 5,000 personal computers of the Health, Labor...