TOKYO - Brushing aside its failure to win a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last year, Tokyo is betting on backing the United States and its policies as a means of achieving a goal viewed as key to playing a more active role in global...

TOKYO - Japan's role in the U.S.-led war on terror is expected to grow in the wake of the reelection of U.S. President George W Bush, analysts here say. "The pressure on Japan to get more involved in the American-led war on terrorism is obvious with the...

TOKYO – Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi might have won public approval for the country's troops to stay in Iraq despite the beheading there of a Japanese civilian by Islamic militants. But the big question, however, remains on whether he will get the...

TOKYO - The desperate plea by Iraq's interim government for more funds from the international community to help stabilize the country, where bombings, kidnappings and ambushes have become a daily part of life, received a tentative nod of support from donors gathered...

TOKYO – As the legal drama unfolds soon in the desertion trial of Charles Robert Jenkins, wanted by the U.S. Army for abandoning his patrol, close attention will be paid to his testimony for possible secrets into North Korea – the place where Jenkins made...

TOKYO – Mariko Ishibashi, 26, a company receptionist, has already decided she will not cast her ballot next month in an election that could crucially determine Japan's deployment of troops to join a multinational force in Iraq. "I am fed-up with Japanese...

TOKYO – The commitment made by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the international community that the country's Self Defense Forces (SDF) would join a planned multinational force in Iraq, has far-reaching implications globally. According to analysts,...

TOKYO (IPS) – The filing of a suit against his own government by a Japanese activist, blaming it for his ordeal in Iraq when he was briefly held captive there, is an indication of a new side to Japan's young people. More of them are heading overseas to troubled...