Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe left for a weeklong visit to South and Southeast Asia yesterday and said he plans to reshuffle his beleaguered government's Cabinet upon his return.
The three-nation trip aimed at strengthening bilateral ties comes less than a month after Abe's ruling bloc suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections following a series of gaffes and scandals involving key ministers.
Speaking to reporters at Tokyo's Haneda Airport before his departure, Abe said he was "basically thinking along the lines" of reshuffling his Cabinet and the leadership of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Aug. 27 -- moves he pledged to undertake in response to the electoral setback.
Abe's first stop is Jakarta, where he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to sign a free trade agreement. The deal will ensure oil and gas shipments to Japan and reduce most tariffs on trade between the countries, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
Abe heads to India tomorrow, where he is expected to discuss environmental issues with Indian President Pratibha Patil, as well as address parliament.
In Kuala Lumpur, Abe is set to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and call on the Malaysian king.
Also see stories:
India to seek pact approval during Abe visit
Bureaucrats in Japan celebrate Abe's dwindling power to reform
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS