Junichiro Koizumi

Before hiking the 5 percent consumption tax, the government should first cut trillions of yen in public spending and adopt measures to spur economic growth, former economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka says. "Fiscal reconstruction cannot be achieved just by increasing taxes," Takenaka, a professor at Keio University who served in the early 2000s as an adviser to then Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said...  

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday called for continuing dialogue with and pressure on North Korea following the death of its leader Kim Jong Il, stressing the need to maintain Tokyo's stance toward the communist country. "Dialogue and pressure, there is no need to change this policy," the former leader of the Liberal Democratic Party said.  

FORMER Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, one of few developed-nation leaders ever to have had direct talks with Kim Jong-Il, today recalled the North Korean as a "straight ...