Japan MPs moot executions halt
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A cross-party group of Japanese MPs drafts a bill proposing a four-year moratorium on the death penalty.
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Japan&#39;s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is  set for a rocky appearance before Australia&#39;s parliament with  war veterans on Tuesday calling for an apology over Japanese  war crimes and environmentalists demanding an end to whaling.
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Japan offered a compromise on Monday to break an impasse over its controversial plan to lift a 20-year moratorium of commercial whale hunting but it was flatly rejected by the other key powers.
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Japan says it is checking reports that the body of an Asian man has been found in northern Iraq, following expiration of an execution deadline for a Japanese national set by militants demanding the withdrawal of all Japanese troops in Iraq.
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Japan&#39;s lower house passed bills on  Friday that would allow crime victims and their families to  question the accused and recommend sentences, a move critics  fear could turn the courtroom into a theatre of vengeance.
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Japan was checking a media report on  Friday that an Asian body had been found in Iraq after the  expiry of a deadline set for the beheading of a Japanese youth  whose captors had demanded that Tokyo withdraw its troops.
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Fallout from a scandal-tainted minister&#39;s  suicide and mismanaged pensions swirled on Tuesday, threatening  the chances that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe&#39;s ruling  camp can win a July upper house election.
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Japan's ruling bloc lost a key local election on Sunday, a possible bellwether of public support after a Cabinet minister caused an uproar by calling women "birth-giving machines."
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Shocked by the murder of a kidnapped Japanese hostage in Iraq, the Japanese government Sunday denounced the slaying but vowed to keep its forces there.
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Japan executed Friday three prisoners on death row, the Justice Ministry announced.
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Ruling bloc and opposition lawmakers Thursday criticized the government&#39;s slow response to a mystery submarine that intruded into Japan&#39;s territorial waters the previous day.
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Japan's prime minister said on Sunday his party will draft legislation aimed at helping thousands of hepatitis patients, the latest development in a high-profile scandal that has drawn voter anger.
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Japan on Tuesday hanged a man convicted  of stabbing to death eight elementary school children in a  rampage that shocked the nation and severely shook its sense of  security, media said.
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Japan has made little progress contacting the kidnappers of one of its citizens or determining where the man is being held, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday condemned the beheading of a young Japanese backpacker in Iraq and vowed that Japan would not withdraw its troops from the US-led coalition.
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Angry lawmakers on Japan's southern island of Okinawa called for progress on shrinking the U.S. military presence and tighter discipline among U.S. troops after the arrest of a U.S. Marine on suspicion of raping a local schoolgirl.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday vehemently condemned the beheading of a young Japanese backpacker by Muslim extremists in Iraq while vowing that Japan would remain