POLITICS The government on Monday decided to begin work on a full-scale reorganization of the Defense Ministry following a series of scandals and accidents, including the recent collision between the Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyer Atago and a fishing vessel. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The Democratic Party of Japan will boycott House of Councilors deliberations on the fiscal 2008 budget and tax reform for at least one week and will refuse to accept any government nomination for the next Bank of Japan chief until Diet business returns to normal, DPJ executive members said Sunday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS The central and the Tokyo metropolitan governments are at odds over whether to require office buildings and other corporate facilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with the central government recently scrapping its plan and the metropolitan government vowing to go ahead with its own measures. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The fiscal 2008 budget and bills related to tax reform passed the House of Representatives plenary session Friday night with a majority vote by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito as three major opposition parties abstained from voting. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed Monday to hold a summit with Japan on a regular basis and consider reviving talks to tear down trade barriers between the two countries, Lee’s spokesman said. [MAINICHI]

POLITICS The Japanese government plans to provide a total of 1.8 billion yen in grants to Madagascar and Senegal as the first batch of financial assistance in its “cool earth” partnership program aimed at helping developing economies work out measures against global warming, sources familiar with the plan said Sunday. [KYODO]

POLITICS The government plans to widen the extent to which consumer organizations can demand injunctions against business operators on behalf of individual consumers, according to sources Wednesday. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The split in the Democratic Party of Japan over a planned bill to grant permanent foreign residents voting rights in local elections has further deepened, with groups of advocates and skeptics holding separate meetings on the issue. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The Lower House on Wednesday overrode the Upper House’s rejection of a ¥1.78 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2007 and rammed it through the Diet, the first such move pertaining to an extra budget in 15 years. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS Four people filed their candidacies Sunday in the Kyoto mayoral election set for Feb. 17. The poll will choose a successor to Yorikane Masumoto, who announced his resignation after serving three terms for a total 12 years in office. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The ruling bloc withdrew its contentious stopgap bill to briefly extend the extra rates on gasoline and other auto-related taxes after agreeing Wednesday with the opposition to “reach a conclusion” on the fiscal 2008 budget and related bills by the end of March. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito on Tuesday night submitted to the House of Representatives a lawmaker-sponsored stopgap bill to extend by two months the provisional gasoline tax rate and other road-related tax rates beyond their end of March expiration date. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary-general of ruling coalition partner Komeito, has voiced support for opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa’s suggestion of considering submitting a bill to give foreigners with permanent residence status the right to vote in local elections. (1) [MAINICHI]

POLITICS Former top defense bureaucrat Takemasa Moriya and two former officials of a defense contractor, all of whom have been indicted in a high- profile graft case, were freed on bail Wednesday after the Tokyo District Court decided on their releases. [KYODO]

POLITICS Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday threatened to submit a censure motion against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda if the ruling coalition tries to ram budget-related bills through the Diet. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Ichiro Ozawa, president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, refrained from posing questions to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Monday’s House of Representatives plenary session, leaving it to DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama. [KYODO]

POLITICS Japanese government officials downplayed Monday declines in Tokyo stock prices, with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda brushing aside any need for forming stimulus measures while other senior officials saying the declines do not mirror the nation’s economic health. [KYODO]

POLITICS A group of incumbent and former prefectural governors, outraged by secret political realignment negotiations at the national level, plans to create a system that stresses choices for voters, not power in the Diet. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said in his policy speech on Friday that the government will create a new organization with broad power to protect consumers’ interests. [MAINICHI]

POLITICS Lawmakers in the Democratic Party of Japan are stepping up efforts to resubmit a bill that would grant permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections. [YOMIURI]