From objectives and scope of work: The objective of this report is to provide a comprehensive review of the biology and population status of sea turtles potentially subject to entanglement in North Pacific high-seas driftnet fisheries. The report will assist National Marine Fisheries Service efforts to assess the impacts of the driftnet fisheries on threatened and endangered sea turtle populations.

This report provides a bibliography of resources related to health care systems around the world organized by location.

This report discusses issues regarding U.S.-Japan economic relations. Japan is a significant partner of the United States in a number of foreign policy areas, particularly in U.S. security priorities, which range from hedging against Chinese military modernization to countering threats from North Korea.

Report containing environmental consequences of nuclear explosions with a primary focus on early effects such as exposure to blasts and radiation. Includes definitions of terms, the progression of an explosion, and graphs depicting the relationship between the effects of blasts and the distance of material from Ground Zero.

The United States and Japan have been deadlocked for over a year in an effort to reach agreements under the July 1993 Framework for a New Economic Relationship. The overriding obstacle has concerned the issue of how to measure progress under future agreements to open Japan's market further to foreign goods and services.

The following references to the current periodical literature are taken from CRS, public policy literature file (PPLT). Congressional users may request full text of items by phoning 707-5700. Others users should consult their local library.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu's concurrent two-year term as president of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and Prime Minister of Japan expires at the end of October 1991. The May 1991 death of Shintaro Abe, the front runner to replace him, opened the field to nearly a dozen candidates. These include Kaifu for another term, senior LDP faction leaders Kiichi Miyazawa, Michio Watanabe, and Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, and several others. A clear favorite from this group has not emerged, in part because most except Kaifu are rumored to be involved in current and past stock market and banking scandals.

Japan's current political instability began in July 1993, when the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) -- in power since 1955 -- was voted out and replaced by a fragile multiparty coalition government under Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. The new government faced turmoil in April 1994, when Hosokawa suddenly resigned amid a personal financial scandal. Then-deputy prime minister/foreign minister Tsutomu Hata succeeded, but only at the head of a minority government after the Socialist party, a key coalition partner, quit the coalition. Although beset by its own internal squabbles, the LDP remained the single largest party in Japan's bicameral Diet, or parliament. In late June, Hata was forced to resign under threat of an LDP-led no confidence motion.

In a world in which economic and trade performance are fast gaining acceptance as important components of national power and well being, Congress has become increasingly interested in the comparative success of U.S. business in the vast, rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region. For the most part, Congress has tended to view Japan as the main competitor of the United States in Asian markets and the standard against which U.S. success is measured. The stakes for the United States are considerable. Exclusive of Japan, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for $ 92 billion in U.S. exports in 1993 and $ 138 billion in imports, or about 20 percent of total U.S. exports and 24 percent of U.S. global imports. A number of projections indicate that Asia will account for the largest share of world trade growth in the next decade. Japan's growing economic presence has been accompanied by a relative increase in its political influence vis-a-vis that of the United States, a factor of considerable long term significance for U.S. interests, and it would appear the availability of alternative Asian markets has strengthened Japan's resistance to U.S. trade demands.

This report discusses the relationship between the United States and Japan, including Japanese efforts to support the U.S. in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and the two countries' economic ties, especially with regards to the recent economic downturn. This report also discusses the general political atmosphere of Japan, including the recent and ongoing political turmoil in Tokyo.

Report that includes summaries of sessions and papers presented at a workshop on "Environment and Resources of Seamounts in the North Pacific," held March 21-23, 1984 at the Orido Community Center near the Far Seas Fisheries Research Laboratory and the Government Port Building in Shimizu, Japan.

This report addresses the September 1, 2008, resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and the resulting aftermath. It also addresses the September 22 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election of Fukuda's successor and the widely expected winner of said election, ex-Foreign Minister Taro Aso. Japanese policymaking is likely to enter a period of disarray, which could negatively affect several items of interest to the United States. This report analyzes the factors behind and implications of Japan's current political turmoil.

Japan's five bank bailout packages in the late 1990s may hold some lessons for the United States. Overcoming the crisis in Japan's banks took a combination of capital injections, new laws and regulations, stronger oversight, a reorganization of the banking sector, moderate economic recovery, and several years of banks working off their non-performing loans.

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