Reversing its traditional position, the education ministry has decided to let municipal boards of education publicize the results for individual schools in the achievement tests taken by sixth and ninth graders nationwide. An even worse obsession with test scores could follow.

The Abe administration seems to be reverting to an old energy policy by revisiting an old policymaking process, despite the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

Statements by LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba underscore the danger that the new state secrets law could pose to Japanese democracy.

New guidelines, task forces and procedures established by the National Police Agency aim to better protect stalking victims.

The health and welfare ministry plans to end some services under the nursing care insurance system for people whose conditions are not so severe, and have municipalities take them over.

The central government should try to work out a permanent system of distributing prefectural corporate taxes to local governments that will help stabilize local revenue and decentralize administrations.

The Abe administration's latest stimulus package has the central government spending more than it is due to receive in revenue from the fiscal 2014 tax hike, showing that the Japanese economy has yet to enter a self-sustaining cycle built on private-sector demand and investment.

A recent Osaka District Court ruling for a man who sought pension benefits related to his wife's death appears to reject the traditional legal presumption that the husband is the breadwinner in a household.

Repeal of the recently enacted state secrets law appears indispensable for ensuring that Japan remains an open society with democratic principles fully upheld.

North Korea has announced that the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un has fallen from grace and been deprived of all titles for "anti-revolutionary factional activities." Expect North Korean officials to jockey with each other for Kim's favor.

The Abe administration appears inclined to use Japan's relationship with India for expediency — as a means of checking China — when it should be cultivating longer-range cooperative ties.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is playing a dangerous game. His term in office expires next April, yet he is balking on a security deal with the U.S. to try to preserve his political leverage.