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EDITORIALS
May 13, 2011
Sumo climbing back
The match-fixing scandal that came to light this year has cost the Japan Sumo Association a lot in several ways. Seven wrestlers in the makuuchi division and 10 in the juryo division have been driven out of the sumo world. The JSA was forced to give up on holding the Spring and Summer Grand Sumo Tournaments...
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011
Obama trapped by his rhetoric
As the father of a surviving victim of 9/11, I felt relief at the news that the mass murderer Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet, I am not unsympathetic with the view of The Japan Times' May 5 editorial, "Death of bin Laden," and Jayna Tokie Tanaka's May 8 letter, "Bin Laden's execution disappoints," both...
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2011
Suspension without a vision
Chubu Electric Power Co., which serves central Japan around Nagoya, decided Monday to suspend all operations at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture in response to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's call Friday for the suspension for safety reasons.
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2011
First extra budget moves
The Diet on May 2 enacted the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011. Worth ¥4.015 trillion, the extra budget is aimed at pushing reconstruction measures in the Tohoku-Pacific region, which was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The Kan administration now faces the more difficult...
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2011
Mental care for children
Many schools in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have started the new school year. Some schools, though, have no choice except to begin classes in early May because school buildings were damaged or were being used as temporary shelters for disaster survivors.
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2011
Hard times for Mickey
The national mood of self-restraint in the face of the disaster in the Tohoku-Pacific region, the dropoff in visitors from abroad because of the nuclear threat, and the uncertainty of the electricity supply in the all-important summer months spell hard times for Tokyo Disneyland and other Japanese leisure...
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011
Renminbi conversion still strict
Barry Eichengreen's April 15 opinion article, "Safer alternative bears on dollar," was a very interesting take on the potential replacements for the dollar. I agree that the most frequently discussed alternatives are not viable, but my question is about China's renminbi currency.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011
Deeper problem than Fukushima
The April 20 editorial "Nuclear crisis and Japan's image" is off the mark. It mistakes officially voiced opinions for what Europeans, at least, actually begin to see when they look at Japan.
OLYMPICS
Apr 21, 2011
The Libyan 'wedge' in NATO
The desire to "do something" about the situation in Libya drove the United Nations Security Council to authorize use of all possible measures — diplomatic language for military force — to protect civilian populations in that troubled country. The consensus behind that vote quickly evaporated as Russia...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2011
Wisdom for reconstruction
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on April 14 established the 16-member Reconstruction Design Council, headed by Defense Academy President Makoto Iokibe, to draw up a grand plan to reconstruct the areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2011
Child organ transplants
For the first time in Japan's medical history, organs from a person under 15 were transplanted to other people on April 13-14. Such transplants became possible after the revised Organ Transplant Law went into force in July 2010.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2011
Foreign students since the disaster
Of the many consequences of the Tohoku crisis, one of the most disappointing is the fear so many foreigners now have about coming to Japan. Half a million hotel reservations have been canceled, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. In addition to those losses, the number of foreign students planning...
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2011
No way to run a government
A shutdown of the United States government has been averted. At the last minute,negotiators from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives struck a deal with their Democratic Party counterparts from the Senate. The final compromise cuts $38.5 billion from the 2010 budget. While that sounds like...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2011
Don't second-guess Russian aid
First of all, I would like to express my sympathy to the Japanese people following the March 11 natural disaster.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2011
Message for traditional parties
The Democratic Party of Japan was routed in the first round of unified local elections on Sunday — following its defeat in the July 2010 Upper House election. The DPJ failed to win governorships in Tokyo, Mie — which is DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada's stronghold — and Hokkaido, which is former...
EDITORIALS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Apr 12, 2011
Reconstruction after the disaster
A month has passed since the massive quake and tsunami on March 11 devastated the pacific coastal area of the Tohoku region. Some 13,000 people perished and about 14,500 people are missing. Some 148,000 evacuees remain at temporary shelters. It is unlikely that the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2011
New food contamination rules
With fears, sometimes unfounded, mounting that food and water might be contaminated by radiation, the government has established a new rule governing bans on contaminated agricultural products.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2011
End game in Ivory Coast
In most elections, the person who collects the most votes is declared winner and takes the office that was contested. Not in the Ivory Coast. There, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to leave office after losing to former Prime Minister Alessane Ouattara.
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2011
Leaders must anticipate disaster
Again, America is witnessing an international crisis, this time the earthquake-tsunami aftermath in Japan. As we have seen so many times in recent years — especially after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans (2005) — our nation's leaders appear to grow wiser by reaction rather than by a proactive approach....
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2011
Relocation of evacuees
The March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami and the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at one point made some 450,000 people, mostly from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, homeless. Now some 170,000 people are staying at temporary evacuation shelters. An encouraging...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic