"The journey of life is not smooth and unimpeded, but may be fraught with difficulties exceeding our worst nightmares," observed Kan' ichi Asakawa (1873-1948), a historian and peace advocate originally from Fukushima Prefecture. More than three months have now passed since the March 11 earthquake ...

Last year, important international conferences were held to tackle such pressing global challenges as climate change and nuclear disarmament. While these conferences saw the emergence of constructive new consensus, it is not enough simply to sound the alarm: The time has come for action ...

In recent years there has been a growing chorus of calls for a world free from nuclear weapons. The Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference scheduled for this May will be a crucial test of the international community's ability to unite toward this goal. Two ...

If nuclear weapons epitomize the forces that would divide and destroy the world, they can only be overcome by the solidarity of ordinary citizens. This solidarity has the power to make hope an irresistible force transforming history. Although the threat of global nuclear war has ...

"The Arctic is the barometer of the globe's environmental health. You can take the pulse of the world in the Arctic. Inuit, the people who live farther north than anyone else, are the canary in the global coal mine.'' These words are from an indigenous ...

This year, the Doomsday Clock devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was advanced two minutes, for the first time in five years. It now stands at 11:55 p.m., just five minutes away from the "midnight" of human annihilation. This change not ...

Japanese society stands on the cusp of change. Starting from this year, large numbers of the postwar baby-boom generation will reach retirement age -- the so-called "2007 problem." The country's over-65 population already stands at 25.6 million, more than 20 percent of the total, ...

Disturbing incidents of bullying continue to make the news. We hear daily of the tragedy of children who, unable to endure the harassment and violence inflicted on them by peers and classmates, are driven to suicide. It is heartbreaking to think of the pain and ...

"We continue to emphasize our differences instead of what we have in common. We continue to talk about 'us' versus 'them.' Only when we can start to talk about 'us' as including all of humanity will we truly be at peace . . ." These ...

December 10 was Human Rights Day. The most pressing human rights issue facing our world today is in my view pov- erty. Extreme poverty threatens people's right to life itself and makes impossible the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms essential to a humane ...