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May 16, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2012
Stumbling blocks for devolution
The abolition in principle of regional bureaus of central government ministries is a pillar of the DPJ-led government's policy of pushing devolution. Of some 300,000 national public servants, nearly 200,000 belong to regional bureaus of central government ministries. The first step toward the abolition...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2012
Too little, too late
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Oct. 17 told the Cabinet members to draw up an economic package because the Japanese economy is losing steam. On the surface, his move seems reasonable. Japan's real economic growth plummeted to an annualized 0.7 percent in the April-June period from the annualized 5.3...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2012
Mr. Ishihara goes national
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Thursday that he will resign and return to national politics by launching a new political party and becoming its leader. He is stepping down as governor nearly two and half years before his term expires. Given his popularity and personality, and voters' frustration...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2012
A mother's message
Twenty years after Mieko Hattori's 16-year-old son, Yoshihiro, was fatally shot while studying in America, the outspoken mother has once again called for tighter gun control laws in the United States and around the world. Her latest speech was delivered in Baton Rouge, the town where 20 years ago her...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2012
A chance to pay pension arrears
At the beginning of October, a system started to allow people who are up to 10 years in arrears on premium payments for the kokumin nenkin pension to pay the unpaid premiums. Kokumin nenkin mainly covers self-employed or jobless people, but also serves as the basic pension for corporate workers. The...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2012
Treat Okinawans with respect
The alleged rape on Oct. 16 of an Okinawan woman by two U.S. servicemen outside her apartment building in the city of Okinawa has stoked great anger among the prefecture's residents. Adding insult to injury, Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto and Vice Foreign Minister Shuji Kira made insensitive remarks...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2012
A travesty of justice
The police have apologized to four people for mistakenly arresting them over threats posted on the Internet. The police admitted their error after it became evident that the threats had been made by a still unknown person who hacked their computers — but not before the police had extracted confessions...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2012
Nation honors an athlete
The government will bestow the People's Honor Award on Ms. Saori Yoshida — a wrestler who has won three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships — "for bringing hope and courage to society." As Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said in announcing the government's decision to give her the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2012
Monitoring sex offenders
A by-law went into force in Osaka Prefecture on Oct. 1 that requires people who have completed their sentences for sex crimes targeting children to report their addresses and other information to the prefectural governor for five years. Violators will face a fine of up to ¥50,000. The Osaka prefectural...
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2012
Coping with rising grain prices
More than 30 farm ministers and deputy ministers took part in an emergency meeting in Rome on Oct. 16 organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to discuss the soaring prices of wheat, corn, soy beans and other grains. It is regrettable that major grain exporters Russia and the Unites States,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2012
Don't squeeze welfare recipients
The government plans to reduce the spending for livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) in the fiscal 2013 budget and has started a review of the system. Because cases involving the illegal or questionable receipt of welfare benefits have cropped up and benefits...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2012
Mr. Noda suffers another blow
Justice Minister Keishu Tanaka resigned Tuesday citing ill health, but the real motivation for his resignation is a scandal in which he was accused of receiving political donations from a company run by a foreign national and of having personal ties with a gangster. He served as a Cabinet minister for...
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Two crew feared dead after ASDF training jet crashes in Aichi
Self-Defense Forces personnel collect apparent parts of an Air Self-Defense Force T-4 training jet from a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefeture, on Thursday. The jet crashed shortly after takeoff a day earlier.
Sumo title contenders already emerging in early stages of Tokyo meet
Onosato (left) battles Abi on Day 3 of the Summer Basho in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Tokyo Stock Exchange wants stocks to be affordable for the average investor
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Nihonbashi. The exchange wants companies to lower the entry cost of investing in their shares.
Consumption tax set to dominate Upper House election debate
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Tuesday.

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