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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
May 12, 2012
Questionable appeal in Ozawa case
On Wednesday three lawyers serving as prosecutors appealed a lower court ruling that had acquitted former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa of violating the Political Funds Control Law to the Tokyo High Court. On April 26, the Tokyo District Court found him not guilty of conspiring with his...
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2012
Long live the crested ibis
Four crested ibises have hatched from eggs laid by two breeding pairs of the endangered birds on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture (three hatchlings to one pair and one to the other pair). They are the first to be born in the wild since 1976. The efforts to return the species to the wild will serve as...
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2012
More than slogans needed
Former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa is likely to strengthen his political activities after his April 26 acquittal by the Tokyo District Court of a charge of conspiring with his secretaries to falsify reports of Rikuzankai, his political funds management body.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2012
A tour bus tragedy
None of the passengers who boarded a chartered tour bus at 10 p.m., April 28, at JT Kanazawa Station imagined the tragedy that lay ahead. The bus, bound for Tokyo Disneyland Resort (TDR) in Chiba Prefecture, crashed into a soundproofing wall on the Kanetsu Expressway in Fujioka, Gunma Prefecture, around...
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2012
Restructuring of Tepco
Trade and industry minister Yukio Edano Wednesday approved a 10-year comprehensive business plan which Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund on April 27 submitted to the government for restructuring the power company in the wake of the nuclear crisis...
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2012
Europe turns on its leaders
It was a bitter weekend for Europe. In elections across the continent, voters expressed displeasure with their political leaders. The results were no surprise and reflected deep concern about economic policy and, especially, the impact of the austerity measures that have been adopted to fight off insolvency....
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2012
Ending reliance on nuclear power
The 912,000 kW No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant came to a complete shutdown on early Sunday morning for regular inspection. No nuclear reactors are now operating in Japan — the first such situation in 42 years. Japan should use this as an opportunity to analyze...
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2012
Justice for Liberia, justice for all
Mr. Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, has been convicted of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The judgment on April 26 by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on the premise of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is the first against a former head...
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2012
Danger in the bath
An investigation into one of Japan's favorite pastimes — bathing — has found a startling statistic: 14,000 people a year die during bath time. That's nearly three times more deaths than from car accidents, 4,612 people.
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2012
'Flyjin' rather few
According to a recent Tokyo Metropolitan Government survey, 25 percent of foreigners living in Tokyo left Japan temporarily after the March 11, 2011 disasters. That survey seems to imply that many foreign residents did indeed become "flyjin," a pejorative term coined from "fly" and "gaijin" or foreigner....
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2012
Rushing for constitutional changes
Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution on Thursday, and 60 years have passed since the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, ending Japan's occupation by the Allied Powers. Until that day, decrees issued by the occupation forces headquarters...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2012
Bottom line for pension system
The incident in which AIJ Investment Advisors Co. lost most of ¥145.8 billion in pension assets through bad investments highlights problems related to the type of corporate pension fund known as kosei nenkin kikin. According to the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, 84 corporate pension...
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
Women-only communities flourish in China
Chen Yani (right), nicknamed "Keke," eats lunch with friends and guests in a female co-living space she founded called "Keke's Imaginative Space" in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on July 14.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Man arrested over deadly stabbing of woman in Kobe
Masashi Tanimoto, 35, the suspect in the deadly stabbing a 24-year-old woman, is taken into custody in Kobe on Friday night.
Japanese city proposes two-hour daily limit for smartphone use
The Toyoake Municipal Government in Aichi Prefecture is planning to enact an ordinance to urge all smartphone users in the city to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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