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August 25, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Mar 7, 2009

Rules of in vitro fertilization

The termination of a woman's pregnancy in the ninth week because of a suspicion that she may have been implanted with a fertilized egg from another woman at a Kagawa hospital points to incredible sloppiness on the part of the hospital and the doctor in charge. This case should serve as a reminder that...

EDITORIALS

Mar 6, 2009

Blow to the DPJ

The arrest of the chief secretary of the Democratic Party of Japan leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law has dealt a severe blow to the No. 1 opposition party. The damage to the DPJ is great all the more because the party is regarded as having a chance to win...

EDITORIALS

Mar 5, 2009

'New' ASEAN, old problems

Last weekend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held its first summit since its new charter went into effect. The charter has been heralded as inaugurating a new era for the organization, which formed in the 1960s to fend off the threat of communism but has since evolved into an all-inclusive...

EDITORIALS

Mar 4, 2009

Middle course to stronger ties

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone visited China last week and met with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, and other Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The meetings did not any produce major agreements, but Mr. Nakasone and Mr. Yang managed to agree in general...

EDITORIALS

Mar 4, 2009

Hope for ending the Iraq War

By declaring that "By Aug. 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," U.S. President Barack Obama has set in motion his strategy to end the Iraq war, which was started by the Bush administration on March 20, 2003. Of the more than 140,000 troops in Iraq, about 100,000 will be withdrawn by that date....

EDITORIALS

Mar 3, 2009

Mexico's war on drug cartels

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has his hands full. The fight against powerful drug cartels has become increasingly bloody and exposed the weaknesses of his government. A turf struggle among rival gangs has escalated into a frontal assault on the government. In a subtle twist, gangs are now enlisting...

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 2009

Growing threat of space debris

The Feb. 10 collision of a defunct Russian military satellite and a commercial American satellite in the skies approximately 800 km above Siberia — one of the most popular altitudes in low Earth orbit — is worrisome for a world that has grown to rely on satellites for everything from communications...

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 2009

Unconvincing pension forecast

The welfare ministry has made public the results of a once-every-five-year review of the financial status of the nation's pension system. Under the basic scenario, the ratio of corporate employees' pension benefits to their after-tax salary is forecast to drop from 62.3 percent in fiscal 2009 to 50.1...

EDITORIALS

Mar 1, 2009

Dressing for the recession

As the global economic crisis hits more and more people, even the richest of the rich are feeling the pinch. Forbes Magazine's annual list of the wealthiest people in the world, released last month, noted losses even at the highest incomes. In Japan, the top 40 richest Japanese saw their combined wealth...

EDITORIALS

Mar 1, 2009

Nuclear tragedy in the Pacific

Along with Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945 — the dates of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings — March 1, 1954, is an important date. Fifty-five years ago, residents of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the 23 crew members of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), a 140-ton tuna fishing...

EDITORIALS

Feb 28, 2009

Mr. Obama's vision

Technically speaking, U.S. President Barack Obama's address to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday was not a state of the union speech. The president has been in office a little more than a month and he felt that was not enough time to render a judgment on the state of the nation. In fact, the speech...

EDITORIALS

Feb 27, 2009

Mr. Aso goes to Washington

Prime Minister Taro Aso met with U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday in Washington, just a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during her visit to Tokyo, invited him to meet with the president as the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House since Mr. Obama came to...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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