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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2008
A year after privatization
Oct. 1 marked the first anniversary of the privatization of the nation's postal service. In April 2003, the Postal Service Agency became Japan Post, a public corporation. Then, in January 2006, Japan Post created Japan Post Corp., a stock company.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2008
Japan's foreign workers
Japanese companies are not as Japanese as they once were. Japanese banks are taking over the assets of failed Wall Street investments firms, of course, but in addition to those economic assets, Japanese companies have been obtaining another asset — foreign workers. Statistics released two months ago...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2008
Health concerns of the elderly
Government leaders appear to be flip-flopping on their views of the unpopular health insurance system for people aged 75 or over. People have difficulty discerning leaders' true intentions. Unless clear explanations follow soon, the views may be taken as a ruse to soothe voters ahead of a Lower House...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2008
U.S. bailout is a start
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a revised bill to rescue ailing financial institutions following the Senate's approval Thursday. (The House had defeated the original bill Monday.) U.S. President George W. Bush quickly signed the bill into law. It allows the U.S. government to spend...
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2008
Rekindling trust in pensions
At a time when people's trust in the nation's pension system has practically vanished due to pension records scandals, a panel of the Social Welfare Council, an advisory body to the welfare minister, is discussing problems related to the government's 2004 decision on dealing with pension issues.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2008
Fire at a video parlor
The fire at a Nanba video parlor in Osaka's Naniwa Ward, which killed 15 customers and injured 10 other people, highlights a potential danger at similar facilities with small private rooms. It is outrageous that a customer is suspected of deliberately starting the fire — on the very day that a revision...
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2008
Talking past each other
Questions raised in a Lower House plenary session by Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa seemed as extraordinary as Prime Minister Taro Aso's first policy speech was unusual. In his speech Monday, Mr. Aso had posed several questions to the DPJ. On Wednesday, Mr. Ozawa hardly tried to corner...
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2008
Brighter lure for tourists
The Tourism Agency was inaugurated Oct. 1 with the main aim of making Japan more attractive to tourists from abroad and improving tourism assets in local areas. Establishment of the new agency grew out of the government's June 2007 plan to promote tourism as an important pillar of government policy for...
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2008
No more time to lose
Uncertainty over the global economy has deepened as the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bailout bill Monday to rescue the ailing financial industry. Since the bill was regarded as means of mitigating the current financial crisis and had been expected to be passed by the House,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2008
Slide in land prices
Commercial land prices fell an average 0.8 percent in the year ended June 30 — following their first upturn in 16 years the year before — while the 1.2 percent average decline in residential land prices for the same period marked the 17th straight yearly dip and was steeper than the previous year...
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2008
Mr. Aso throws down the gauntlet
Prime Minister Taro Aso's first policy speech to the Diet on Monday was unusual. Aiming to win in the next Lower House election, Mr. Aso turned a considerable part of his speech into a challenge to the Democratic Party of Japan, the No. 1 opposition party. Mr. Aso's target was DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa....
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2008
Unprepared for the post
The verbal gaffes by transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, which led to his resignation after only five days in the post, show that he lacked qualifications both as a politician and Cabinet minister. Prime Minister Taro Aso admitted that he was responsible for Mr. Nakayama's appointment. His responsibility...
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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