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August 23, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2008
Too much for the G8 alone
The results of this week's Group of Eight summit show that the topics discussed, such as global warming and soaring oil and food prices, are so serious and of such great scale that the G8 nations cannot alone solve them. Discussions on global warming in particular highlighted a division between the G8...
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2008
Forced to work for nothing
The Fair Trading Commission has ordered Yamada Denki, operator of the nation's largest consumer electronics retail chain, to stop the practice of forcing employees from its suppliers to work at its outlets without compensation. The Maebashi-based firm had some 250 suppliers send about 168,000 employees...
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2008
Cross-strait relations take off
The Taiwan Strait shrank last week as China and Taiwan began the first regularly scheduled nonstop flights between them. The flights will boost the Taiwanese economy and facilitate ties between the island and the mainland. Most important, however, they will give ordinary citizens on both sides of the...
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2008
A modest step forward
The Group of Eight leaders have reached an agreement on efforts to fight global warming, a main topic at their summit this week in Toyako, Hokkaido.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2008
Mr. Obama's image
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has turned down public financing for the general election and chosen to carry out his campaign relying on money he raises. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will accept public funds. Last year Mr....
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2008
U.S. and Japan on the same page
At a bilateral summit this week before the Group of Eight summit, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed on the need for both nations to closely cooperate in achieving the denuclearization of North Korea and resolving the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by the North...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2008
Nursing care in trouble
Nursing care establishments are suffering from a severe labor shortage as many workers quit each year because of low wages and harsh working conditions. The government should realize that if this trend continues, the nation's nursing care system could collapse. Improving the wages and working conditions...
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2008
Access to public documents
An expert panel's interim report on strengthening the system to manage official documents has been submitted to Population and Gender Equality Issues Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who also serves as state minister in charge of improving the custodianship of such documents.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2008
Education plan without guts
The Cabinet has approved the basic education promotion plan on basic education policies for the coming decade and on high-priority measures to be tackled over five years. To nurture the human resources needed for the nation's development, the plan pledges to make Japan an "education- oriented country"...
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2008
Tough tasks on G8's agenda
Japan hosts a summit of the advanced industrialized nations' leaders for the fifth time from Monday to Wednesday. Leaders of the Group of Eight nations who gather in Toyako, Hokkaido, will discuss how to overcome major problems troubling the international community, such as global warming, steep rises...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2008
Bleak economic outlook
The Bank of Japan's latest Tankan survey covering the April-June period shows that clouds are hanging over the Japanese economy. Business confidence among large manufacturers, for example, has deteriorated for three consecutive quarters. Their diffusion index — the percentage of firms reporting a favorable...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2008
Yet another food scandal
The agriculture and fishery ministry has found that an Osaka-based firm shipped 2.05 million Chinese grilled eels after labeling them as domestically produced. The firm, Uohide, says it wanted to clear Chinese eel inventories, the sales of which had had plummeted in the wake of food poisoning incidents...
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.
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.
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.
Demystifying the manufacturing success of China
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
Infectious diseases to watch for in Japan this summer amid surge of cases
An illustration of a colony of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium that causes pertussis, or whooping cough. As of Aug. 10, there were 64,467 cases reported this year, according to the latest data from the Japan Institute for Health Security.
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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