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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2008
Small-scale consolidation plan
The government has adopted a plan to consolidate and streamline its 102 independent administrative agencies. Six entities will be abolished or privatized and 16 others will be integrated into six entities. Many of the entities affected are small, like research institutes. The government should continue...
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2008
Getting serious about global warming
This year is crucial in the fight against global warming — especially for Japan. During the 2008-2012 five-year period, industrialized countries must reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average 5 percent from 1990 levels under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In July, Japan will host the summit of...
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2008
Slowdown in housing starts
Repercussions from the fabrication of quake-resistance data by structural engineer Mr. Hidetsugu Aneha and other engineers continue two years after the scandal first surfaced. In the wake of the scandal, the Building Standards Law has been revised to make buildings safer. Since the revision took effect...
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2008
Taiwan votes for change
Legislative elections in Taiwan have given the opposition Nationalist (KMT) party a two-thirds majority and handed President Chen Shui-bian a stunning rejection. Voters turned their back on Mr. Chen's confrontational politics and his focus on national identity over practical measures to improve the lives...
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2008
Refueling law enacted with regrets
By using a special provision in the Constitution, the ruling parties have voted into law a bill that enables the resumption of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan. The mission is expected to resume in mid-February....
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2008
The year of sake
The Year of the Rat may also turn out to be the Year of Sake. Last year, exports of sake (Japanese rice wine), rose to the highest level since a passing miniboom 11 years ago. The just-finished Year of the Boar saw a 10 percent increase over 2006 and a 40 percent increase since 2001. All signs point...
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2008
Scandal demands deeper probe
An Upper House panel has questioned a senior executive of a defense-related group in the scandal involving Yamada Corp., a defense equipment trading house. Mr. Naoki Akiyama, executive director of the Japan-U.S. Center for Peace and Cultural Exchange, gave unsworn testimony to the panel Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2008
Clear and present road 'danger'
In August 2006 a car driven on a bridge by a then employee of the Fukuoka Municipal Government rear-ended a sport utility vehicle carrying a couple and their three children. The SUV plunged into Hakata Bay and the three children perished. In the trial of the former municipal worker, public prosecutors...
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2008
Assistance for cell research
The fiscal 2008 draft budget includes ¥2.2 billion to push research on the so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, with an iPS cell research center to be established at Kyoto University. The government has decided to spend more than ¥10 billion over the next five years to promote research....
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2008
Confidence to have children
The low birthrate in Japanese society is continuing. Although the government is calling for a better work/life balance and proposing measures to improve services for child-rearing couples, these remedies won't work unless the government develops measures that contribute to stabilizing the overall lives...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2008
Compensation for cerebral palsy
A system to financially help parents of babies born with cerebral palsy is likely to be introduced in fiscal 2008. It will offer compensation to the parents even if obstetricians did not commit negligence during delivery. It will be of great help to families, since the economic and psychological burdens...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2008
Open season on 1953
Japan's Supreme Court last month handed down a final decision in a dispute on whether copyrights on movies released in 1953 are protected by a 2003 revision to the Copyright Law. Although the revision extended copyright protection from 50 to 70 years, the top court concluded that it does not protect...
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.
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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