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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2007
Deadbeat life insurers
The nation's 38 life insurance companies have failed to pay ¥91 billion of insurance money and other due payments in about 1.2 million cases over five years since the 2001 fiscal year. This backlog will surely increase public worry following the reported nonpayment problem at nonlife-insurance companies...
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2007
Mr. Sarkozy's first real test
A fter a whirlwind start, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is facing his first real head winds. Having taken the initiative since moving into the Elysee Palace in May, Mr. Sarkozy is being buffeted by public worker strikes and a high-profile divorce. Neither should be fatal to his presidency, but both...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2007
Libya comes out of the cold
Libya has won a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Tripoli's victory is the clearest sign of its international rehabilitation and a possible lesson for other so-called rogue states: Returning and respecting international norms can pay real dividends.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2007
Don't forget Myanmar
There is a seeming return to normalcy in Myanmar. Calm has returned to the streets and demonstrations are over. The junta has lifted its curfew and ended the ban on gatherings of more than five people. Once cordoned-off pagodas have reopened to the public. The military junta has appointed a commission...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2007
Quality care with less
A government plan to save on medical costs by reducing the number of hospital beds dedicated to long-term convalescence is causing anxiety for patients and their families. If the health ministry carries out the plan carelessly, it could lead to the loss of people's trust in the nation's medical system....
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2007
Minamata claims still on hold
In September 2006, an experts' forum submitted a report to the environment minister, stressing the urgent need for the central government to take the initiative in setting up a new, permanent framework to aid all victims of Minamata disease, including unrecognized and latent victims.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2007
Battle line over supply lines
The government has submitted to the Diet a bill to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan. This sets the stage for a confrontation between the ruling and opposition blocs. Deliberations...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2007
Rooting out fraud over the phone
A bill aimed at helping victims of telephone fraud recoup their financial losses is on the Lower House floor. Although the bill, submitted by lawmakers, is well-intended, it is hoped that improvements in the bill will better help victims prevent their money from falling into fraudsters' hands.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2007
Elderly changing society
Once upon a time in Japan, youth culture was in the vanguard. Young people started new trends in eating, fashion, slang and leisure that shifted viewpoints and attitudes all through the culture.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2007
Mr. Zoellick's vision
I t has been a difficult time for the World Bank. The international development organization has been challenged by the maturation of capital markets that threaten to supplant its lending function as well as by questions about its priorities.
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2007
Confidentiality of a murderous motive
Public prosecutors have arrested a Kyoto psychiatrist on suspicion of leaking secret investigative materials to a journalist on a 17-year-old boy who was tried in family court in connection with a fire that killed his stepmother and two siblings. The freelance journalist later published a book using...
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2007
From awareness to action
It was almost anticlimactic when Mr. Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Climate change has steadily climbed the global public policy agenda, and is now the first action item at most international gatherings. Some would call this...
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.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
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.

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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