Morearticles

 
Menu
Search
 
May 16, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

More Editorials stories

EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2007
New penalties for cooking the books
The revised Certified Public Accountant Law will go into effect by April 2008, enabling authorities to deal strongly with audit corporations involved in irregularities. It is hoped the revised law will help halt accounting fraud. But it must also be realized that severer administrative action is not...
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2007
Countering the lawyer shortage
As Japan introduces the lay judge system in 2009, court-appointed lawyers with state funds will start being assigned to suspects for most crimes before indictment. Thus nationwide demand for lawyers will rise. The problem is that three-quarters of the some 23,100 lawyers in Japan are concentrated in...
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2007
Lay judges and media freedom
By May 2009, Japan will introduce a lay judge system in which six ordinary citizens will sit with three professional judges to take part in trials of suspects charged with serious crimes such as murder, arson and rape. As preparations for the new system advance, the Supreme Court and the Japan Federation...
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2007
Self-sufficiency amid diversity
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate for fiscal 2006 declined to 39 percent in terms of calories supplied. This is the first time the rate has dipped below 40 percent since fiscal 1993 when the rate fell to 37 percent due to a poor rice crop. Japan's food self-sufficiency rate is clearly low when compared...
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2007
Transparency in Tehran
The International Atomic Energy Agency has struck a deal with Iran that could answer unresolved questions about that country's nuclear capabilities. Western governments worry that the agreement is a sham, intended only to head off international sanctions against Iran for having a clandestine nuclear...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2007
Killing time on Mr. Bush's watch
United States Army Gen. David Petraeus has delivered his long-awaited progress report on the situation in Iraq. To no one's surprise, his conclusion is that there is slow progress and U.S. troops must remain in the country to avoid "rushing to failure." The general failed, however, to answer the most...
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2007
Naval exercises that raise anxiety
Doubts do not just run one way. China has questions about the intentions of its neighbors, too. Last week, five countries — Japan, Australia, India, Singapore and the United States — held naval war games off the coast of India. While the stated aim of the exercises was to promote cooperation in the...
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2007
China opens window on military
China has taken two steps to increase the transparency of its military. The decision to resume providing data to the United Nations register on trade in conventional weapons and to participate in the U.N. Military Transparency Mechanism will provide some insight into what China is doing in this sensitive...
EDITORIALS
Sep 14, 2007
Ever ambivalent APEC
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), once derided as "four adjectives in search of a noun," is a study in frustration. APEC's strongest asset is also its greatest weakness. The group is made up of 21 member economies that account for 41 percent of the world's output and 50 percent of world trade....
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2007
Mr. Abe calls it a day
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's sudden announcement of his resignation came as a surprise, even to his close aides. Just two days before, he had delivered a policy speech at the start of the extraordinary Diet session, and 15 days before, he had reshuffled his Cabinet.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2007
Mr. Abe tones down rhetoric
In his policy speech in the Diet on Monday, the first day of the extraordinary Diet session following his Liberal Democratic Party's devastating defeat in the July 29 Upper House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toned down rhetoric on his conservative political agenda and touched more on issues closely...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2007
Battle begins in the Diet
An extraordinary session of the Diet, which started Monday, is to provide a theater for a critical political battle between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. With the DPJ as the No. 1 party in the Upper House and the opposition camp in the majority in the second...
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Two crew feared dead after ASDF training jet crashes in Aichi
Self-Defense Forces personnel collect apparent parts of an Air Self-Defense Force T-4 training jet from a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefeture, on Thursday. The jet crashed shortly after takeoff a day earlier.
Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
Sumo title contenders already emerging in early stages of Tokyo meet
Onosato (left) battles Abi on Day 3 of the Summer Basho in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Tokyo Stock Exchange wants stocks to be affordable for the average investor
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Nihonbashi. The exchange wants companies to lower the entry cost of investing in their shares.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER