More Editorials Articles - The Japan Times

August 24, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Sep 21, 2007

The Fed wastes no time

Financial markets rejoiced this week after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half percentage point to calm market turbulence and boost a shaky U.S. economy. The move is the first real test of new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who took over from Mr. Alan Greenspan in February 2006.

EDITORIALS

Sep 20, 2007

Plans of the LDP candidates

The Liberal Democratic Party will hold its presidential election Sunday under difficult circumstances as a result of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's abrupt decision to resign. His irresponsible behavior of announcing his resignation just two days after his delivery of a policy speech in the Diet has given...

EDITORIALS

Sep 20, 2007

A vital graying society

The nation is now in the midst of the Week of the Aged. As the theme suggests, the government and the people must rack their brains to figure out how to build a graying society full of vitality. The internal affairs ministry's report says there were an estimated 27.44 million people aged 65 or over as...

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....

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports