Morearticles

 
Menu
Search
 
August 25, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

More Editorials stories

EDITORIALS
May 2, 2007
Lawmakers' spending still opaque
Until about a month ago, questions on the use of political funds and the accuracy of mandatory reports on such funds had been a hot political issue. But efforts to dispel public suspicions about issues involving money and politics are not moving fast enough. The fault mainly lies with political leaders,...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2007
Helping people with dementia
I n fiscal 2005, there were an estimated 1.7 million people aged 65 or over who were suffering from dementia and needed nursing care. The number of such people is predicted to climb to 2.5 million in fiscal 2015 and 3.2 million in fiscal 2025. The government is pushing various measures to cope with the...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2007
The pursuit of decentralization
The decentralization and reform promotion committee, recently set up in the Cabinet Office, has started discussions with the aim of submitting proposals to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe within three years. The committee, inaugurated under a law enacted in December 2006, will work out concrete proposals to...
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2007
Mr. Abe's summitry success
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had his first summit in the United States with President George W. Bush. Describing the aim of his U.S. visit, Mr. Abe said at a news conference in Camp David, "The biggest objective of this visit this time was to reaffirm the irreplaceable Japan-U.S. alliance and to make it...
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2007
Global population is graying
The 2006 revision of the United Nations population estimates and projection recently made public shows that the world population, now 6.67 billion, will reach 9.19 billion in 2050. This increase of 2.52 billion people is equivalent to the world's total population in 1950. During the same period, the...
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2007
Quake victims still need support
Many people are still living under inconvenient conditions more than a month after a major earthquake hit Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on March 25, killing one person and injuring more than 300. In the city of Wajima, the hardest-hit municipality, more than 1,000 houses were either destroyed...
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2007
A welcome law for the workplace
A lmost a month has passed since the revised Equal Employment Opportunity Law for Men and Women went into effect at the beginning of fiscal 2007. The revised law includes provisions for prohibiting indirect discrimination against women -- practices that are neutral on the surface but discriminatory in...
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2007
Tests for what?
Scholastic ability tests at the initiative of the education ministry were held across the nation Tuesday for sixth-grade elementary-school students and third-grade junior high-school students. The ministry says that the purpose of the tests, held for the first time in 43 years, is to help schools and...
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2007
Remembering Mr. Yeltsin
Standing atop a tank in August 1991, appealing to Muscovites to defy a coup attempt by old-guard politicians against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev -- this is the image of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin that will remain embedded forever in our memories. Although Mr. Yeltsin, who passed away...
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2007
A real choice for France
The first round of France's presidential election has left French voters with a clear choice for their future. The results pit conservative Nicolas Sarkozy against Socialist Segolene Royal in the May 6 runoff ballot. While both candidates promise great change for a country whose confidence has been shaken,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2007
Good things in small companies
A lthough the economy is growing, some local economies are still in bad shape. To revitalize them, the government is pushing a project to strengthen small and medium enterprises. The project will focus on helping enterprises that use local resources to develop new products and services to market worldwide....
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2007
Elections bolster Mr. Abe
Unlike opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should be relieved by the results of Sunday's Upper House by-elections. Mr. Abe will now likely have the support to push through the Diet a bill for a national referendum procedure for a constitutional revision...
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.
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Japan to boost support for joint ride-hailing services
Tatsuaki Igarashi, mayor of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, exits a ride-sharing vehicle at Tsukuba Station in January.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER