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August 29, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2005
Health ministry's number-juggling act
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's initiative to give local governments more fiscal autonomy -- part of his structural reform agenda -- is meeting stiff resistance from the central bureaucracy. The plan calls for seven ministries to cut a total of 630 billion yen in subsidies provided by the state. The...
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2005
Press on with territories issue
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tokyo this week for the first time in five years for a summit meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. They and their ministers signed 12 documents, ranging from joint efforts to counter international terrorism to economic cooperation, including a Russian...
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2005
A frustrating trip for Mr. Bush
Heads of state travel either to get a respite from domestic problems or to get photo opportunities that make them look like leaders. By those standards, U.S. President George W. Bush must be frustrated by his recently concluded eight-day Asia tour. He neither escaped increasingly contentious and bitter...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2005
Tackling juvenile crime
In 2004, adults committed 3.42 million criminal offenses, a decline for the second year in a row from the postwar record set in 2002. Still, the number of criminal incidents remains disturbingly high. The situation is similar for juvenile delinquency, as shown by the National Police Agency's white paper...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2005
Simplistic view in a complex world
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush met at a summit in the ancient capital of Kyoto last Wednesday, the first such meeting in almost a year. The two leaders shared their belief that close relations between their countries are important not only for this region but also...
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2005
Tax diversion poses challenges
This fiscal year the government is expected to collect about 5.78 trillion yen in revenues from six different taxes paid by automobile and road users. Because these revenues are legally earmarked for road improvement, however, the government cannot use the money for other purposes. This rigidity has...
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2005
Myanmar goes deep
Capitals have moved before, but rarely so mysteriously. When Myanmar's military government began streaming out of the country's longtime capital city of Yangon on the morning of Nov. 6, headed for a fortified but unfinished compound in jungle-clad mountains 400 km to the north, people scratched their...
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2005
An emerging picture of growth
Japan's economy in the July-September quarter expanded 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, or 1.7 at the annualized rate, in price-adjusted real terms, according to a preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) report from the Cabinet Office. That was the fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2005
Trade talks down to the wire
While attention is focused on this week's meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Pusan, South Korea, the main event is the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting to be held next month in Hong Kong. That ministerial meeting is critical to the success of the current round of global...
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2005
Disappointment in Beijing
Negotiators have begun the fifth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. There were high hopes for progress after the fourth round produced a joint statement agreed on by all parties. Whatever momentum existed was quickly lost, however, when the discussions stalemated and broke off...
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2005
Royal addition to the common life
Princess Nori, 36, the only daughter of the Emperor and Empress, and Mr. Yoshiki Kuroda, 40, an urban planning official at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, were married in a Shintoist ceremony on Tuesday. For the princess, it marked the start of a new life as an ordinary citizen. She is now Mrs. Sayako...
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2005
Braking illicit drug use
Police statistics show that the number of people taken into police custody on narcotics-related charges is on the decrease. Still, optimism about drug use in Japan is not warranted, as recent arrests or indictments have involved a former lawmaker and members of the Self-Defense Forces.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
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.

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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