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August 29, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Sep 16, 2005

Germany goes to the polls

While Japanese voters have been focused on the campaign at home, German voters have been engrossed in an election battle every bit as intense and with stakes as great. Since the election was called in May, the outcome looked clear: The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), along with its partner,...

EDITORIALS

Sep 15, 2005

No victory for the Philippines

Impeachment charges against Philippines President Gloria Arroyo have been dismissed. The move is a relief for the embattled president, but it is no real vote of confidence in her or her administration. The move reflects the balance of power in the legislature, not a consideration of the merits of the...

EDITORIALS

Sep 14, 2005

Six-party talks resume

The six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis have resumed in Beijing. With a month of consultations at hand, negotiators should be ready to agree on a joint statement that outlines the basic principles of any deal. A failure to release that statement will suggest that there is no basic...

EDITORIALS

Sep 13, 2005

Mr. Koizumi wins his mandate

Sunday's general elections gave overwhelming approval to the continuation of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform policy. The clear-cut, simple rhetoric employed by Mr. Koizumi, who focused on postal-service privatization and called it the cornerstone of reform during campaigning, won the hearts...

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2005

Spare us a DVD war

DVD discs are as popular as VHS videotapes at video shops. A Cabinet Office survey shows that about half the households in Japan now have DVD-capable machines. DVD discs are also used in game and car-navigation consoles. Thus DVDs can truly be called a success story that has taken root in our daily life....

EDITORIALS

Sep 11, 2005

The unfriendly skies

A s the vacation season fades into fall, travelers have wended their weary way home from far-flung destinations such as Hawaii, Queensland, Europe and beyond. The problem is, the farther-flung the destination, the wearier the returnees are likely to be -- and the angrier. Not because they didn't enjoy...

EDITORIALS

Sep 10, 2005

Result of 'dealing with the devil'

The report on the investigation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program -- the international effort to oversee Iraq's oil sales and alleviate suffering in that country following the first Persian Gulf War -- excoriates the entire U.N. system for its failures. No one -- not the the U.N. bureaucracy,...

EDITORIALS

Sep 9, 2005

Anatomy of a train disaster

The April 25 tragic train crash on the West Japan Railway Co.'s Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, was the worst rail accident since Japanese National Railways was privatized in April 1987. It killed 106 passengers plus the driver, Ryujiro Takami, 23, and injured 555 others. Many bereaved...

EDITORIALS

Sep 8, 2005

Try again with rights bill

The government was to have submitted a human-rights protection bill during the most recent session of the Diet. Various reasons are cited for the bill's failure to reach the Diet floor, including government leaders' obsession with other hot-button issues such as postal-service reform. Still, legislation...

EDITORIALS

Sep 7, 2005

Katrina's grim reminder

Sadly, we are accustomed to the regular occurrence of natural disasters. It seems as if every few months a storm, flood, tsunami or earthquake devastates a country, exacts a frightening toll, and reminds us that we remain susceptible to the forces of the physical world. In the perennial struggle between...

EDITORIALS

Sep 6, 2005

Democracy test for Mr. Mubarak

Egyptian voters will choose their next president Wednesday from among 10 candidates running in that country's first-ever multicandidate presidential election. There are no candidates powerful enough to challenge incumbent President Hosni Mubarak, however, and it seems certain he will win a fifth term....

EDITORIALS

Sep 5, 2005

A child-rearing environment

Policy proposals for creating an economic and social environment conducive to childbearing and child-rearing should be an important issue for voters to consider in next Sunday's Lower House election. An accelerating decline in the birthrate, followed eventually by a smaller labor force, will have a great...

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

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