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August 30, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Jan 4, 2005

The year for the Middle East?

The year 2005 may herald a new era of hope for the Middle East. The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has provided the opportunity for all parties to push with renewed vigor for a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Amazingly, the interested parties appear to be making the most...

EDITORIALS

Jan 3, 2005

Pile of unfinished business

This year has the potential to shape the world in profound ways. Some key events, and their results, will be instantly evident. Much of their impact will not be visible for years to come, however. We can identify with reasonable certainty what those moments will be, but only guess at their outcome and...

EDITORIALS

Jan 1, 2005

Royal bridge to the people

The new year has been ushered in by the auspicious news of a long-awaited announcement: Princess Nori, the only daughter of the Emperor, is engaged to Mr. Yoshiki Kuroda, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee. We congratulate them heartily and hope that they will serve as a bridge between the Imperial...

EDITORIALS

Dec 31, 2004

Year of shattered ideals

This year was widely expected to be a pageant of democracy. Elections were scheduled around the world, and they went off, almost without exception, without a hitch. That happy outcome was the brightest result in a year colored by disappointment. The year 2004 may well be remembered for the many promises...

EDITORIALS

Dec 30, 2004

Mr. Yushchenko's work begins

Opposition party candidate Viktor Yushchenko has won Ukraine's presidency. At least, that's what a count of nearly 100 percent of the ballots shows following last weekend's rerun of the November runoff election. It is still unclear, though, whether Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych will accept the results....

EDITORIALS

Dec 29, 2004

Catastrophe without warning

The massive onshore surges of seawater from tsunamis triggered by the mega-earthquake that struck off northwestern Indonesia on Sunday have caused heavy damage across southern Asia. They are a deadly reminder of how vulnerable humanity is to the destructive forces of nature.

EDITORIALS

Dec 28, 2004

Another step in bureaucratic reform

Bureaucratic reform is part and parcel of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reform agenda. As he puts it aptly, the basic idea is to "let the private sector do what it can do." Bureaucratic reform is also about decentralization: "letting local governments do what they can do."

EDITORIALS

Dec 27, 2004

Lessons from a year of disasters

Preparers of government white papers usually try hard not to offend anyone by giving only the average scores for survey results and, in the case of prefectural statistics, summing them up in flat tables. The 2004 white paper on fire and disaster management, however, carries a bar graph so that readers...

EDITORIALS

Dec 26, 2004

A summer date with Harry Potter

To the delight of her young readers, her publishers and booksellers everywhere, British author J.K. Rowling last week announced that she had delivered to the printers the manuscript of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Book 6 in her phenomenally popular fantasy series. It should have come as...

EDITORIALS

Dec 26, 2004

A Christmas admonition

Last Sunday Pope John Paul II said something that, while directed to Roman Catholics, perhaps deserved a wider audience. Speaking in the runup to the Christmas season, the pope expressed regret at the suffocation of the holiday by what he called "material things" and called for a simpler, more community-minded...

EDITORIALS

Dec 25, 2004

The year of the blog

Whether you're sick to death of the word "blog" or have no idea what it means, you are equally abreast of the times, linguistically speaking. Merriam-Webster, the U.S. dictionary publisher, recently declared it the most looked-up term on its Internet site this year, not counting profanities and perennial...

EDITORIALS

Dec 24, 2004

Gear shift on constitutional change

The Liberal Democratic Party recently came under public criticism for "going to extremes" in its bid to update the Constitution, Japan's first democratic charter that took effect in 1947. The criticism has prompted the party to alter its plans for constitutional reform. The party appears to have recognized...

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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