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August 26, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Dec 14, 2000

Help needed for discontented workers

Despite the continuing bleak employment picture, perhaps partly because of it, many Japanese working men and women say they are unhappy in their jobs. This is not surprising, since changes in the traditional workplace are occurring so rapidly that the old rules and procedures for minimizing employee...

EDITORIALS

Dec 13, 2000

The EU makes nice in Nice

At its make-or-break summit last weekend in Nice, the European Union bent. Faced with the need to reform to accommodate new members and new responsibilities, European heads of state produced the inevitable compromises and fudges. Some choices were made; others, predictably, were put off. Still, the ground...

EDITORIALS

Dec 12, 2000

The banks' 'lost decade' continues

Japanese banks' performance for the first half of the current fiscal year delivers a disquieting message: They are still saddled with a large number of problem loans. For years, they have been saying that the worst is over -- and it is true that the danger of a financial meltdown no longer exists. But...

EDITORIALS

Dec 10, 2000

Blood in the music

What's in a tune? When it comes to national anthems, a very great deal, it seems. In the first place, people like one they can actually sing, and in the second place, they like one that stirs and rouses the emotions, making them feel briefly part of something larger than themselves.

EDITORIALS

Dec 9, 2000

Mr. Fox gets down to business

Mexico's new president, Mr. Vicente Fox, has wasted no time in getting down to business. During the campaign, he promised sweeping change. The Mexican people believed him, voting him into office in a historic election. In his inaugural address last week, Mr. Fox stuck to his theme of renewal. But the...

EDITORIALS

Dec 8, 2000

Europe's growing pains

European Union leaders are finding that success comes with a price. They meet today in Nice, France, for a critical summit that will modernize the EU and prepare it for new members and new responsibilities. Despite complete agreement that decision-making procedures must be changed, there is no consensus...

EDITORIALS

Dec 7, 2000

New Cabinet looks familiar

As expected, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has completed his Cabinet reshuffle. Yet at a time of political tumult, there is much that is familiar in the new Cabinet and LDP leadership, and the means by which they were chosen. Despite being assaulted on all sides, Mr. Mori and the Liberal Democratic Party...

EDITORIALS

Dec 6, 2000

Getting real on the Net

The Gallic gall. A French court has done the unthinkable. It has ruled that the French government has jurisdiction over cyberspace, or at least that part of the digital universe that overlaps with its physical borders.

EDITORIALS

Dec 5, 2000

A ticket to ride -- at what price?

As of this week, long-suffering passengers on Japan's crowded local train lines are still awaiting a satisfactory explanation, rather than an excuse, for why they were overcharged if they followed the posted fare tables. In some cases, the overcharging has continued for more than three years. The reasons...

EDITORIALS

Dec 4, 2000

Prepare for bumps ahead

The U.S. economy is slowing down and that could mean trouble for the rest of the world. The United States has acted as consumer of last resort for many of the world's exporters. As the U.S. economic expansion brakes, those countries will have to find other markets for their goods or risk a slowdown of...

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2000

The incarnation of Hal

Just under half a biblical lifetime ago -- 32 years, to be exact -- the computer Hal was introduced to the world in the movie and novel "2001: A Space Odyssey." Offspring of the fertile brain of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Hal came to embody the world's collective hopes and fears concerning artificial intelligence....

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2000

Handsome is as handsome does

What would we do without social scientists? Creeping about with their clipboards and calculators, they are forever coming up with solemn, statistic-studded pronouncements about things so obvious we were practically born knowing them. And yet there is something satisfying about having our assorted prejudices...

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

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