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August 23, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2011
North Korea at a crossroads
The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Saturday, reported by Pyongyang's special broadcast from noon Monday, could destabilize the isolated communist country as well as all of the Korean Peninsula. Events unfolding in the North Korean leadership must be watched carefully to prepare for possible...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2011
Nuclear crisis far from resolved
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Dec. 16 declared that the stricken reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have entered the state of "cold shutdown" and that it has been confirmed that the nuclear crisis has "been resolved"(Shusoku ni itatta.) As far as Tepco and the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2011
Hiding behind a shield
For many, the dream of a shield that would protect a country from ballistic missiles is just that — a dream or fantasy. Any state possessing more than a rudimentary arsenal would be able to defeat a missile defense program, either by overwhelming it with the sheer number of missiles or by confusing...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2011
Declining business sentiment
The Japanese economic outlook is opaque. A Bank of Japan survey reports deteriorating business sentiment among major manufacturers in December. Clearly Europe's sovereign debt crisis, the historic rise of the yen's value and flood damage in Thailand are a cause of concern.
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2011
Hollow excuses from Tepco
Tokyo Electric Power Co. in early December made public an interim report by a study panel that it had appointed itself on the disaster that occurred at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The report details the unfolding of the disaster from the loss...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2011
Nursing home dilemma
The health and welfare ministry is pushing a plan to increase the number of "single-unit rooms" in nursing home facilities for the elderly. Such rooms are placed around a common space so that elderly people can maintain relationships with others while enjoying privacy in their rooms. The ministry also...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2011
Cruel treatment of the elderly
The health and welfare ministry announced Dec. 6 that fiscal 2010 saw a record 16,668 cases of cruel treatment of elderly people by family members or other relatives, a rise of 6.7 percent from the previous year. The cruelty by nursing home workers resulted in 21 deaths, 11 fewer than in the previous...
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2011
Foundation for reconstruction
As late as nine months after the March 11 quake and tsunami, the foundation for pushing reconstruction has firmed up after the Diet finally enacted the fiscal 2011 third supplementary budget and laws to secure reconstruction funds, establish the Reconstruction Agency and set up "reconstruction special...
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2011
Unprincipled nuclear power policy
The Diet on Dec. 9 approved bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation agreements signed with Jordan, Vietnam, Russia and South Korea before the Fukushima nuclear crisis. They will go into effect in January at the earliest, paving the way for exports of nuclear technology, including reactors, by Japanese...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2011
Government's fiscal 2012 tax plan
The Noda Cabinet on Dec. 10 endorsed a fiscal 2012 tax outline. Except for reductions in the automobile weight tax, the plan does not include major changes, since a separate plan to raise the consumption tax in the mid-2010s is scheduled to be adopted later.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2011
Bills passed, and passed over
During a 51-day extraordinary session, which ended Dec. 9, the Diet passed the third fiscal 2011 supplementary budget and a bill for raising the income tax for 25 years, both aimed at funding reconstruction from the March 11 disasters and the Fukushima nuclear fiasco. The Liberal Democratic Party and...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2011
Glimpse of hope from Durban
The 17th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) held in Durban, South Africa, since Nov. 28 agreed Sunday to start work in 2012 to write a comprehensive treaty that will require both developed and developing countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. According...
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.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Women-only communities flourish in China
Chen Yani (right), nicknamed "Keke," eats lunch with friends and guests in a female co-living space she founded called "Keke's Imaginative Space" in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on July 14.
Demystifying the manufacturing success of China
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
Infectious diseases to watch for in Japan this summer amid surge of cases
An illustration of a colony of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium that causes pertussis, or whooping cough. As of Aug. 10, there were 64,467 cases reported this year, according to the latest data from the Japan Institute for Health Security.
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.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.

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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