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August 23, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2011
Back to the rice futures trade
In Japan, futures trading for rice started in 1730 at Dojima, Osaka, with the Tokugawa shogunate's approval. Such trading ended in 1939 as the government's wartime control of the economy was strengthened. On Aug. 8, futures trading for rice resumed in Tokyo and Osaka for the first time in 72 years.
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2011
Mr. Maehara enters DPJ race
Former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara decided Tuesday evening to run for the Democratic Party of Japan presidential race to choose a successor to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Mr. Maehara, sure to become a strong candidate, should present a clear future vision of Japan and a direction it will take because...
EDITORIALS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Aug 24, 2011
Japan-India agreement
The comprehensive economic partnership agreement between Japan and India went into force Aug. 1. It is Japan's 12th free trade agreement. In the field of FTAs, Japan is lagging its neighbor South Korea. The latter has already signed FTAs with the United States and the European Union. Its FTA with India...
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2011
Report on interrogation recording
A study panel at the Justice Ministry on Aug. 8 issued a report which said that electronic recording of interrogation of suspects by investigators is effective in objectively recording the interrogation situation, deterring inappropriate interrogation and preventing false charges.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2011
Restart of Tomari reactor
The No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant, which had been undergoing regular inspection, resumed commercial operation on Aug. 17 after Gov. Harumi Takahashi gave her approval. Thus as far as the formality is concerned, it became the first to resume commercial operation...
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2011
China's dream boat
China's first aircraft carrier left Dalian port in northeastern Liaoning Province on Aug. 10 and started its first sea trial. There is a speculation that if everything goes smoothly, it will be commissioned on Oct. 1, 2012, China's national founding day.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2011
Bury the power lines
One of the unfortunate side effects of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s ongoing financial and managerial problems is that Tokyo's utility lines may never get buried. The Tokyo metropolitan government started burying lines in Tokyo in 1986, as part of the city's improved disaster-prevention measures.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2011
More money for women athletes
The women's soccer team has won more than a first place victory in the Women's World Cup. They have also won increased financial support for women athletes in Japan. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry (MEXT) announced recently it would be increasing financial support for...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2011
Endgame in Syria?
The situation in Syria cannot continue. The besieged government in Damascus is escalating the war against its citizens, and they do not appear to be intimidated. Significantly, many of the regime's former friends have broken ranks and recognize it for the pariah state that it deserves to be called.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2011
An economic dark cloud ahead?
An Aug. 15 preliminary report by the Cabinet Office shows that Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms in the second quarter of 2011 dropped 0.3 percent or an annualized 1.3 percent from the previous quarter — for the third straight quarter of minus growth.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2011
A grand coalition for what?
Finance minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is expected to run for an election to choose the next chief of the Democratic Party of Japan to succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has called for the formation of a grand coalition between the ruling DPJ and the Nos. 1 and 2 opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2011
Steps to a higher autopsy rate
The number of bodies inspected by the police has been rising year by year, but in 2010, autopsies were conducted on only about 11 percent of them. On July 26, Cabinet ministers concerned decided to start a working team to study how to raise the autopsy rate to 20 percent in five years. The team will...
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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