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August 25, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2010
Excellent sumo, smaller crowds
After the Japan Sumo Association was rattled by scandals earlier this year, yokozuna Hakuho performed with outstanding speed, skills and stability at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament, showing that he is a great force in the JSA's efforts to get back people's trust in the traditional sport. He finished...
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2010
Rising unnatural death toll
The number of people suspected of having met unnatural deaths is on the rise, as the police dealt with some 160,000 "suspicious corpses" in 2009 — about 1.4 times more than 10 years before. But the nation suffers from a chronic shortage of experts who can examine such bodies.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2010
Millennium progress lagging
Ten years ago, world leaders set out an ambitious program to fight poverty and related social problems around the globe. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were to be reached by 2015. Many of those same world leaders met Sept. 20-22 at the United Nations to assess progress toward those targets....
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2010
Preserving the past
For a country that places such importance on history and tradition, Japan can be surprisingly cavalier about preserving its historical buildings, as it tends to fatalistically accept — or positively welcome — the old making way for the new.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2010
New START clears one hurdle
In a welcome move, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the new START arms-control treaty with Russia on Sept. 16, sending the agreement to the entire Senate for its "consent and approval."
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2010
Harvest of summer heat
This summer's heat wave has taken its toll not just on humans, in a record number of heat stroke victims, but on Japanese plant life as well. A cosmos festival in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, has had to proceed without any cosmos, and the flowering of higanbana (red spider lily) is delayed. And with...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2010
Sensible or weak-kneed decision?
The Naha District Public Prosecutors Office on Friday decided to release a Chinese fishing boat captain who had been arrested Sept. 8 following his boat's collision the previous day with two Japan Coast Guard patrol boats in Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea....
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2010
Adding value to real estate
Land prices across Japan fell in the year ended July 1 at 21,457, or 98.5 percent, of the 21,786 locations surveyed annually by the land and infrastructure ministry. There was almost no improvement from the previous one-year period, when Japan was hit by the global recession and land prices showed a...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2010
Student loan blues
A business report for fiscal 2009 of the Japan Students Services Organization (JASSO), a student loan provider under the wing of the education ministry, shows that many borrowers are having difficulty repaying their debts, apparently because of the economic downturn, which makes it difficult for graduates...
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2010
Competitive renewable energy
The trade and industry ministry has drafted a plan to have power utility companies buy all electricity generated from renewable energy sources. Currently they only buy surplus solar-generated electricity from photovoltaic (PV) panels installed at homes. In addition to this, power companies would have...
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2010
Balancing act Down Under
Australia's incumbent prime minister, Ms. Julia Gillard, has avoided humiliation by cobbling together a coalition government. Narrowly avoiding defeat only months after taking office, she presides over the first minority government in Australia in 70 years. It promises to be a difficult balancing act,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2010
Arrest of a public prosecutor
On Sept. 10 the Osaka District Court acquitted Ms. Atsuko Muraki, a former welfare ministry's bureau chief, of instructing her subordinate, Mr. Tsutomu Kamimura, to fabricate and issue a certificate that recognizes an organization as a group for the disabled, thus enabling it to use a postage discount...
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.
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Japan to boost support for joint ride-hailing services
Tatsuaki Igarashi, mayor of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, exits a ride-sharing vehicle at Tsukuba Station in January.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
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.

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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