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August 26, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
May 10, 2010
A better lay judge system
A 26-year-old Chinese man was given 18 years' imprisonment for stabbing to death another Chinese man on March 9, 2009, in Chiba Prefecture. Lay judges took part in his trial in Utsunomiya District Court. In an appellate trial before Tokyo High Court, his defense counsel challenged the constitutionality...
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2010
Apology for Minamata disease
On May 1, 1956, a local public health center in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, reported the occurrence of a "rare disease of unknown cause" afflicting four people who showed symptoms of an unexplained brain disorder. This was the first official recognition of Minamata disease, Japan's worst industrial...
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2010
Revitalizing communities
The policy since 1999 in which the central government took the initiative in promoting mergers of municipalities came to an end March 31. The next day the revised special law for such mergers went into effect. It gives priority to the central government helping municipalities that opt for mergers of...
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2010
Value of scholastic tests
In April 2007, the Abe administration revived annual nationwide scholastic tests for primary and middle school students after a lapse of 43 years. Thinking that the "education with latitude" policy had led to lowering of students' scholastic ability, it hoped to use the tests as a tool for raising scholastic...
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2010
Long live the next Kabukiza
Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo's Ginza, the center of the traditional performing art that is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritages, was closed on April 30. It will revive in the spring of 2013 with new buildings. Toward the end of the 16-month long Kabukiza Farewell Performances, which started...
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2010
Mr. Hatoyama at an impasse
Before the Aug. 30 Lower House election last year, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, then the Democratic Party of Japan chief, made a campaign pledge to try to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, outside Okinawa or even abroad. This led the Okinawan people, who have suffered from the heavy presence...
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2010
The long downhill road
The severe business environment for department stores has kept this segment of the retail industry on a downward sales path for two decades.
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2010
New rounds of budget slashing
Last year the Hatoyama administration's Government Revitalization Unit scrutinized budget requests for fiscal 2010 under the slogan of slashing wasteful spending of tax money. The process saved ¥690 billion. People gave high marks to the scrutiny not only because it saved money but also because it helped...
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2010
Deflation's end on the horizon?
The Bank of Japan's semiannual "Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices" on April 30 said the nation's consumer prices should stop falling in fiscal 2011 for the first time in three years. It predicts that the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile perishable food prices, will rise 0.1 percent...
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2010
Mr. Hatoyama's rating in a spin
The Hatoyama Cabinet, which enjoyed an approval rating of 72 percent when it started in mid-September, is now writhing under an approval rating that has plummeted to 20.7 percent in an April 28-29 Kyodo News poll — a drop of 12.3 points from the previous poll on April 3 and 4. Meanwhile, the disapproval...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2010
Hopes for NPT review meeting
The 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, which lasts about four weeks from May 3 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, offers a chance for the world to move forward toward nuclear disarmament and to strengthen efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, although optimism...
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2010
Election posturing in Myanmar
A general election to be held in Myanmar this year — the first in 20 years — will be far from free and just. The election laws promulgated in March do not allow prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 supporters to take part in the election.
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.
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.
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
Man arrested in Kobe stabbing had been staying at hotel near victim’s home
Masashi Tanimoto arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in Kobe, is sent to prosecutors on Sunday.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
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.
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.

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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