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August 26, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Oct 10, 2009

Pyongyang should return to talks

In a meeting Oct. 5 with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed his country's "readiness" to hold multilateral talks, including the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear ambitions, "depending on the outcome" of bilateral talks with the United...

EDITORIALS

Oct 9, 2009

Budget and economic reality

The government has suspended disbursement of some ¥2.5 trillion from the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget as it prepares to compile the fiscal 2010 budget. The government originally aimed to save ¥3 trillion, and use that money as part of some ¥7.1 trillion needed to implement election promises for...

EDITORIALS

Oct 9, 2009

Iran opens door to inspections

In talks last week in Geneva, Iran agreed to fully cooperate with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog over its nuclear program. Progress in the talks with five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China — plus Germany represents a "constructive...

EDITORIALS

Oct 8, 2009

Mixed-treatment conundrum

The government in principle bans combining medical treatments that are covered by public health insurance with treatments that are not. Patients usually pay 30 percent of medical fees for treatments covered by public insurance. But if they receive different treatments concurrently, they must pay the...

EDITORIALS

Oct 8, 2009

Depression and suicide

More than 30,000 suicides have been committed in Japan in each year since 1998. Although the number of suicides in 2008 dropped by 844, or 2.6 percent, from 2007 to 32,249, this year's trend is troubling. From January through August, 22,362 people took their own lives, a rise of 971 or 4.5 percent from...

EDITORIALS

Oct 7, 2009

Olympics heading for Rio

The International Olympic Committee has decided to hold the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian city beat Madrid with a 66-32 vote in the third and final round of IOC voting in Copenhagen. Tokyo, which sought to host the Summer Olympics for the second time — the first being in...

EDITORIALS

Oct 7, 2009

Ireland's second take on the EU

Irish voters have strongly backed the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. The endorsement will contribute to the further integration of some 500 million people in 27 countries and help put the EU project back on track. In the Oct. 2 referendum, an overwhelming 67.1 percent of the Irish voters voted "yes"...

EDITORIALS

Oct 6, 2009

JAL must face up to its problems

The government has decided to provide full support to Japan Airlines Corp., including possible infusion of public money. A task force of corporate turnaround experts has been created to help the airline, but it will not be able to resuscitate the nation's struggling top air carrier without full-scale...

EDITORIALS

Oct 6, 2009

Election reform essential

The July 2007 Upper House election was challenged by lawsuits claiming that the disparity in the relative value of votes between constituencies was so large that the election should be declared unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has now ruled that the election was constitutional and valid, but the Diet...

EDITORIALS

Oct 5, 2009

Comprehensive pension reform

Japan's pension system has many problems. It is complex. The Kokumin Nenkin pension system is for self-employed people, pensioners and jobless people. The Kosei Nenkin system is for workers at larger companies, and the Kyosai Nenkin system is for public servants and teachers. There is another system...

EDITORIALS

Oct 5, 2009

Graduates lowering the bar

Only 2,043 graduates of the law schools established since April 2004, following adoption of the nation's legal reform, passed the bar exam for 2009, according to the Justice Ministry. This is a poor performance in view of the 2,500 to 2,900 graduates who were expected to pass the test. These law schools,...

EDITORIALS

Oct 4, 2009

Arctic heating up

The polar ice cap is melting. As the Arctic ice thins, littoral countries are beginning a race to claim the region's heretofore inaccessible resources. A navigable Arctic also holds out the promise of new trade routes, with much shorter travel times between Asia and Europe. An "open Arctic" has important...

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

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