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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2007
More allegations of bribery
Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya has been served a second arrest warrant accusing him of taking a cash bribe of some ¥3.63 million. Mr. Motonobu Miyazaki, a former executive of defense equipment trader Yamada Corp. and subsequent founder of defense-related trader Nihon Mirise Corp., and...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2007
Tax reform minus the long view
The ruling coalition's tax reform proposals for fiscal 2008 are apparently aimed at getting votes in coming general elections. They fail to address long-term issues such as how to divide tax-revenue sources equitably between the central and local governments and how to overhaul the tax system to reconstruct...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2007
Strains in Malaysia
The arrest of leaders of an ethnic Indian rights group shines a spotlight on rising tensions in Malaysia. The government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appears unnerved by growing protests; its resort to the Internal Security Act (ISA) is a troubling sign. The focus of complaint is charges of...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2007
Heavy-handed approach to Europe
Russia's war of nerves with the West intensified last week with Moscow's formal suspension of its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. Russia is using the CFE to remind NATO, and its European members in particular, of Moscow's strategic concerns as it hopes to drive a wedge...
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2007
Shocking attack with a licensed gun
The shooting rampage last week in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, is shocking. A gunman in camouflage gear entered a sports club and fired a shotgun more than a dozen times, killing two people and injuring six others, including two children. Later, the gunman killed himself with the same gun on the grounds...
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2007
Stemming a worsening debacle
The debacle of 50.95 million hard-to-identify pension premium payment records has worsened. The Social Insurance Agency is expected to be able to somehow identify about 11 million records. But it has now been disclosed that it will be extremely difficult to identify some 19.75 million records — about...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2007
Lessons from the OECD tests
Japanese first-year high school students who took part in a 2006 international survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development scored lower in every field than the Japanese students who took the tests in 2003. The survey focuses on children's ability to solve problems in adult life...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2007
Galileo regains its wings
The European Union has agreed to proceed with Galileo, a satellite navigation project designed to rival the GPS system of the United States. The project has been fraught with difficulties, primarily squabbles about how to divide the spoils among the consortium of states backing the effort. Those problems...
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2007
Stars in their guides
Last month, Tokyo's restaurants received their stars. For the first time, the famed Michelin Guide, the most respected and feared guidebook in Europe, published a volume outside the Western world. Noted for its make-or-break effects on European hotels and restaurants, the publication was greeted in Tokyo...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2007
The stakes in Seoul
South Korea elects a new president next week. Mr. Lee Myung Bak, the conservative former mayor of Seoul, is the front-runner and barring a twist, will prevail in the ballot. His victory will move South Korean politics back to the center, but radical shifts in policy are not likely. It could open the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2007
Sorting out political fliers
Reversing a lower court ruling, the Tokyo High Court has found a Buddhist monk who distributed political fliers at a Tokyo condominium complex guilty of trespassing. Although the ruling only fined him ¥50,000, it carries the danger of actively encouraging police and prosecutors to charge citizens who...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2007
Diet headed for double overtime
The government and ruling parties plan to extend the current extraordinary Diet session for a second time beyond its expiration Saturday. Since a decision on such an extension by the Lower House, which is controlled by the ruling coalition, takes precedence over an Upper House decision, the session is...
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.
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.
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.
Man arrested over deadly stabbing of woman in Kobe
Masashi Tanimoto, 35, the suspect in the deadly stabbing a 24-year-old woman, is taken into custody in Kobe on Friday night.
Japanese city proposes two-hour daily limit for smartphone use
The Toyoake Municipal Government in Aichi Prefecture is planning to enact an ordinance to urge all smartphone users in the city to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school.
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.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan

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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