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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2007
Expansion of asset-backed loans
Financial assistance to smaller enterprises will be effective in narrowing the economic gaps between urban and rural regions, because it will help strengthen local economies. Hopefully the government's policy measures for such assistance will prove helpful.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2007
Fallout from an indictment
Public prosecutors have indicted a family court-appointed psychiatrist for leaking secret investigative materials on a teenager who set fire to his house in Tawaramoto, Nara Prefecture, in June 2006, killing his stepmother and two siblings. But they have decided not to indict the freelance journalist...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2007
New wine in old bottles
Seasons change in Japan in two ways, according to nature and according to marketing. This last week started the season for Beaujolais Nouveau, the freshly harvested wine that has become an annual worldwide phenomenon. Marketing and traditional values, the two major forces on Japanese consumer behavior,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2007
Staving off recidivism
The Justice Ministry's 2007 white paper on crimes focuses on repeat offenders, using analyses of statistics from 1948 to 2006. It points to the importance of education and support programs for criminal offenders as a means of preventing the recurrence of crimes, and shows that the duty to prevent crimes...
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2007
Shopping rules tourists
Tourist-wise, Japan has a somewhat divided character. Despite Japan's fascinating history and vast cultural treasures, tourists apparently come here primarily to go shopping. A recent Japan National Tourist Organization survey found that nearly 35 percent of the visitors were in Japan for the shops....
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2007
Another tradition fading
A recent Cabinet Office survey shows a considerable shift in the views of male-female roles over the past decade. Nowadays, more than 50 percent of Japanese men oppose having women stay at home solely as housewives. Yet, with so many women now working full and part time, it is surprising that nearly...
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2007
The will to find common ground
The Diet has unanimously enacted a law that will financially help victims of natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes. This revision of a former similar law resulted from consultations between the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition and the Democratic Party of Japan. As the first...
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2007
The dollar tumbles
There is something weirdly appropriate about the fact that it took a supermodel and not an economist to draw attention to the plight of the U.S. dollar. Reports that Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen allegedly refused to be paid in greenbacks and insisted on euros had markets aflutter and highlighted...
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2007
The takeover of Nova
The court-appointed trustees of Nova Corp. have given up trying to rehabilitate the nation's largest language-school chain and have chosen a Nagoya-based company to take over part of Nova's business. Although the trustees' quick decision suggested that a business solution was at hand and the new company...
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2007
Joy of learning marked down
A panel of the Central Education Council, which advises the education minister, has compiled an interim report that urges more class hours for core subjects in elementary and junior high schools — the first such move in 30 years. The proposal would be carried out as early as in 2011 as courses of study...
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2007
Mr. Musharraf's misrule
In a move reminiscent of the Vietnam-era logic that justified destroying a village to save it from communism, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has suspended his country's constitution for the sake of saving its democracy. That decision is only the latest in a series of missteps that have undermined...
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2007
Hooked on hired help
Blackwater USA, a private security company, is undergoing unprecedented scrutiny following the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis earlier this year. The investigation has revealed that this was only the most recent in a string of incidents that demonstrates horrific indifference to the violence perpetrated...
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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