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August 24, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2007
Mr. Abe calls it a day
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's sudden announcement of his resignation came as a surprise, even to his close aides. Just two days before, he had delivered a policy speech at the start of the extraordinary Diet session, and 15 days before, he had reshuffled his Cabinet.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2007
Mr. Abe tones down rhetoric
In his policy speech in the Diet on Monday, the first day of the extraordinary Diet session following his Liberal Democratic Party's devastating defeat in the July 29 Upper House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toned down rhetoric on his conservative political agenda and touched more on issues closely...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2007
Battle begins in the Diet
An extraordinary session of the Diet, which started Monday, is to provide a theater for a critical political battle between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. With the DPJ as the No. 1 party in the Upper House and the opposition camp in the majority in the second...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2007
Perseverance in talks
Japan and North Korea held a second round of normalization talks under the framework of the six-party talks last week in Ulan Bator. Compared with the first round held in March, in which the North Korean delegation left the table halfway through the first day, the latest round was a much quieter affair....
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2007
Surviving in Net cafes
Over 5,000 people in Japan spend their nights at 24-hour Internet cafes every night, according to the first, but certainly not the last, survey on so-called Net cafe refugees by the labor and welfare ministry. On one hand, it seems that school refusers were first, then job refusers, now "home refusers,"...
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2007
More class hours not the answer
The Central Education Council, an advisory body for the education minister, has proposed increasing class hours by about 10 percent for key subjects like Japanese, arithmetic, math, science, social studies and gym at elementary and middle schools. As for electives and the so-called integrated-study classes...
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2007
Pension system suffers another blow
The Social Insurance Agency's investigation into pension-related frauds has found that pension premiums and benefits and other funds have been embezzled by municipal and agency workers in 99 cases, totaling more than ¥340 million. This new revelation undermines the people's trust in the nation's pension...
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2007
A deal in Pakistan
After several setbacks at home, Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is striving to seal a deal with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto that appears aimed at establishing a power-sharing arrangement between them and at ensuring that he will have another term as president. The agreement plainly...
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2007
Definition of 'all' in nuclear talks
Emerging from a bilateral meeting in Geneva this week between the United States and North Korea, top U.S. negotiator Mr. Christopher Hill said that both parties agreed that North Korea "will provide a full declaration of all their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of...
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2007
Realignment for battle
Department store chains have entered a major realignment phase. The department stores realigned through the integration of their operations are expected to wage a fierce battle against their rivals to survive and grow in an industry whose total sales have been declining since the early 1990s. On Monday,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2007
A recurring moral hazard
The resignation of farm minister Takehiko Endo, only a week after taking office, over the illegal receipt of state subsidies by a farmers' association that he heads is perplexing and disturbing. He is the fifth Cabinet minister Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has lost since coming to power in September 2006...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2007
Volunteers must consider risks
The ordeal of 19 South Korean Christians held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban finally ended over the weekend as they reunited with family members back home. Seoul's strenuous negotiations with the Taliban made possible their liberation. Two other hostages had been released Aug. 13. We again extend...
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.
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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