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EDITORIALS

Jul 31, 2007

A devastating defeat for Mr. Abe

In Sunday's Upper House election, Japanese voters expressed their dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party, which has been embroiled in a pension-records fiasco, political-funds scandals and gaffes by Cabinet ministers. The votes have made the opposition Democratic...

EDITORIALS

Jul 30, 2007

Suspicions that threaten ties

The standoff between Britain and Russia over the November 2006 murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko continues with no signs of compromise from either side. A failure to strike a mutually acceptable deal could not only damage relations between the two countries but also cause the overall relationship...

EDITORIALS

Jul 30, 2007

Focus on quake resistance

The July 16 earthquake off Niigata Prefecture pointed to the need to make homes quake-resistant. The quake flattened more than 300 houses, and most of the deaths occurred when people were pinned down by structures. School buildings, including gyms, also must be made quake-resistant, especially because...

EDITORIALS

Jul 29, 2007

Let the punishment fit the spam

Among life's many hassles, the most recently invented is e-mail spam. Nowadays every single e-mail arrives sandwiched between garbage that must be cleared away before getting to friends, family and business. Even those few foolish people who follow up on spam probably hate spam. However, restricting...

EDITORIALS

Jul 28, 2007

Quake shakes nuclear power industry

News reports continue to shed light on the damage inflicted on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant by the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck Niigata and Nagano prefectures July 16. Most worrying is a report that the tremors were more than double the quake-design benchmark...

EDITORIALS

Jul 27, 2007

Fight over preferential treatment

A panel of knowledgeable people organized by the Japan High School Baseball Association has begun discussions on what to do about preferential treatment — such as exemptions of admission and dormitory fees and tuition — offered to talented baseball players. It is hoped that the panel will find a...

EDITORIALS

Jul 27, 2007

Indicators of financial health

The Diet in the last session enacted a law designed to prevent bankruptcy of local governments like that of Yubari city in Hokkaido. The law became necessary because many local governments suffer from a similar deterioration of finances.

EDITORIALS

Jul 26, 2007

Resuscitating the Doha round

In a last-ditch effort to save the Doha round of global trade talks, the World Trade Organization last week went public with its draft agreements. The move followed the June 21 breakdown of a meeting of four core negotiating partners — the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India. On July...

EDITORIALS

Jul 26, 2007

Time to pass judgment

As the Upper House election campaign enters its final phase, polls suggest that the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito are facing a tough battle. But as Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa has said, the results will not be known until the ballot boxes are opened. In...

EDITORIALS

Jul 25, 2007

Democracy wins in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed a second five-year term last weekend. His government's record since 2002 should have made victory a given, but fears that it would drift toward more Islamic fundamentalist rule had tempered enthusiasm for his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The...

EDITORIALS

Jul 24, 2007

New front on the battlefield

Warfare entered the 21st century earlier this year when Estonia came under assault by activists who attacked the country's computer systems. The prospect of war in the digital domain is a sobering one for security establishments that are still unprepared for it. The proliferation of networked systems,...

EDITORIALS

Jul 23, 2007

Containing the spread of guns

The government's project team for studying measures to prevent the spread of guns has submitted a report to the state minister in charge of such measures, Sanae Takaichi. She says the government will push the necessary measures with determination to revive the nation as the safest country in the world....

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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