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August 26, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Feb 8, 2007

More bad news for Mr. Abe

For the first time since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in late September, more Japanese disapprove of his administration than approve of it. Although Mr. Abe's Liberal Democratic Party emerged victorious in the Aichi gubernatorial election Sunday, he will continue to experience difficulties...

EDITORIALS

Feb 7, 2007

Climate change beyond a doubt

For 60 years, the "Doomsday Clock" has measured mankind's proximity to its own annihilation. The closest it ever came was two minutes to doomsday -- registered in 1953 at the beginning of the thermonuclear age. At the end of the Cold War, the timekeepers moved the minute hand back in recognition of the...

EDITORIALS

Feb 6, 2007

Rough deal for future mothers

The unfavorable social climate for Japanese who want to have babies has recently been highlighted by two incidents. One is the gaffe by health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa, who called women "birth-giving machines." The other is the prosecutors' decision not to indict the head of a Yokohama maternity clinic...

EDITORIALS

Feb 6, 2007

Getting heard in court

The Legislative Council, an advisory body for the justice minister, has proposed allowing victims of crime and members of their family to question defendants and witnesses as participants in trials for serious crimes such as murder, rape and kidnapping. The proposal was made in response to long-standing...

EDITORIALS

Feb 5, 2007

A coldhearted ruling

The Tokyo District Court last week rejected a damages suit filed against the government by elderly war-displaced Japanese from China. The ruling is not only harsh but also appears blind to history. It turned down the plaintiffs' argument that the Japanese state should compensate them for failing to swiftly...

EDITORIALS

Feb 5, 2007

Try again for a first step

The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs will resume in Beijing on Thursday. The coming round comes amid reported signs that both the United States and North Korea may be ready to make some compromise. But optimism is not warranted. In the 3 1/2 years since the six-party talks started...

EDITORIALS

Feb 4, 2007

Overbearing education proposals

An interim report submitted by the Education Resuscitation Council to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is long on proposals designed to tackle various challenges in Japanese education but short on reasons why some problems have developed. Without in-depth background analysis, it will be difficult to find correct...

EDITORIALS

Feb 3, 2007

New hope for Nepal

The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is undergoing a transformation that could lead to its rebirth as a peaceful nation. But the country's path will not be an easy one. Assistance from the international community for reconstruction will be indispensable.

EDITORIALS

Feb 2, 2007

Freedom to edit

The Tokyo High Court has ordered NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) and two production companies to pay 2 million yen in compensation to a women's rights group for altering the content of a documentary program on Japan's wartime military sex slaves. The ruling, which pointed out that NHK officials' excessive...

EDITORIALS

Feb 1, 2007

Mr. Putin courts India

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India has prompted the usual dark musings about a new "axis of power" to balance the United States, the West and the international order as it now exists. Yet there is far less to the revitalization of Russia-India ties than the geo-fantasists would have us...

EDITORIALS

Jan 31, 2007

Preparing for a pandemic

Three recent outbreaks of avian influenza -- the first two in Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu and the third in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture -- serve as a warning about a possible outbreak of an influenza pandemic that could cause millions of deaths worldwide. Virus samples taken from dead chickens in...

EDITORIALS

Jan 30, 2007

Will a murder help Turkey?

The assassination of Turkish journalist Hrant Dink has forced Turks to face their past. Mr. Dink was killed because he had called the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century a genocide. While his rhetoric angered many Turks, his death appears to have prompted many more of them to think twice...

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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