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August 26, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Dec 12, 2006

Heavy burden on an aging town

The residents of Yubari city in Hokkaido are shivering not only from biting cold but also from the city's harsh financial reconstruction plan under the supervision of the internal affairs ministry. The former coal-mining center, now with a population of only about 13,000, must pay back 36 billion yen...

EDITORIALS

Dec 12, 2006

Take the money and run

Nearly 20 offices, including the head office, of Kinmirai Tsushin Inc., an Internet protocol telephony service provider, have been searched following allegations that it lured and defrauded investors with talk of new technology and lucrative returns.

EDITORIALS

Dec 10, 2006

Our words of the year

Once again, it's the season when the dictionary and language people are hard at work winnowing words -- new ones, catchy ones, much-looked-up ones, over-used ones -- in preparation for crowning their latest Word of the Year (WOTY). This year, we thought we might do a bit of winnowing of our own.

EDITORIALS

Dec 9, 2006

A change of direction in Iraq?

The long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group was released Wednesday and it paints a grim picture of that war-torn country. The candor is refreshing; no policy can succeed if it is not based on reality. Not surprisingly, the conclusions constitute a fundamental revision of U.S. policy. But signals...

EDITORIALS

Dec 8, 2006

Mr. Chen faces more difficulties

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has dodged yet another bullet. Unlike the failed assassination attempt during his last election campaign, this attack was metaphorical. His party defeated an impeachment vote in Taiwan's legislature, virtually ensuring that Mr. Chen will serve out his second four-year...

EDITORIALS

Dec 7, 2006

Syria in the middle

It has become increasingly clear that Syria plays a pivotal role in Middle East politics. It has influence over -- some say control of -- Lebanese politics, and its support for insurgents -- "freedom fighters" is Damascus' preferred term -- elsewhere in the region makes it a key interlocutor when trying...

EDITORIALS

Dec 6, 2006

More help for crime suspects

As Nihon Shiho Shien Senta (Japan Legal Support Center) started its service in October (dial 0570-078374 in Japanese or English), so did a new system of court-appointed lawyers for criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire lawyers. Now not only defendants indicted in serious crimes such as murder...

EDITORIALS

Dec 6, 2006

Pre-empting official corruption

It seems the longer that one stays in power, the more likely he is to become corrupted. Former Gov. Eisaku Sato of Fukushima Prefecture was arrested in October -- shortly after his resignation on suspicion of receiving a bribe from a contractor in a prefectural dam project -- 18 years after he was first...

EDITORIALS

Dec 5, 2006

Upgrading SDF's overseas activities

Bills to upgrade the Defense Agency to a ministry and revise the Self-Defense Forces Law are likely to be enacted in the current Diet session. The revisions could change the character of the SDF, which has operated under a strict "defense only" policy. Inasmuch as they are closely related to the workings...

EDITORIALS

Dec 4, 2006

Death of a dissident

The mysterious death of Alexander Litvinenko throws a harsh spotlight on the Russian secret services. The controversy has engulfed Russian President Vladimir Putin, forcing him to publicly deny any involvement in the killing. That's probably true: Mr. Putin loses far more than he gains from this incident....

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2006

Japan takes a stand on its cuisine

If the government did one thing right recently, it was to send a stern message to the world that whatever a California roll is, it isn't Japanese food. Neither is the "Texas roll," with its strips of beef and spinach leaves, or that leaden travesty, the "Philadelphia roll," stuffed with smoked salmon,...

EDITORIALS

Dec 2, 2006

Bringing an end to bullying

The Education Resuscitation Council's call for efforts to stamp out bullying at school and measures to cope with bullying-related problems shows that the government is serious about the problem. But both the government and the public must realize that bullying is so difficult a problem that it will not...

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

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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