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EDITORIALS

May 13, 2006

A matter of trust in the market

The Financial Services Agency has issued a business-suspension order to ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers, a major auditing firm, over its failure to check three of their certified public accountants involved in falsifying accounting reports for Kanebo Ltd., once a leading textile and cosmetics maker....

EDITORIALS

May 12, 2006

Messy energy politics

Two decades ago, Europe and the Soviet Union first pondered a long-term energy-based relationship, one in which the Soviets would use their considerable energy reserves to fuel European economies. The prospect of European reliance on Soviet supplies triggered concern in the United States and some European...

EDITORIALS

May 11, 2006

Conspiring on a weak bill

The ruling and opposition parties are waging a battle in the Lower House's Judicial Affairs Committee over a bill that would introduce the "crime of conspiracy." The crux of the proposal is that one would be punished for joining others to plan a crime even if the crime was not actually carried out or...

EDITORIALS

May 10, 2006

Readiness to enforce peace

Warring factions in Sudan's Darfur region last week concluded a peace agreement that is designed to end three years of vicious fighting. The deal is not perfect. Several of the warring factions are not signatories, and only concerted intervention by outside powers, including the African Union, the Arab...

EDITORIALS

May 9, 2006

'Enough is enough' in Sri Lanka

So said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse after yet another round of violence that threatens to end the fragile peace in that country. His exasperation is understandable. The distrust between the two antagonists -- the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- is...

EDITORIALS

May 8, 2006

Bracing for a new level of oil prices

Oil prices hovering at a historically high level are threatening to destabilize the world economy. Domestically they could exert a cooling effect on the economy just as it appears to be emerging from a long period of deflation, thus undermining the foundation for economic recovery. The public is now...

EDITORIALS

May 7, 2006

The making of a plagiarist

There is not much to be said in defense of 19-year-old Kaavya Viswanathan, the Indian-born Harvard student whose first novel was pulled from bookstores worldwide last month after she failed to disprove charges of plagiarism. But there is something.

EDITORIALS

May 5, 2006

Committing to U.S. strategy

Japan and the United States have finalized a plan to realign U.S. military bases in Japan by 2014. The plan, adopted at a "two-plus-two" meeting in Washington D.C. of the two countries' ministers in charge of foreign affairs and defense, has two objectives: One is to reduce the burden on local citizens...

EDITORIALS

May 4, 2006

Minamata's legacy after 50 years

Fifty years have passed since the first official recognition of Minamata disease, a major symbol of Japan's postwar industrial pollution. Yet relief for those who suffered massive organic mercury poisoning, dating back to the 1950s and '60s, has not been fully delivered. More than 3,700 people have filed...

EDITORIALS

May 3, 2006

Old woes for Italy's new government

Three weeks after losing a national election, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has finally conceded the vote. His decision to step down eliminates one headache for the winner, Mr. Romano Prodi, but it is not the most important challenge the prime minister-to-be faces.

EDITORIALS

May 2, 2006

Nepal's king caves in

The confusion in Nepal's political situation appears to have been settled at least temporarily. But the future prospect is not necessarily transparent. Large-scale strikes and protests punctuated with violence have forced the increasingly isolated King Gyanendra to reinstate the dissolved Parliament....

EDITORIALS

May 1, 2006

Trail to the epicenter of faulty math

Police have arrested disgraced structural designer Hidetsugu Aneha and seven others involved in the scandal that has shaken public confidence in the safety of residences, although the specific allegations against them at this point are not directly related to the core of the scandal -- Mr. Aneha's fabrication...

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

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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