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EDITORIALS

Dec 10, 2004

Challenges for Mr. Karzai

Afghanistan's three-year drive for stability reached a milestone when Mr. Hamid Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as its first popularly elected president. But the road is strewn with obstacles. Ethnic and tribal divisions are clouding prospects for national unity. As yet, there is no end in sight to terrorist...

EDITORIALS

Dec 9, 2004

Closing the curtain on a hard life

Mr. Charles Jenkins on Tuesday arrived in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, together with his wife Ms. Hitomi Soga, a former abductee to North Korea, and their two daughters after serving a short sentence for desertion from the U.S. Army. Sado is Ms. Soga's hometown. Procedures for Mr. Jenkins' dishonorable...

EDITORIALS

Dec 8, 2004

To keep the SDF in Iraq or not

The government is set to extend Japan's troop deployment in Iraq beyond Dec. 14 for another year, although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has not adequately explained why an extension is necessary. Nor has the Diet debated the question in detail. A joint opposition bill aimed at ending the dispatch...

EDITORIALS

Dec 7, 2004

First steps toward U.N. reform

It has become clear that the United Nations is ill suited to the challenges of the 21st century. Its institutions were created in the aftermath of World War II and to this day they reflect that balance of global power. Yet the world has changed drastically in the past half century. The number of states...

EDITORIALS

Dec 6, 2004

Fallout from fast economic growth

In recent weeks, angry Chinese have reportedly taken to the streets not only in underdeveloped interior regions but also in prosperous coastal areas in the south of the country. The communist government in Beijing faces serious challenges as it pursues an aggressive policy of economic expansion that...

EDITORIALS

Dec 5, 2004

What's up with Phinnaeus and Hazel?

A merica doesn't have princesses in the sense that Japan and Britain and a few other countries do. But it has its princess substitutes, from presidential first daughters such as Caroline Kennedy and Chelsea Clinton to a handful of the nicer Hollywood actresses. Just as with real princesses, there is...

EDITORIALS

Dec 4, 2004

Asia takes a historic step

Historians may well look back at this week's summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and call it the first real move toward creating a regional economic group that unites all of Asia. It pushed the political agenda forward as well, signaling a shift in the ASEAN-Plus-Three (Japan,...

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2004

Lack of self-cleansing power

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has indirectly admitted his involvement in a dubious flow of political funds to the faction led by himself. Going back on his previous denial that a 100 million yen check was accepted, Mr. Hashimoto said "it (the alleged acceptance) probably is a fact."

EDITORIALS

Dec 2, 2004

First step to an 'open door'

In another milestone move aimed at expanding economic ties with fast-growing East Asian nations, Japan and the Philippines agreed this week to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA). Increased trade and investment in this region is especially welcome at a time when multilateral trade talks under the auspices...

EDITORIALS

Dec 1, 2004

Manufacturing still our lifeblood

Fifteen years after the collapse of the economic bubble, Japan's longer-term economic prospects look fairly promising. One reason for this is that Japanese banks, particularly big ones, are making good progress in their efforts to clear up their nonperforming loans. Another reason is that manufacturers...

EDITORIALS

Nov 30, 2004

Ms. Rice's nomination raises concern

Observers both here and abroad are worried that the second administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may assume a more unilateralist stance in foreign policy. Such concern stems mainly from the imminent resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell, a firm believer in international coordination...

EDITORIALS

Nov 29, 2004

Heading for higher taxes

The latest report from the government's Tax Commission has a sobering message: In the long run, taxes in Japan have nowhere to go but up. As the commission's chairman, Mr. Hiromitsu Ishi, points out, there is no way to avoid tax increases in order to put the nation's fiscal house in order.

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

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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