More Editorials Articles - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Nov 1, 2004

Troubling times for the EU

October was a cruel month for the European Union. Although the month closed on a high note with preliminary agreement on a constitution to mark the next stage in the institutional evolution of the EU, ratification of the document is far from certain. At any rate, the lavish signing ceremony in Rome was...

EDITORIALS

Oct 31, 2004

Resounding victory for Afghanistan

Mr. Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan, has won that country's first presidential ballot. The election is a momentous accomplishment for Afghanistan, a country that has been torn by war for decades. Mr. Karzai's win is a victory for him personally, but it is also an incalculable victory...

EDITORIALS

Oct 30, 2004

Mr. Tsutsumi's lack of accountability

To the dismay of many people, the stock scandal involving Seibu Railway Co. has exposed a cloistered corporate culture. Seibu -- which went public more than half a century ago -- allegedly filed a false securities report to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It is also suspected of illegal insider trading....

EDITORIALS

Oct 29, 2004

Blame game at the U.N.

Revelations about the U.N. Oil for Food Program get uglier and uglier. Designed to allow Iraq to collect revenues to pay for humanitarian supplies such as food and medicine, it appears to have been manipulated by Baghdad to reward friends of the regime and enrich the country's leadership. The damage...

EDITORIALS

Oct 28, 2004

Dealing with a murderous past

The 1970s in Cambodia is described as one of the darkest periods in modern history. That was when the Communist Pol Pot regime, or the Khmer Rouge, exterminated nearly 2 million people during its rule from 1975 to 1979. Now, a quarter of a century since the regime collapsed, some of its former leaders...

EDITORIALS

Oct 27, 2004

Lessons from natural disasters

Only several days after we breathed a sigh of relief with the passage of typhoon No. 23 -- which wreaked the worst typhoon damage in 25 years and left 92 persons dead or missing -- the Japanese archipelago was rocked by a series of powerful earthquakes centering on the Chuetsu region of Niigata Prefecture...

EDITORIALS

Oct 26, 2004

Troubling signs in Myanmar

A shakeup in Yangon has refocused international attention on the reclusive regime in Myanmar. The ousting of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt bodes ill for hopes of democratic reform in the country and will increase tension between Myanmar and ASEAN, and between ASEAN and the West. Concerned governments need...

EDITORIALS

Oct 25, 2004

Subsidy reforms under siege

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's initiative to give local governments more fiscal freedom is meeting stiff resistance from within his own administration. He wants to achieve his goal by cutting state subsidies. To make up for subsidy cuts, the central government needs to shift more of its tax-collecting...

EDITORIALS

Oct 24, 2004

Tallying national happiness

I n most countries, progress is measured in terms of GNP or GDP -- gross national or domestic product. But one small country has adopted a startlingly different yardstick. In 1972, the king of Bhutan declared that progress in the landlocked Himalayan mini-kingdom would henceforward be gauged in terms...

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2004

Middling marks for new Cabinet

During the days of all-inclusive Budget Committee debates in both Houses of the Diet this week, opposition parties focused on the issue of "politics and money," particularly on the donation scandal involving the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction. The debates produced one positive result: The...

EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 2004

The bounds of the security treaty

The United States is reviewing the role of its military bases in Japan in line with its plans for global troop redeployment (or "force transformation" as the U.S. Defense Department calls it). This is raising concerns that some realignment plans involving U.S. forces stationed here might exceed the geographical...

EDITORIALS

Oct 21, 2004

Bracing for an ugly two weeks

The U.S. presidential election is less than two weeks away. With both candidates running neck and neck, the election is still too close to call. Poll watchers worry that the victor will not be known even after the polls close: dysfunctional voting machinery and legal challenges may hold up results for...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

By Hanako Lowry

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports