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August 29, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Sep 15, 2003

Looming specter of tax hikes

The government's budget deficit continues to swell at an ominous pace. According to an estimate by the Finance Ministry, the total amount of bond issues in fiscal 2004 may exceed 41 trillion yen -- a sum roughly half the size of the budget. The figure could be revised downward, possibly to less than...

EDITORIALS

Sep 14, 2003

Tracking lost art of the Holocaust

Last Monday marked the launch of a Web site designed to help people find out whether American galleries and museums hold art that was, or could have been, stolen by the Nazis -- and if so, which institutions hold what. It was an occasion that, like the comparable moment more than three years ago when...

EDITORIALS

Sep 13, 2003

Mr. Arafat flexes his muscles

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has been sending a message to the world over the past few months: Despite being confined in his destroyed headquarters for a year and a half, he is still the only person that can make peace between Palestinians and Israelis. U.S.-led attempts to sideline...

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2003

A 'peaceful' parade in Pyongyang

A parade of military hardware was conspicuously absent from North Korea's 55th anniversary celebrations on Tuesday. That seemed to reflect its present external position. Perhaps the country was trying to send a dual message to the world: It wants to reconcile the political imperative of maintaining a...

EDITORIALS

Sep 11, 2003

September 11, two years on

In many ways, the world is a very different place today than it was two years ago. The Taliban and Saddam Hussein are no longer in power. Fears of international terrorism are pervasive; the possibility of an attack is considerably more real. There is heightened awareness of the dangers posed by weapons...

EDITORIALS

Sep 10, 2003

LDP race should enliven policy debate

Campaigning for the Liberal Democratic Party's Sept. 20 presidential election started on Monday with three men challenging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The winner will become the prime minister, since the LDP holds a majority in the Lower House. The next president, who has an extended term of three...

EDITORIALS

Sep 9, 2003

Can do in Cancun?

Trade ministers from 146 states gather in Cancun, Mexico this week to jump-start international trade negotiations. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this week's meeting. The Doha round, launched nearly two years ago, has stalled, the victim of a global economic slowdown and growing ill...

EDITORIALS

Sep 8, 2003

Moving too fast on missile defense

The Defense Agency's plan to build a missile-defense system is causing much controversy here. The basic question is whether such a system is urgently needed and whether it is suitable for ensuring the peace and security of Japan. The question should be addressed very carefully from various angles. The...

EDITORIALS

Sep 7, 2003

Rabindranath Tagore and Japan

Last week, a prominent Liberal Democratic Party member made waves by calling openly for an amendment to the nation's pacifist Constitution. Coincidentally, a quiet announcement in a distant country served to put the familiar debate over Japanese military affairs and ambitions in a longer perspective...

EDITORIALS

Sep 6, 2003

Indonesia punishes a cleric

An Indonesian court this week sentenced Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to four years in jail on charges of treason. The relatively lenient sentence has been widely interpreted as a blow to Southeast Asian efforts to combat terrorism. In fact, Indonesia was in a lose-lose position: It risked creating...

EDITORIALS

Sep 5, 2003

A chance to end faction politics

Factional dissension in the Liberal Democratic Party is probably the most significant aspect of the party's presidential election set for Sept. 20. Factions critical of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi are so deeply divided that they have failed to field a single candidate. The group headed by former...

EDITORIALS

Sep 4, 2003

Window dressing in Yangon

Nothing quickens the blood of political analysts like leadership changes in reclusive and secretive governments. The shuffle in the upper ranks of Myanmar's governing junta is no exception. The big question is the effect the changes will have on the fate of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned Nobel...

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

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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