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August 28, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 2003

Joyless anniversary in N. Ireland

The fifth anniversary of the Northern Ireland peace accords came and went with little to celebrate. The peace process remains in a state of suspension over the Irish Republican Army's failure to commit to a permanent end to violence. Hopes that Britain and Ireland would be able to unveil a plan that...

EDITORIALS

Apr 20, 2003

Concorde in mothballs

Have you ever flown on a Concorde? Know anyone who has? No, we didn't think so. Not many people have, despite the fact that the elegant, needle-nosed, supersonic aircraft has been plying the skies for 27 years. And there's a good reason for that. It boils down to a single number: $9,300, which is how...

EDITORIALS

Apr 19, 2003

U.N. resolution in abduction cases

The nuclear standoff with North Korea has tended to overshadow the country's human rights abuses, including the abduction of Japanese nationals. It is fitting, therefore, that the U.N. Human Rights Commission has adopted a resolution condemning Pyongyang's human rights record.

EDITORIALS

Apr 18, 2003

Indelible stain of injustice

Abuses by Japan's thought police during World War II belong in history, and so does the so-called Yokohama Incident in which special police in Kanagawa Prefecture arrested more than 60 editors and journalists on suspicion of plotting to revive a communist party. About half of them were indicted and found...

EDITORIALS

Apr 17, 2003

Japan's role in rebuilding Iraq

With the collapse of the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein, the focus of international attention has shifted to the issues of postwar governance and reconstruction. The question for Japan is specifically what it should and can do in the rebuilding process -- a question that depends crucially on...

EDITORIALS

Apr 16, 2003

Time to pull out the road map

As the war in Iraq reaches its final phases, attention is shifting to other fronts in the Middle East. None is more important than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. President George W. Bush promised to push for peace in the region after the Baghdad government fell. While some doubt his determination...

EDITORIALS

Apr 15, 2003

Party influence continues to wane

With public interest drawn to developments in the ongoing Iraq war, the first round of elections in local governments and assemblies featured low-key campaigning and a generally poor turnout. The media has not shown great interest in hyping up the local poles. And established political parties have tended...

EDITORIALS

Apr 14, 2003

Easing cash flow for small firms

Small businesses in Japan are having severe cash-flow difficulties, even though the Bank of Japan is pumping plenty of money into the banking system. This is because debt-burdened banks are following restrictive lending practices. In an unprecedented move to help those cash-strapped companies, the central...

EDITORIALS

Apr 13, 2003

In search of the real al-Jazeera

The war in Iraq hasn't been easy for nonparticipants such as Japan to sort out. The most obvious villains were also technically the victims, and the perpetrators of hostilities have looked like invaders one minute, liberators the next. Perceptions and judgments could, and still do, shift like the wind....

EDITORIALS

Apr 12, 2003

Bringing stability to Iraq

By all indications, the war in Iraq is about to end. Baghdad has fallen, with U.S. and British forces having seized key government buildings in the city. Surprisingly, they have met little organized resistance from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's loyal troops and militias. It comes as a great relief...

EDITORIALS

Apr 11, 2003

Aceh peace accord breaking apart

Separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh have fought the government for more than a quarter of a century. Last December, Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (known by the initials GAM) signed a peace agreement. Hopes that the accord would yield an enduring peace have been betrayed during the...

EDITORIALS

Apr 10, 2003

The SARS toll mounts

Concern over severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, continues to rise. Two weeks ago, we reported 350 cases of the disease worldwide that had resulted in 10 deaths. At the beginning of this week, the World Health Organization reported more than 2,600 cases, with 100 deaths, in 18 countries; it is...

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

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