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August 28, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Sep 27, 2002

Mr. Schroeder's postelection dilemma

Germany's center-left ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens won a narrow victory in Sunday's parliamentary election, bucking the rightist trend in France and elsewhere in western Europe. It was also a Pyrrhic victory earned at the expense of the German-American relationship....

EDITORIALS

Sep 26, 2002

A harmful exception to the rule

Banking reform in Japan continues to disappoint. The general perception is that both authorities and banks are mostly taking stopgap measures, such as the Bank of Japan's plan to buy bank shares. Another notable example of expediency is the de facto reversal of the government decision to abolish full...

EDITORIALS

Sep 25, 2002

Mr. Hatoyama's next challenge

Mr Yukio Hatoyama, re-elected Monday to his third term as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, faces a daunting challenge: leading the country's largest opposition party to victory in the next legislative election for the influential Lower House. Mr. Hatoyama retained the post in a close runoff with...

EDITORIALS

Sep 24, 2002

Corporate ethics remain in peril

Safety should be the highest priority of any nuclear power-generating program. Japan, the world's only victim of atomic bombings, has every reason to be particularly sensitive about nuclear safety. However, some of the nation's electric power companies have been found wanting in the safety management...

EDITORIALS

Sep 23, 2002

The great fire wall of China

Google was gagged. The Chinese government recently blocked access to the popular Internet search engine for several days -- before suddenly reversing course for reasons still unclear -- in an attempt to promote a "healthy atmosphere" in the runup to the November meeting of the Chinese leadership. While...

EDITORIALS

Sep 22, 2002

You won't have learned it in English class, but if you have chatted with an English-speaking teenage girl lately, or, better yet, overheard her talking on the phone, you're sure to have encountered it. We're referring to that innocuous little word "like." Not the way the grammar books use it ("I like...

EDITORIALS

Sep 21, 2002

An inventor's rights to rewards

An invention is the product of inspiration, endeavor and innovation on the part of one or more researchers. Breakthrough inventions may enrich human life and enliven economic activity. One such example in Japan is a semiconductor diode that transmits blue light when electricity is passed through it....

EDITORIALS

Sep 20, 2002

Following up the Pyongyang summit

North Korea's acknowledgment of its involvement in the kidnappings of Japanese nationals marks a major milestone in the off-and-on normalization talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang that began in 1991. With the negotiations resuming next month, following Tuesday's summit agreement between Prime Minister...

EDITORIALS

Sep 19, 2002

The Pyongyang achievement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday achieved a breakthrough, although a qualified one, in ending decades-long mutual enmity between Japan and North Korea. In fact, the outcome of the talks between the two leaders at the historic summit in Pyongyang was more...

EDITORIALS

Sep 18, 2002

Playing at democracy

Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat is coming under increasing pressure to adopt democratic reforms. In an important development, the traditionally passive Palestinian Parliament appears to have taken up the call for real change. Mr. Arafat has so far responded with his old tricks: talking a...

EDITORIALS

Sep 17, 2002

Perched on a slippery slope

As U.S. President George W. Bush made his case for action against Iraq, Russian President Vladimir Putin provided ample proof of the danger of acting unilaterally. Last week, Mr. Putin laid out Russia's complaints about Georgia's failure to take action against militants fighting Moscow and asserted Russia's...

EDITORIALS

Sep 16, 2002

Chance to make history

The meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, scheduled for Tuesday in Pyongyang, will provide a historic opportunity to end decades of enmity between Japan and North Korea. Mr. Koizumi is the first Japanese head of government to visit that country. It remains...

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

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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