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EDITORIALS

Aug 30, 2001

Let's not forget basic research

In its guidelines for the next fiscal year's budgetary requests, the government has permitted a 5 percent hike in science and technology promotion spending, making an exception in the 10-percent cut in general expenditures and public-works spending. This is a real treat amid the deflationary climate....

EDITORIALS

Aug 29, 2001

An alternative to Yasukuni

The government is considering building a national cemetery for the nation's war dead. The immediate reason for this is the political and diplomatic backlash caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to Yasukuni Shrine. The visit has provoked angry protests from China and South Korea....

EDITORIALS

Aug 28, 2001

The world without the Soviet Union

Ten years ago this month, the Soviet Union collapsed in one final, drunken spasm. After decades of fear, the Soviet threat vanished with the proverbial whimper when Communist hardliners launched a last desperate coup attempt to bring then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev back into line. They failed,...

EDITORIALS

Aug 27, 2001

Sins that must be atoned for

On Aug. 24, 1945, shortly after Japan's surrender in World War II, a Japanese naval transport ship carrying more than 3,700 Koreans and their family members back home exploded and sank in Kyoto's Maizuru Port, killing 524 people. On Thursday, the Kyoto District Court ruled that the government had failed...

EDITORIALS

Aug 26, 2001

Europe, the euro and you

Remember the runup to Y2K? The predictions of catastrophe? The hand-wringing over unpreparedness? It's happening all over again, on a smaller scale, with the runup to the cash launch of the euro. Although the new European currency will not be legal tender until New Year's Day, armored trucks will start...

EDITORIALS

Aug 25, 2001

A step in the wrong direction

Japan has a resident litigation system modeled on America's taxpayer suits. It allows residents to file suits to correct financial irregularities on the part of local officials, such as use of public money for private wining and dining. Now, a bill to change that system is pending in the Diet. The measure...

EDITORIALS

Aug 24, 2001

ODA also needs reform

Japan's official development assistance is expected to be reduced by 10 percent in fiscal 2002 as part of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of "structural reform with no sacred cows." According to the budget outlines announced earlier this month, ODA will be cut by 100 billion yen from the current...

EDITORIALS

Aug 23, 2001

Don't count on a U.S. recovery

The U.S. economy continues to stumble. More ominously, there are few positive signs elsewhere in the world that could give the global economy the boost it needs. The U.S. Federal Reserve did what it could on Tuesday, but that will not be enough to lift the United States out of the doldrums. Slow growth...

EDITORIALS

Aug 22, 2001

An 'unstrategic' strategic meeting

The meeting last week in Moscow between U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov -- the first time top U.S. and Russian defense officials have discussed strategic issues -- ended unsuccessfully. That should come as no surprise given the perception gap that exists...

EDITORIALS

Aug 21, 2001

Gaining our neighbors' trust

In his speech at the government-sponsored memorial service for the war dead Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi acknowledged that Japan had inflicted "tremendous damage and pain" on people in Asian nations, and expressed a strong determination...

EDITORIALS

Aug 20, 2001

Macedonians give peace a chance

A deal has been struck to end the six-month insurgency in the tiny, impoverished country of Macedonia. Now everything depends on whether a genuine peace can be established. Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders signed an agreement, which embodies the essence of the demands of the guerrilla Albanian forces....

EDITORIALS

Aug 19, 2001

The urgent task of money policy

The Bank of Japan decided last Tuesday to pump more money into the economy, obviously in deference to the growing calls for a looser credit policy from the government and the ruling parties. The decision also reflects a desire to prop up sagging stock prices. Earlier in the week, the Nikkei stock index...

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

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