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EDITORIALS

Apr 6, 2000

A Cabinet for political continuity

Mr. Yoshiro Mori, former secretary general of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday succeeded Mr. Keizo Obuchi, the former prime minister, who has been incapacitated by a stroke since Sunday. The new prime minister has retained all members of the second coalition-Cabinet, which Mr. Obuchi...

EDITORIALS

Apr 5, 2000

After Mr. Obuchi's collapse

Worry, speculation and embarrassment have overwhelmed Japan's political world in the two days since Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was incapacitated by a stroke on Sunday. As hopes vanished for his resumption of the nation's most responsible political post, the Obuchi Cabinet resigned en bloc on Tuesday...

EDITORIALS

Apr 4, 2000

The real meaning of recycling

The throwaway mentality remains strongly entrenched here -- witness the mountains of refuse in the nation's parks and other favored sites for cherry-blossom viewing as the season reaches its peak. To anyone viewing the discarded cans, bottles and paper and plastic packaging, active recycling may seem...

EDITORIALS

Apr 3, 2000

OPEC opts for stability

Under substantial pressure from the United States, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has decided to increase crude oil production. It is a smart move. Increased production should lower oil prices worldwide, which will ease inflationary pressures. The U.S. contribution to the decision-making...

EDITORIALS

Apr 2, 2000

The sense of taking leave

You have to feel a spark of sympathy for British first lady Cherie Blair. Never having sought the spotlight herself, she was in it anyway, as the wife of the prime minister -- although she managed to avoid the worst of the glare by focusing on her legal career and her three children. But the wattage...

EDITORIALS

Apr 1, 2000

Tokyo's new tax raises big questions

The tax debate sparked by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has reached a milestone now that the metropolitan assembly has almost unanimously approved his plan to impose a new asset-based tax on large banks operating in the capital. The bank tax, which is good for five years and replaces the current business...

EDITORIALS

Mar 31, 2000

A good first choice from Mr. Chen

In a surprise move, Taiwan's president-elect, Mr. Chen Shui-bian, picked the current defense minister, Mr. Tang Fei, to serve as his prime minister. It is a good move: It ensures continuity in government, provides the new Cabinet with much-needed experience and will help reassure Chinese on both sides...

EDITORIALS

Mar 31, 2000

Familiar faces in a new Cabinet

In France, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin resorted to a compromise strategy in a Cabinet reshuffle announced earlier this week. Rattled by a series of missteps, Mr. Jospin needs to rebuild public confidence. To do so, he appointed two prominent rivals from his Socialist Party to key positions. It is a...

EDITORIALS

Mar 30, 2000

The real need for foreign workers

Japan must soon get ready to accept, even to welcome, a far greater number of legal foreign workers in its midst. The possibility is not remote, in view of plans just announced by the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau to relax visa procedures for non-Japanese workers in a wider range of fields than...

EDITORIALS

Mar 29, 2000

The man in the mirror

To no one's surprise, Mr. Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential election Sunday. Although the acting president did top the 50 percent level, which allowed him to escape a runoff ballot, the narrowness of his margin was an eye-opener. The much-anticipated landslide never materialized, the Communist...

EDITORIALS

Mar 28, 2000

Subverting campaign-finance reform

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been busy setting up new chapters across the country. If the move was aimed at expanding party activities to put politicians, not bureaucrats, in the driver's seat, or to improve its local programs in tandem with devolution, it would be fine. But the new chapters...

EDITORIALS

Mar 27, 2000

Clinton walks the tightrope

For all the aspersions cast at U.S. President Bill Clinton, it cannot be said that he lacks courage. For no other word can describe Mr. Clinton's foray into the treacherous politics of South Asia. The decades-long standoff between India and Pakistan has become yet more threatening since the two governments...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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