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EDITORIALS

Apr 27, 1999

Somber NATO turns 50

Less than a year ago, NATO's 50th-anniversary celebration was going to be a festive occasion. Alliance members were ready to toast each other for their ability to stand together against the Soviet threat and for having survived the end of the Cold War by forging a new relationship with their former rival...

EDITORIALS

Apr 26, 1999

Victims in their own homes

One of Japan's best-kept secrets is the extent to which many of its children are subjected to violence or other abuse inside their own homes. The results, announced this week, of a survey conducted earlier this year by the Tokyo-based Center for Child Abuse Prevention among 500 young mothers of children...

EDITORIALS

Apr 24, 1999

Big hopes for small business

The latest government annual report on small enterprises bears out an important fact that is often overlooked amid news-breaking moves by big businesses: Small corporations continue to play a vital role in the Japanese economy. The report, submitted this week to the Cabinet by the Ministry of International...

EDITORIALS

Apr 23, 1999

Another senseless tragedy

Tuesday, two students in an affluent suburb of Denver, entered their high school and calmly and methodically proceeded to kill 12 classmates and a teacher. After the rampage, they exchanged gunfire with the police and then killed themselves in an apparent double suicide. Our profound sympathy goes out...

EDITORIALS

Apr 22, 1999

When the military says 'enough'

Going on appearances, there is little reason to compare the elections held in recent days in Algeria and Turkey. Algeria's ballot, held last week, was marked by the withdrawal of all major opposition candidates two days before the poll; not surprisingly turnout was a lackluster 60 percent, although the...

EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 1999

MOF by any other name

The long-running debate over breaking up the Ministry of Finance has ended with a compromise that will keep the ministry more or less as it is -- the most powerful of Japan's government offices. The MOF will be renamed the "Treasury Ministry," and will be charged mainly with fiscal and budgetary affairs,...

EDITORIALS

Apr 20, 1999

Foot-dragging in South Korea

The signs from South Korea are promising. After shrinking 5.8 percent in 1998, the economy registered 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter of 1999. Analysts now forecast that the economy will expand nearly 4 percent this year, twice the original predictions. In one indication of the new mood, government...

EDITORIALS

Apr 18, 1999

Goodbye to all that

Sometimes -- make that usually -- the range of rational reactions to life on this planet seems dismally narrow, beginning with bafflement, passing through exasperation and rage, and ending in sorrow. We may distract or console ourselves with the doings of babies and small animals, the pleasures of music...

EDITORIALS

Apr 17, 1999

A long shadow over Malaysia

After a 78-day trial, former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was found guilty Wednesday of four counts of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. The verdict, which has triggered protests by Mr. Anwar's supporters, was condemned by the defendant and questioned by others around...

EDITORIALS

Apr 16, 1999

Tit for tat in South Asia

Earlier this week, India tested a new intermediate-range missile, the Agni II. The missile, capable of carrying either a conventional or nuclear payload a distance of 2,000 km, has most of China and all of Pakistan within its range. The test has been trumpeted as another display of India's technical...

EDITORIALS

Apr 15, 1999

Justice for all, even prosecutors

The Public Prosecutor's Office, in any country, is the arm of the law responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and seeing to it that justice is done. In Japan, where collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and business-people is not uncommon, the Public Prosecutor's Office is often the...

EDITORIALS

Apr 14, 1999

Who profits from Indonesia's violence?

Last week, pro-Indonesia militiamen killed dozens of people who had taken refuge in a Catholic church in the East Timor town of Liquisa. The government says 25 people died in the most recent burst of violence in the troubled province; human-rights groups say the number of victims is more than twice that...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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