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August 25, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2010
Needs of Haiti and the limits of generosity
By Peter Singer
MELBOURNE, Australia — All over the world, people have responded generously to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti. In just three days, more than a million Americans had donated $10 by sending text messages from their cell phones. People with very little themselves, like Maria Pacheco, an...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2010
National vision for child-rearing
The Hatoyama administration adopted in late January a "children and child-rearing vision" designed to help raise the nation's birthrate. The program involves a variety of initiatives and some 40 numerically defined goals. An obvious problem is where the necessary funds will be found.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2010
Citizens bring indictment
A law revision that took effect in May 2009 gave citizen committees, which are composed of 11 randomly-selected people, the power to override prosecutors' decision not to file an indictment in a criminal case. If a prosecution inquest committee votes (with at least an 8-3 majority) on two occasions to...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2010
No. 1 automaker pitching trust amid the repercussions of recall
By Yozo Hasegawa
As the impact of Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive vehicle recalls to make free repairs unfolds on the world's automobile markets, at issue are not only the irregularities found with the Toyota models concerned but also the company's very systems for handling complaints and managing crises. Consumers are...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2010
New chairman of business lobby
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has picked Mr. Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Co., as its next leader. He will begin serving as chairman of Japan's most powerful business lobby in late May. His appointment comes at a difficult time as the Japanese economy is suffering...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2010
Call for debate on smoking
Recently Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) and the state were successful in their defense against a damages suit in which three people had sought ¥10 million each for health problems — cancer and pulmonary emphysema — allegedly caused by smoking. Still, the Jan. 20 Yokohama District Court ruling, which the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2010
Democracies that lack liberty
By Iqra Anugrah
BEPPU, Oita Pref. — Around the world, our generation is witnessing the three Ds: deregulation, decentralization and, ultimately, democratization. The export of democracy is no doubt one of the most important items on the Western foreign policy agenda. Nevertheless, the effort seems to bring more failures...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 22, 2010
Root of premier ambitions
Interior Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi is that rare politician who doesn't hesitate to say he'll eventually be prime minister. He has apparently become more confident than ever after receiving support and encouragement from two of the most influential figures in the Japanese media.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2010
Not the time to junk the factories
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — While President Akio Toyoda and his Toyota Motor Corp. search for the vehicle pedal that says "damage control," economists and political commentators are increasingly speculating whether the multimillion vehicle recall by Toyota presages the beginning of the end of Japan's mighty manufacturing...
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2010
Financial squeeze for students
The most recent evidence of the terrible effects of Japan's economic slowdown comes from the National Federation of University Co-operative Associations. This consumer cooperative, which researches and supports university life, reported last October that more university students than ever are having...
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2010
Taiwanese perspective on Sino-U.S. relations
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES — Unless they somehow manage to entwine us in World War III with China, our friends in Taiwan truly are our friends.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2010
The last newspaper train
Japan's last "newspaper train" will make its final run in March, ending a long history of Japanese trains serving readers as well as passengers. The JR Sobu Line has carried evening papers from Ryogoku Station to areas in the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture for many years. The March 12 train, however,...
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Japan to boost support for joint ride-hailing services
Tatsuaki Igarashi, mayor of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, exits a ride-sharing vehicle at Tsukuba Station in January.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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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