More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

August 26, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Apr 22, 2009

Fixing social safety nets

Prime Minister Taro Aso has established a panel to discuss social security and state finance from a middle- and long-range viewpoint. The panel, described as a "conference to build a society in which people will have a sense of economic security," has held its first meeting in which it confirmed that...

COMMENTARY

Apr 22, 2009

Nuclear disarmament: too much, too soon?

By Ralph Cossa

There is no country on Earth more committed to global nuclear disarmament than Japan. Ever since experiencing firsthand the horrors of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government and people have been steadfast in calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons from the planet....

COMMENTARY

Apr 22, 2009

A violent warning for Thailand's urban elites

By Tom Plate

Until recently (before all the rioting, violence and assassination plotting) Thailand would not have appeared to be a deeply troubled society. Generally speaking, Thais were, as endlessly advertised, scintillatingly smiley, and the country as a whole — vast rolling expanses of poverty notwithstanding...

EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 2009

Shukan Shincho's responsibility

Shukan Shincho weekly magazine, in its Feb. 5 issue, carried the first of a four-part series of accounts by a man who claimed to be responsible for a May 3, 1987, attack on the Asahi Shimbun newspaper's Hanshin bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, that killed one reporter and injured another. But...

EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 2009

Ensure safety of nuclear power

The white papers issued by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) and the Japan Nuclear Safety Commission (JNSC) highlight the difficult situation faced by Japan's nuclear power industry. The JAEC's 2008 white paper says that facility utilization rates at Japan's nuclear power plants dropped to a...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 20, 2009

Whispers of sanity in the frenzy of madness

By Shobha Shukla

LUCKNOW, India — It was refreshing to hear the views of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, a Right Livelihood Award recipient, on the politics of terrorism. He rightly believes that terrorism is not born of any religion, but is the outcome of political situations.

EDITORIALS

Apr 20, 2009

Integrity needed in journalism

The Nara District Court on April 15 gave a suspended sentence to a Kyoto psychiatrist for leaking investigation records as well as the content of a psychiatric test concerning a then 16-year-old boy to a freelance journalist. The boy, who was eventually sent to a reformatory, had torched his house in...

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Apr 20, 2009

Looking for a new leader

David Cameron, the leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, is the envy of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which is in desperate need to find someone to replace or succeed Taro Aso, whose popularity remains low despite a political scandal involving the Democratic Party of Japan —...

EDITORIALS

Apr 20, 2009

Raising the bar at law schools

In April 2004, 68 law schools were established in accordance with the nation's legal reform. Since then, the number has increased to 74. Earlier this month, about 5,800 people enrolled in these schools. Those who have not studied law at undergraduate level will have to complete a three-year course and...

EDITORIALS

Apr 19, 2009

Landmark molestation case

In a 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court on April 14 ruled that a university professor was innocent of the charge that he had molested a high school girl in a packed train, overturning lower court rulings that had found the professor guilty and sentenced him to a 22-month prison term. The top court's Third...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 19, 2009

Soviet-era trove shows that photos never lie, except when they do

By Roger Pulvers

"I have not taken a single step, spoken a single word, written a single line, or had a single thought which I need conceal from the party, the central committee, and you personally . . . I implore you to believe my word of honor. I am shaken to the depths of my being."

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 19, 2009

North Korea's rocket test and the road ahead

By James J. Przystup

WASHINGTON — North Korea's motives for its April 5 rocket launch are open to speculation: a demonstration of its ability to reach out and touch the United States; test-marketing to Iranians who are reported to have observed the launch; a "remember me" welcome to the new Obama administration; or some...

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

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports