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August 27, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2008

Education key to prevent 'honor killings'

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

The act of killing is not so surprising when senseless brutality, especially against women, engulfs a community. Thousands of women are murdered every year by their families in the name of "honor." This heinous crime cuts across continents, with most killings going unreported. When they are reported,...

EDITORIALS

Sep 30, 2008

Election promises

With the next general elections expected to be held soon, both Prime Minister Taro Aso and the Democratic Party of Japan led by Mr. Ichiro Ozawa are making policy proposals designed to appeal to as many voters as possible. Given the nation's past experiences and its financial conditions, both need to...

EDITORIALS

Sep 30, 2008

Mr. Koizumi leaves the arena

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's announcement that he will not run for the next Lower House election means the departure of a decisive, bold and charismatic politician from the nation's political scene. It is symbolic that his announcement came just after Mr. Taro Aso took power. Prime Minister...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2008

Putin of Arabia as America's foil

By Mai Yamani

BEIRUT — Almost undetected, Russia is regaining much of the influence that it lost in the Middle East after the Soviet Union collapsed. Ever since Russia invaded Georgia in August, Arab satellite television and Web sites have been rife with talk about the region's role in an emerging "new Cold War."...

COMMENTARY

Sep 29, 2008

Learning from BOJ's choice to do nothing

By Tom Plate

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, may be dead wrong about the urgent need for the proposed $700 billion that the former professor and his buddy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, have been peddling to Congress.

EDITORIALS

Sep 29, 2008

Making aid work

In 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which were aimed at raising the standard of living in the developing world. Among other things, the eight goals called for cutting by half the number of people worldwide who live on less than $1 a day, achieving universal primary...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Sep 29, 2008

'Good old days' dispensed with body counts

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK — Driving back from Sunset Beach, North Carolina, where we spend two weeks every summer, we hugged the coastline. After crossing the 40-kilometer Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, we stopped for the first time at the Visitors Center for the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. The...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2008

Blank check for Paulson?

By George Soros

NEW YORK — U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's $700 billion rescue package ran into difficulty on Capitol Hill over the weekend. Rightly so: It is ill-conceived. Congress would be abdicating its responsibility if it gave the Treasury secretary a blank check.

EDITORIALS

Sep 28, 2008

Knowing your 'carbon footprint'

Just when you thought every marketing ploy possible had been used to lure Japanese consumers, Sapporo Breweries is leading the way with a new one — carbon footprint information. Cans of Sapporo's Black Label beer will provide information on the amount of CO2 emitted in producing each can. Many people...

COMMENTARY

Sep 28, 2008

Bush will go away as a true friend to China

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG — As the world prepares to bid farewell to U.S. President George W. Bush in a few months, his foreign policy lies in tatters. Wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis looms in Iran, relations with Russia are badly strained, and now North Korea is threatening to restart its nuclear-weapons...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 28, 2008

Talking of fanatics, careerists, cynics . . . and true believers

By Roger Pulvers

"We're doing the worst thing to you: We're depriving you of an enemy."

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 27, 2008

Israel looks ready for an atypical leader

By Fania Oz-Salzberger

HAIFA, Israel — Famously irreverent, Israelis tend to call their leaders by their first name or childhood nickname. But don't be fooled: Tzipora "Tzipi" Livni is nobody's close friend. Her dry style, personal remoteness and forced smiles make her an atypical Israeli. Perhaps the country needs exactly...

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

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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