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September 01, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Oct 24, 2007

Don't forget Myanmar

There is a seeming return to normalcy in Myanmar. Calm has returned to the streets and demonstrations are over. The junta has lifted its curfew and ended the ban on gatherings of more than five people. Once cordoned-off pagodas have reopened to the public. The military junta has appointed a commission...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2007

Turkey's army won't invade

By Ian Bremmer

PRAGUE — Just when the smoke from Turkey's domestic political conflicts of the past year had begun to clear, another deadly attack by Kurdish separatists on Turkish soldiers has the government threatening military attacks inside northern Iraq. That prospect raises risks for Turkey, Iraq and the United...

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2007

Quality care with less

A government plan to save on medical costs by reducing the number of hospital beds dedicated to long-term convalescence is causing anxiety for patients and their families. If the health ministry carries out the plan carelessly, it could lead to the loss of people's trust in the nation's medical system....

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2007

Minamata claims still on hold

In September 2006, an experts' forum submitted a report to the environment minister, stressing the urgent need for the central government to take the initiative in setting up a new, permanent framework to aid all victims of Minamata disease, including unrecognized and latent victims.

COMMENTARY

Oct 22, 2007

Potential for Korean progress

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU — "It could have been worse, a lot worse!" This was my initial reaction to the Oct. 2-4 summit meeting in Pyongyang between South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il.

EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 2007

Battle line over supply lines

The government has submitted to the Diet a bill to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan. This sets the stage for a confrontation between the ruling and opposition blocs. Deliberations...

EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 2007

Rooting out fraud over the phone

A bill aimed at helping victims of telephone fraud recoup their financial losses is on the Lower House floor. Although the bill, submitted by lawmakers, is well-intended, it is hoped that improvements in the bill will better help victims prevent their money from falling into fraudsters' hands.

COMMENTARY

Oct 22, 2007

Let MSDF refueling law die

By Kiroku Hanai

Late last month a gathering in Yokohama remembered the victims of a U.S. military jet crash in a residential area 30 years ago. I was stunned to learn that a Japanese Self-Defense Force helicopter that had rushed to the scene of the crash flew away with two slightly injured U.S. servicemen without looking...

COMMENTARY

Oct 22, 2007

No reviving the Mideast peace process

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — "We are at the beginning of a process," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after her four-day tour of the countries closely involved in the Arab-Israeli confrontation. But the "peace process" really began with the Oslo accords in 1993, and it died when Ariel Sharon became prime...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 21, 2007

The power of telling tales versus making apologies

By Roger Pulvers

In his new book, "The Political Brain," Drew Westen analyzes in detail the election debates of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Westen points out that it was Gore's dispassionate approach to issues that hurt him. Bush, then as now, presents himself as someone who knows what is right (and moral)...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 21, 2007

EU as Mideast player, not just a payer

By Hassan Bin Talal

PRAGUE — The European Union's policy in the Middle East is the litmus test of its common foreign and security policy. Many Europeans share this belief, but as the EU considers entering the fray of Middle East peace talks, it must respond to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's jibe that in...

EDITORIALS

Oct 21, 2007

Elderly changing society

Once upon a time in Japan, youth culture was in the vanguard. Young people started new trends in eating, fashion, slang and leisure that shifted viewpoints and attitudes all through the culture.

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

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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