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August 27, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Mar 13, 2012

Volunteers still very much in need

Areas hit by the 3/11 disasters are suffering from a shortage of volunteer workers. Reconstruction is entering a critical phase and the whole nation must make an effort to lend a helping hand so that those whose lives have been upended by the disasters do not feel that they have been forgotten.

EDITORIALS

Mar 13, 2012

Put the political maneuvering aside

The Lower House on Thursday passed the ¥90.333 trillion fiscal 2012 budget with the support of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and its coalition partner, the People's New Party. But Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda cannot be optimistic about upcoming Diet business and must overcome several hurdles....

COMMENTARY

Mar 12, 2012

Fear and consequences of defense budget cuts

By Robert Samuelson

It turns out that "budget sequestration," portrayed as an evenhanded way to spur bipartisan negotiations over budget deficits, is actually a dagger aimed at defense spending. The president and other top administration officials have said the automatic spending cuts required by sequestration are "bad...

COMMENTARY

Mar 12, 2012

Foreign aid: sop to conscience and bad policy

By Ramesh Thakur

When India selected 126 French Rafale fighter aircraft (£13 billion) over the U.K.-manufactured Typhoon involving a consortium of European countries, some British politicians and commentators demanded that aid to "ungrateful" India, a fast-rising economic power, be stopped.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Mar 12, 2012

Power reform now or never

Taking advantage of the serious difficulties besetting Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) since the catastrophe at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the Democratic Party of Japan government is pushing a series of measures to restructure the outdated way in which the electric power industry operates....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 12, 2012

Turkey moving to ensure religious rights for all

By Bulent ArinÇ

After decades of official neglect and mistrust, Turkey has taken several steps to ensure the rights of the country's non-Muslim religious minorities, and thus guarantee that the rule of law is applied equally for all Turkish citizens, regardless of individuals' religion, ethnicity or language.

COMMENTARY

Mar 12, 2012

Delusional pretexts to attack Iran

By Gwynne Dyer

The last time U.S. President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was obvious that the two men distrusted and despised each other. This time (March 5), their mutual dislike was better hidden, but the gulf between them was still as big, especially on the issue of Iran's alleged...

EDITORIALS

Mar 12, 2012

Loosening up on animal cafes

Every country has its own cafe culture, but Japan's may be the most regulated in the world. Recently, cat, dog, rabbit and bird cafes, where customers can sip a cup of tea or coffee while watching, photographing or playing with animals, have caught the attention of authorities.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 11, 2012

Japan's disasters must prompt a radical rethink of citizens' quality of life

By Roger Pulvers

It's a long time now since my first visit to Uluru, the stupendous sandstone formation in Australia's Red Center that European settlers called Ayers Rock, but which has now officially reverted to the name by which it was always known to the Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people. I had never before seen any...

CARTOONS / ZERO GRAVITY

Mar 11, 2012

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Mar 11, 2012

EDITORIALS

Mar 11, 2012

Moving forward with reconstruction

A year has passed since the massive earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on the Pacific coastal areas of the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, and many survivors continue to suffer from their devastating effects. The impact of the natural disasters was compounded by the subsequent nuclear crisis 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

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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