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May 16, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2009
Summit highlights media problems in China
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — It seems that almost every week brings new signs of China's rise, with a commensurate increase in its international influence and soft power as well as in its economic, political and military clout.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 16, 2009
Government's gatekeeper
A month in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appears to face difficulty in effecting his key slogan of reducing, if not eliminating, the government's heavy reliance on the bureaucracy, due mainly to confusion as to who will take the lead andwith how much power.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2009
Winny creator rightly acquitted
In December 2006, Mr. Isamu Kaneko, a former University of Tokyo researcher, was fined ¥1.5 million for enabling two computer users to illegally make movies and other files available to download. The Kyoto District Court said he was guilty because he had continued to offer the peer-to-peer file-sharing...
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2009
Full military disclosure
The Air Self-Defense Force was engaged in a transportation mission in Iraq from March 2004 to December 2008 under a special law to provide humanitarian assistance for the reconstruction of Iraq. Details of the mission were unknown.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2009
Japan can learn from Silicon Valley
By Ray K. Tsuchiyama
With unemployment figures reaching their highest level in the post-World War II era, the Japanese economy shows no sign of a Silicon Valley-like resurgence that could give hope to the unemployed or to "zombie" corporations that have no customers for their products and no growth.
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2009
An angel among the evil energy resources
By Michael Richardson
Environmental activists have an aboveground and a below-ground view of the world. Energy sources harnessed on or very close to the surface, like wind, wave, tidal, solar and hydro power, are good. They are renewable and do not emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is widely thought to be...
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2009
Police interrogations on video
The Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto calls for all interrogations of criminal suspects by investigators to be recorded on video, to (1) prevent prolonging a trial because of differences in opinion between public prosecutors and defense counsel members over the reliability of the record...
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2009
Nobel invests hope in leadership
U.S. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize after less than nine months in office. His critics at home and abroad say the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision came too early since Mr. Obama cannot yet claim any concrete achievement in dealing with challenging global issues.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2009
New concerns bring fresh hope for renewable energy
By Kandeh K. Yumkella
VIENNA — A decade ago, renewable energy was viewed as an unwelcome offspring of fossil fuels, but the recent establishment of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) indicates that governments worldwide are taking "renewables" seriously. With mounting concerns about climate change and volatility...
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2009
Japan broadcast commission?
The government is pushing a plan to establish an independent body to handle administrative matters related to broadcasting and communications. This idea was explained in the Democratic Party of Japan's 57-page policy booklet during the Lower House election campaign. Titled "Index 2009," it was much thicker...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2009
CO2 emission cuts doable
By Takamitsu Sawa
On Sept. 7 — shortly before taking over the premiership — Yukio Hatoyama met strong resistance from business circles and from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry when he said at the Asahi Global Environment Forum (sponsored by Asahi Shimbun) that his government would aim for a 25 percent...
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2009
Campaign against groping
Every year in Japan, some 1,800 men are arrested for groping women on trains. In a 2004 NHK survey of Tokyo women in their 20s and 30s, 64 percent said they had been groped on a train. Only 2 percent reported it to police. In 2008, the police in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama recognized 2,416 cases...
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Two crew feared dead after ASDF training jet crashes in Aichi
Self-Defense Forces personnel collect apparent parts of an Air Self-Defense Force T-4 training jet from a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefeture, on Thursday. The jet crashed shortly after takeoff a day earlier.
Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
Sumo title contenders already emerging in early stages of Tokyo meet
Onosato (left) battles Abi on Day 3 of the Summer Basho in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Tokyo Stock Exchange wants stocks to be affordable for the average investor
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Nihonbashi. The exchange wants companies to lower the entry cost of investing in their shares.

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