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August 23, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2009

Coalition on delicate foundations

The leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan, Social Democratic Party and New People's Party (Kokumin Shinto) agreed Wednesday to form a coalition government. It will ensure that the DPJ, which holds fewer than half of the Upper House seats, has smooth sailing in the Diet. However, the parties appear...

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2009

Komeito must return to its roots

Komeito, the junior partner of the LDP-led coalition government that was ousted from power in the Aug. 30 Lower House election, has chosen policy chief Mr. Natsuo Yamaguchi as its new leader and election campaign chief Mr. Yoshihisa Inoue as secretary general.

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2009

DPP scoring political points at Taiwan's expense

By Ralph Cossa

What's going on in Taiwan? A year ago, there were serious concerns about the viability of Taiwan democracy. The Nationalist Party (KMT) had achieved an overwhelming majority with a sweeping victory in Legislative Yuan elections and had regained the presidency as a result of a landslide victory by its...

EDITORIALS

Sep 11, 2009

Impetus for a low-carbon world

Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party of Japan and the prime minister-in-waiting, has announced that Japan will seek a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. This is an ambitious target that could put Japan on the path to a low-carbon society. It could also give...

COMMENTARY

Sep 11, 2009

Shifting balances of power

By Hugh Cortazzi

The hope was that the League of Nations before World War II and the United Nations, its postwar successor, would provide a more effective way of ensuring world peace than the "Balance of Power" that Britain, in particular, had tried to maintain in Europe for centuries. This hope has not been fulfilled....

EDITORIALS

Sep 11, 2009

Tight race for Olympic rights

The International Olympic Committee has released an evaluation report on four cities — Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid — competing to win the right to host the 2016 summer Olympic Games. Although there does not appear to be a clear front-runner, conspicuous is the fact that the IOC has...

COMMENTARY

Sep 10, 2009

Politics and people colliding

By David Howell

The Japanese people have just voted decisively for change. For what kind of change should they now be asking?

COMMENTARY

Sep 10, 2009

Words of wisdom from Hatoyama

By Tom Plate

It was just this side of comical. The leader of the new ruling party of Japan barely finishes acknowledging his Democratic Party of Japan's landslide win and a public relations disaster strikes. The result: an ignominious international climb-down.

EDITORIALS

Sep 10, 2009

Some progress from the G20

The global recession may have found its floor, but efforts to ensure that the crisis does not repeat itself continue to be frustrated. That was the message from last weekend's meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers. There is consensus on the need to stop the obscene payments to...

EDITORIALS

Sep 9, 2009

Shape of DPJ rule emerging

Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister-in-waiting, has moved to fill key party posts and the next Cabinet with political heavyweights. He wants his party as a unit, rather than individual politicians, to play the leading role in developing policy, thus taking the initiative...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 9, 2009

In Hatoyama's 'fraternity,' people the end, not means

By Yukio Hatoyama

An opinion piece by Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama that was originally published in the September edition of the Japanese monthly journal Voice has triggered controversy in the United States for appearing to have an antiglobalization bent.

COMMENTARY

Sep 9, 2009

A Spanish medical doctor's African epiphany

By Cesar Chelala

I was visiting Rio Muni, the continental half of Equatorial Guinea with some medical colleagues. We were assessing the health situation in the country and we had arrived at Niefang, a small, sparsely populated, neglected town in the interior. The high humidity made the heat even more oppressive.

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

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