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August 29, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2007
Toyota as No. 1
Fifty years ago, Toyota Motor Co., a virtually unknown upstart, entered the U.S. market. Last month, Toyota predicted that it would become the world's largest automaker in 2007, overtaking General Motors. In U.S. auto sales for 2006, Toyota passed Chrysler Group and became No. 3. That is a remarkable...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 7, 2007
Japan is 'beautiful' -- and don't you dare disagree
By Roger Pulvers
Japanese tradition has it that your first dream of the new year (hatsuyume) is a portent of what is in store for you in the 12 months to come. There are three hatsuyume (wouldn't you just know that the Japanese would even designate dreams) they hold to be symbolic: If on the night of Jan. 1 you dream...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2007
Hanging Hussein for the wrong crime kept America's dirty laundry hidden
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON -- It was not the Iraqi government but its American masters that chose to execute Saddam Hussein in a great rush as soon as the first sentence was confirmed, thus canceling all the other trials on far graver charges that awaited him. The current Iraqi government had nothing to hide if those trials...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2007
Two nations bigger
With the arrival of 2007, Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, increasing its membership to 27 states. Simultaneously, Slovenia adopted the euro, Europe's single currency, becoming the first former communist state to do so and the 13th member of the euro-zone. The accession of Romania, with...
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2007
Solidarity to reproduce
A new forecast says Japan's population will drop by about 40 million from 2005 to about 89 million by 2055 and about 40 percent of the population will be at least 65 years old. The forecast by the health ministry's National Institute of Population and Social Security Statistics clearly shows that a population...
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2007
Clean process for governors
Last year saw 15 local government heads arrested in connection with corruption in the bidding process for public projects. Three of them were the governors of Fukushima, Wakayama and Miyazaki prefectures. The elimination of bid rigging will help local government heads regain the trust of local residents....
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2007
Deja vu in 2007
Readers should be prepared for a recurring sense of deja vu in the year ahead. Few of the problems that dominated international affairs in 2006 were resolved. The headline issues that absorbed decision makers will continue to demand time and attention in 2007. There is little hope for resolution as neither...
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2007
Wages of brute force
Saddam Hussein is dead. The former Iraqi dictator went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday morning in Baghdad, with a Quran in one hand, crying for justice. In death as in life, he divided his country: Shiites danced in the streets and fired guns in the air, while Sunnis mourned the passing of a martyr...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2007
A political showdown year
Mr. Shinzo Abe's administration at first seemed to have smooth sailing. By visiting China and South Korea and holding summits with their leaders, the prime minister managed to improve Japan's relations with the two neighbors. The relations had soured as a result of his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's...
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2007
Unwise gantlet for teachers
By Takamitsu Sawa
Certain professionals must pass state examinations to obtain licenses for their jobs. They include medical doctors, dentists, jurists, certified public accountants, architects, pharmacists and registered nurses, as well as primary, middle and high school teachers. Amid the severe employment situation,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2007
Defusing the dangers of nuclear proliferation
By Yoshikazu Sakamoto
North Korea test-fired a series of ballistic missiles and carried out a nuclear test in 2006. If the policy goal of the Bush administration was to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, it has failed.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2006
Japan turns a corner
The year 2006 will go down in history as a turning-point year during which Japan experienced a resurgence in nationalist sentiment and felt a weakening in the influence of the lessons from its modern wars (1930s through 1945). As a result, concerns have mounted that the pillars of Japan's postwar democracy...
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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

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