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August 29, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2006
Changes at the United Nations
Two key figures are leaving the United Nations. Secretary General Kofi Annan has stepped down after two terms and has been succeeded by former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton's tenure has come to an end as well. Their departures will change the world body, offering...
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2006
New base for reconciliation
By Kazuo Ogoura
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to China in early October was important for several reasons. In the short term, it represented a significant contribution to easing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing. From a long-term perspective, it helped to lay the foundations for a stronger bilateral relationship....
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2006
Japan's role in the U.N.
Fifty years have passed since Japan was admitted into the United Nations on Dec. 18, 1956. In his speech that day before the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu expressed Japan's determination to fulfill its duties under the U.N. Charter, and said that Japan can become a bridge...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2006
Fresh leadership at the United Nations
By Tom Plate
NEW YORK -- The world has no sure idea of what it may be getting with its newly designated United Nations secretary general. Ban Ki Moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, is more or less an enigma except to a small population engaged in international diplomacy.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2006
Kremlin fears for its Far East
By David Wall
LONDON -- I don't suppose you read the piece in the Russian newspapers about customs officials' activities in the Russian Far East, at the Poltvaka customs checkpoint in Oktyabrsky County in southern Primorski krai on the Chinese border? It was a very interesting article about how a truck, which had...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2006
Rabies still poses a threat
The recent death of two men from rabies is a reminder that the disease is still rampant abroad. Both men, in their 60s, were bitten by dogs in the Philippines. The first man, from Kyoto, died on Nov. 17, and the second man, from Yokohama, died on Dec. 7. Sadly, they would have lived had they gotten vaccinations...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2006
Al-Jazeera English: the plot is thickening
By Ramzy Baroud
LONDON -- The launch of Al-Jazeera English, the English arm of Al-Jazeera Satellite Television, on Nov. 15 was a notable addition to the growing global efforts aimed at counterbalancing American-European domination over world media.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2006
A natural partnership in Asia
Last week's visit to Japan by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is an important step forward in the long-delayed process of creating a durable and forward-looking relationship between two Asian powers. Japan and India are natural partners, whose relationship is based on shared interests, values and...
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2006
Closing the biofuel gap
Japan is lagging behind several other countries in developing liquid biofuels that serve as alternatives for fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. An increase in demand for oil caused by expanding economic activities worldwide as well as tighter government control of natural resources, as in...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2006
Warming to carbon rations
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON -- Here's the plan. Everybody in the country will get the same allowance for how much carbon dioxide they can emit each year, and every time they buy some product that involves carbon dioxide emissions -- filling their car, paying their utility bills, buying an airline ticket -- carbon points...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2006
ECB tools for assessing price risks work
By Otmar Issing
STRASBOURG, France -- In October 1998, just before the start of the European Monetary Union, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted a stability-oriented monetary policy strategy comprising three elements. The first was a commitment to the primary goal of the ECB -- safeguarding...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2006
Molding children by design
Legislation to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, which the ruling bloc has just pushed through the Diet, will drastically change the direction of the nation's postwar education system. It will lead to more direct control of education by the central government, which could result in stifling creative...
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.

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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