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August 29, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2006
Pigs, calves and democracy in America
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, New Jersey -- Amid all the headlines about the Democrats gaining control of the U.S. Congress in the November elections, one big election result was largely ignored. Although it illuminated the flaws of America's political system, it also restored my belief in the compassion of ordinary Americans....
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2006
'Defense Ministry' will bear watching
The legislation just enacted to upgrade the Defense Agency to ministry status and revise the Self-Defense Forces Law will significantly change the character of the Self-Defense Forces, which has assumed a low-profile posture under the nation's strictly defensive security policy, reflecting the nation's...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2006
Political theater in town
In June 2001, the first government-sponsored town meeting under the initiative of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was held to promote direct dialogue between the people and Cabinet ministers. So far, there have been 174 such meetings. But a report by a Cabinet Office investigation panel shows that...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 17, 2006
McSato et al prompt mastication over whose 'real' is really real
By Roger Pulvers
I've been running around lately like a headless chicken -- and the simile is more literal than you might think. I have been spending my evenings going around Tokyo restaurants, doing a survey strictly in the interests of scrupulous journalism.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2006
Faint signs of hope
After a 13-month lapse, a fresh round of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear-arms programs is likely to start Monday in Beijing. It may face hitches before picking up from the Sept. 19, 2005, joint statement -- in which Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security...
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2006
Blame users, not software
The Kyoto District Court has fined Mr. Isamu Kaneko, a former University of Tokyo researcher, for developing the anonymous file-sharing software Winny. It ruled that development of the software program, in effect, helped users illegally copy copyrighted content.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2006
Holocaust and nuclear denial
By Clifford Chanin
PRAGUE -- What connects Iran's nuclear ambitions and Holocaust denial?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2006
Nuclear deal details worry Indian public
By Gautaman Bhaskaran
MADRAS, India -- The U.S. Congress has finally given its approval to a landmark law that allows the export of U.S. civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time in more than 30 years.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2006
Allowing a future for tuna
In late November the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) decided to cut the allowable catch of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea by about 20 percent in four years. Earlier, the international commission for conserving southern bluefin...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2006
More fluid politics in Taiwan
Results of recent mayoral elections in Taiwan's two largest cities must have come as some relief for President Chen Shui-bian and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Although the opposition Kuomintang or Nationalist Party (KMT) took the capital of Taipei -- with Mr. Hau Lung-bin beating Mr....
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2006
Japan-India partnership key to bolstering stability in Asia
By Brahma Chellaney
NEW DELHI -- Japan and India are natural allies because they have no conflict of strategic interests and actually share common goals to build stability, power equilibrium and institutionalized multilateral cooperation in Asia. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo this week offers an...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2006
More trouble in paradise
For the fourth time in 19 years, the legal government of the South Pacific country of Fiji has been overthrown. The military is the culprit this time, with the head of the armed forces, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama deposing Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and his Cabinet. The coup has been roundly condemned...
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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