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August 28, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2006
Defuse crisis by letting Tehran save face on nuclear issue
By Brahma Chellaney
NEW DELHI -- With Iran rebuffing the United Nations Security Council, yet another global hot spot is emerging in the vast but volatile region between India and Israel. This arc of volatility between the only two democracies in the region has been made worse by the developments in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2006
A planet by any other name
One dark night 20 years ago, a small boy we knew was taken outside to view Halley's Comet as it flashed fuzzily by on its once-in-a-lifetime visit to the inner solar system. He gazed skyward through his grandfather's binoculars for a long time, then lowered them solemnly and pronounced in tones of awe:...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2006
Amnesty International on track with call for inquiry
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK -- An Amnesty International report severely criticizes the Israeli Defense Forces's behavior during the recent war in Lebanon and calls for an independent commission of inquiry. Such a commission should investigate the actions of not only the IDF but also Hezbollah, as civilians were the main...
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2006
Simplifying disaster communications
Since Japan lies in the path of typhoons, wide areas of the nation suffer from floods and landslides every year. Cloudbursts also wreak havoc in limited areas. Accurate information is crucial in preventing injuries, deaths and property damage when disasters strike. In a welcome move, the Ministry of...
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2006
Pay that keeps morale up
Salaries of central government workers have been criticized for exceeding those of workers performing related duties in the private sector, which has undergone drastic restructuring in recent years. So, the National Personnel Authority, in its report to the Cabinet and the Diet, recommends no change...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2006
Mexico's president deserves a fair start
By Enrique Ochoa Reza and Alfred Stepan
NEW YORK -- As the crisis over Mexico's disputed presidential election continues, questions are being raised not only about the conduct of the seemingly defeated candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, but also about Mexico's presidential system. Is "presidentialism" as practiced in Mexico part of the...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2006
Slighting the air-raid victims
By Kiroku Hanai
This summer I saw three Japanese movies -- two documentaries and a feature -- depicting the plight of World War II victims.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2006
It pays to join China's CCP
By David Wall
LONDON -- The Chinese government recently announced that membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has grown to a record 71 million; apparently there are also 17 million applicants waiting to join. Last year 2,540,000 people were admitted. Since 1990 party membership has grown by almost one-fifth....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2006
No victor emerged from Lebanon war
By Edward N. Luttwak
WASHINGTON -- In the immediate aftermath of the October War of 1973, the Arab world rejoiced because the myth of Israeli invincibility had been shattered by Egypt's crossing of the Suez Canal and the Syrian offensive that swept across the Golan Heights. In Israel, there was harsh criticism of political...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2006
The fat, the starving, and global warming
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON -- Being fat is the new normal, but it won't last. The global surge in overweight people is concentrated among lower-income city-dwellers, and some may choose to slim down as they climb further up the income scale. ("You can never be too rich or too slim.") But the real guarantee of a slimmer...
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2006
Strictures of job flexibility
The 2006 white paper on labor and the economy focuses on the rising number of irregularly employed workers, such as part-timers and temporary workers from agencies, and the widening gap in income between regularly and irregularly employed workers. If this gap grows and becomes fixed, society as a whole...
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2006
Secret prefectural ledgers
The Gifu Prefectural Government in central Japan has been rocked by a scandal involving, in a sense, all of the prefectural government and its workers. It came to light earlier this month that the prefecture had systematically generated, hid and used a large amount of off-the-book funds over many years....
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.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
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.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.

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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