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August 22, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Jul 8, 2004

Educational reform in perspective

There is something disquieting about moves by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito to rewrite the Fundamental Law of Education. In an interim report they have just completed, the LDP emphasizes the importance of cultivating "love of country," meaning patriotism. Komeito uses a different...

COMMENTARY

Jul 8, 2004

Rising doubts about NATO

By David Howell

LONDON -- The June 28-29 summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Istanbul was a sour affair. The so-called allies within NATO could not agree on how to help with reconstruction in Iraq and ended up merely offering to do some training of Iraqi personnel, but not much more.

EDITORIALS

Jul 7, 2004

Constitution remains a major issue

The debate over constitutional reform -- supposedly a crucial issue in Sunday's Upper House election -- remains low-key even as the campaign enters the home stretch. It is fairly clear, though, where main parties stand on this subject -- particularly on war-renouncing Article 9. This election, therefore,...

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jul 7, 2004

Bush's financial edge fades as Kerry's coffers grow fat

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- Throw away all of those crying towels that have been held in reserve to sop the tears of Democrats whining about the financial superiority of the Great Bush Money Machine. John Kerry just beat the record for fundraising by a presidential challenger, and he has a month to go to keep piling...

EDITORIALS

Jul 6, 2004

Prepare for higher interest rates

Japan's economic recovery is spreading across a broader spectrum of industries, according to the Bank of Japan. The latest "tankan" survey on business sentiment, which was conducted in June, showed large manufacturers feeling more confident about business conditions than at any time since the asset-price...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 6, 2004

Pie-in-the-sky Asian monetary reform

By Christopher Lingle

GUATEMALA CITY -- Following the experiences of the European Union's euro zone, a common currency area for Asia has been widely discussed. Even though an Asian monetary union is a fantasy that ignores both economic and political realities, respectable economists have bought into the idea.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 6, 2004

Clarify 'self-defense' role

By Hisahiko Okazaki

The government decided recently to keep Self-Defense Force troops stationed in Iraq as participants in the multinational force following the handover of sovereignty. I support this decision. One reason the decision has been criticized is that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a procedural faux pas...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 6, 2004

Expressway debts: New policy goes on the road to nowhere

By Tai Kawabata

By passing expressway legislation that omitted a key part of privatization panel's suggestions, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political 'style' may now be under scrutiny by politicians and the general public.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jul 6, 2004

Expressway debts: New policy goes on the road to nowhere

By Tai Kawabata

By passing expressway legislation that omitted a key part of privatization panel's suggestions, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political 'style' may now be under scrutiny by politicians and the general public.

EDITORIALS

Jul 5, 2004

A step in the right direction

Japan will soon express its willingness to become a party to the twin protocols of the four Geneva conventions that were approved in 1949 to protect war victims and prevent the kinds of abuses that had occurred during World War II. The supplementary protocol agreements, adopted in 1977, set humanitarian...

COMMENTARY

Jul 5, 2004

Genuine educational reform

By Takamitsu Sawa

As part of the government-proposed trilogy of reform, a review will be made of having the national treasury pay the costs of compulsory education. Present plans call for transferring some government revenues generated by the consumption tax and other sources to local autonomies and abolishing various...

EDITORIALS

Jul 4, 2004

The long and short of it

Here is another stereotype to discard: The world's tallest people are not Polynesian or Tutsi or even American. They are Dutch. Those lowlanders claimed the height title in 1999 and have kept it ever since, with the average Dutch male now topping the charts at a head-turning 185.4 cm.

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

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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