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September 10, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2010
Wield budget ax with care
Japan's general account budget for fiscal 2010 is some ¥92 trillion. In addition to this, Japan has 18 special accounts that are almost unknown to the public. Funds for these accounts to manage specific programs in such fields as public works and social insurance amount to some ¥176 trillion. Movement...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2010
Lay judges weigh death penalty
In August 2009 the first trial under the lay judge system was held. So far, more than 1,000 rulings have been handed down in lay judge trials. There has always been the possibility that lay judges would have to consider the prosecution's demand for a death sentence. For the first time in a lay judge...
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2010
Should the U.S. be worried as Latin America prospers?
By Gregory Clark
Behind the excitement in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners buried 623 meters underground for 69 days lies a mystery.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2010
Talk to Taliban from a position of strength
By Richard Weitz
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has affirmed that, while it will not participate directly, it supports the idea of peace negotiations between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan government. This nod from the White House followed the publication of reports that representatives of Afghan President...
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2010
India, Japan lift economic ties
Prime Minister Naoto Kan and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed Monday to activate a comprehensive economic partnership. If the CEPA goes into effect, probably next year, it will accelerate Japan's exports to and investment in India and thus raise bilateral economic relations to a new...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2010
Big ideas are emerging from small countries
By Jeffrey Fankel
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Two decades ago, many people thought that the lesson of the 1980s was that Japan's variant of capitalism was the best model, and that other countries around the world should and would follow it. The Japanese model quickly lost its luster in the 1990s.
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2010
Brace for the race to put bases on the moon
By Gwynne Dyer
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has just released the full data on last year's mission to find out whether there are usable amounts of water on the moon, and the news is good. There is plenty of frozen water on the moon, plus frozen gases like methane, oxygen and hydrogen that would...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2010
China's fair-weather friends in Washington
By Hans-Werner Sinn
MUNICH — Because China has pegged its undervalued currency, the renminbi, to the dollar, every weakening of the dollar in the wake of America's financial crisis has also meant a weakening of the renminbi vis-a-vis other world currencies. But is China really to blame for the eruption of a global currency...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2010
By-election triumph for LDP
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura of the Liberal Democratic Party Sunday defeated a Democratic Party of Japan candidate in a Lower House by-election in Hokkaido's No. 5 constituency. The DPJ's defeat in the first Diet-level election since the inauguration of the Kan...
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2010
A British lesson for Japan?
By Hugh Cortazzi
The program of cuts to be made in the British budget over the years to the next election due in 2015 was outlined by Finance Minister George Osborne to Parliament on Oct. 20. The program envisages the elimination of the structural deficit by 2015 and the axing of just under half a million jobs in the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2010
No one wins devaluation race
In their meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, last week, finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 developed and emerging economies agreed to "move toward more market-determined exchange rate systems that reflect underlying economic fundamentals and refrain from competitive devaluation of...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2010
Building Greater Europe
By Fyodor Lukyanov
MOSCOW — Greater Europe is at a crossroads. Twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, it remains divided, unable to unify into a global force. Each of the three parts of Greater Europe — Russia, the European Union and the countries between them — is in crisis. The causes and forms of these...
Japan eyes two types of 'hometown resident' registration
People buy groceries from a mobile supermarket in a rural area of Nagomi, Kumamoto Prefecture. The government is considering a new "hometown resident" registration system to help strengthen regional revitalization measures.
Ed Sheeran teams up with Tokyo’s Oedo Line
The “Oh! Ed! Collaboration Campaign,” launched on Tokyo's Keio Line to celebrate the Friday release of Ed Sheeran’s latest album, “Play,” includes a eight-car train dedicated to the pop star's music and trivia related to his career
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Search is on for loopholes in Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick argues that U.S. President Donald Trump has sole authority to invest Japan's promised $550 billion.
Race to become next LDP president kicks off again
Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi on Monday became the first to enter the race to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.
Search is on for loopholes in Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick argues that U.S. President Donald Trump has sole authority to invest Japan's promised $550 billion.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday

Podcast

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

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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