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August 28, 2025
 

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CARTOONS / ZERO GRAVITY
Jun 7, 2009
Fuji Views
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2009
More lawyers needed
In the past, court-appointed lawyers, who are paid with public money, were assigned to represent indicted defendants who couldn't afford to hire a lawyer. In October 2006, lawyers started being appointed to represent suspects even before indictment in cases involving serious crimes such as murder and...
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2009
Raising the birthrate
The nation's total fertility rate (TFR) — the number of children an average woman gives birth to — has increased for three consecutive years. This is good news. But the rise occurred as the Japanese economy was expanding. The economic downturn that started last fall may have an adverse effect. The...
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2009
Dodging a CO2 hangover
By Michael Richardson
Officials from Japan and other parts of the world are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until June 12 for more negotiations on a new set of global arrangements to prevent runaway climate change. The deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, is supposed to be clinched at a climate summit convened...
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2009
Reviving the travel bug
Two years ago the government started to promote tourism, partly to increase domestic demand and to raise the No. 2 world economy's claim on tourism revenues (No. 26 in the world in 2007).
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2009
Extended Diet wrangling
The Lower House on Tuesday extended the current Diet session by 55 days through July 28. Prime Minister Taro Aso had decided on the extension and got the consent of Mr. Akihiro Ota, leader of Komeito, the Liberal Democratic Party's junior coalition partner.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2009
Geithner's 'G-2' invitation
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — Some Chinese see U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was in Beijing this week, as a repentant debtor humbly visiting his bank manager. Influential Americans, however, see the visit as the start of a beautiful friendship, perhaps even a tipping point in global finance — the overture...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2009
Suspect in stabbing death a national hero
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — A public outcry in China over the case of a woman arrested for stabbing to death a local official who assaulted her after she refused to provide sexual services reflects the widespread distrust of officials and sympathy for the underdog — even someone who may face murder charges.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2009
Tearing down the Iron Curtain
By Michael Meyer
PRAGUE — A quiz for history buffs. Twenty years ago — on June 4, 1989 — three events shaped a fateful year. Which do you remember most vividly, and which most changed the world?: (a) the bloody denouement of the protests on Tiananmen Square; (b) the death of Iran's revolutionary cleric, Ayatollah...
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2009
The path with North Korea
By Ralph Cossa
What is North Korea up to? Is it trying to undermine the six-party talks in order to force Washington to deal with Pyongyang directly, as some experts claim? Or, as others maintain with equal certainty, is it sending a signal that it is not interested in talks at all, given current domestic political...
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2009
A return to arms control
Despite North Korea's recent nuclear test, it has generally been a good year for arms control. For the past decade, the very idea of agreements limiting weapons and their delivery systems has been looked at with disdain. While it is tempting to blame the United States for this sad state of affairs; in...
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2009
Take action for A-bomb sufferers
Handing down a ruling in a lawsuit involving 30 plaintiffs who challenged the state's refusal to recognize them as sufferers of illnesses caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Tokyo High Court on May 28 recognized 29 of them as sufferers.
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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Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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