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August 28, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Mar 16, 2009

Key to economic recovery

Each country is trying to get out of the current global recession by adopting stimulus measures, including the United States' $787 billion stimulus package and Japan's budgetary measures, which include ¥12 trillion in fiscal spending. But the prospects for the world economy are not bright.

EDITORIALS

Mar 16, 2009

Support needy foreign workers

The downturn of the Japanese economy is severely affecting foreign workers in this nation, most of whom are temporary employees. The labor ministry says at least some 5,600 foreign workers have lost or will soon lose their jobs. But that estimate is likely low.

EDITORIALS

Mar 15, 2009

Help for human rights

Human Rights Watch, the second-largest rights organization in the world, will set up an office in Tokyo in April. The organization, founded in 1978, does just what its name suggests — gives attention to violations of the basic rights of all humans. HRW will come to Tokyo not to investigate abuses inside...

COMMENTARY

Mar 15, 2009

Planets like Earth appear to be out there

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — The real wonder of our age is this. You can go on the Web, type in PlanetQuest New Worlds Atlas, or Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, or NASA Star and Exoplanet Database, and directly access the data on 340 new planets that have been discovered in the past five years.

EDITORIALS

Mar 15, 2009

Blossoms amid the gloom

The cherry blossom season will soon arrive, and with it the reflections and lessons that go with the yearly event. As Japan begins the season of enjoying the cherry blossoms, the differences from last year start to appear as well. Part of the excitement of spring comes from never quite knowing exactly...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 15, 2009

Now that the Celtic tiger's turned tail, whither the Emerald Isle?

By Roger Pulvers

Irish patriot, poet and eminent surgeon Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957) once played a wily prank on a drunken acquaintance. He stuffed the poor chap, who was catatonic, into a sack and sold him to The Royal College of Surgeons strictly, one would assume, in the interests of medical science. His friend...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2009

France's aims with NATO

By Benoit D'aboville

PARIS — What will be the consequences of France's return — announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday — to the integrated military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2009

Unnerving trip to stellar deficits

By Christopher Lingle

BALI, Indonesia — With stock markets around the world having beaten a hasty retreat recently, a cautionary tale might be found by looking at the United States, since it is ground zero for current economic and financial upheavals.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2009

Maritime lines of conflict in South China Sea

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — America's protest last week to China over the alleged harassment of two of its navy ships by Chinese vessels, and China's reaffirmation of ownership of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, highlight two festering maritime disputes. Either position could lead to conflict...

EDITORIALS

Mar 14, 2009

Stabilizing Afghanistan

The Obama administration is working out a strategy to stabilize Afghanistan, where the level of violence has risen due to a resurgence of the Taliban. A high level of cooperation in the international community will be key to the successful reconstruction of the nation.

EDITORIALS

Mar 14, 2009

Fate of abductees

Ms. Yaeko Taguchi was abducted by North Korea in 1978 at the age of 22. Earlier this week Mr. Koichiro Iizuka, her son, and Mr. Shigeo Iizuka, her elder brother, met Ms. Kim Hyon Hui, a former North Korean agent, in Busan, South Korea. Ms. Kim told the Iizukas that she believed that Ms. Taguchi was alive....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 13, 2009

Climate change mitigation by low-income countries

By Rahul Pandey

MUMBAI, CITIZENS NEWS NETWORK — The economies and resultant emissions of low-income countries are growing at a rapid pace. China and India are already among the top five greenhouse-gas emitters. The rest of the world may strive to stabilize its emissions at 1990 levels, but if China and India continue...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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