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August 26, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Feb 17, 2009

Beware of protectionism

The U.S. House and Senate have adopted a $787 billion economic stimulus package and the U.S. Treasury Department has announced a $2.5 trillion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system. The main point of the financial system stabilization plan is to set up a public-private investment fund to finance...

EDITORIALS

Feb 17, 2009

Bailing out the jobless

The steep economic downturn is causing a large number of job losses. As unemployment worsens, some local governments have started offering job opportunities to those who have been fired. Along with such measures, there is a pressing need for both the central and local governments to provide adequate...

EDITORIALS

Feb 16, 2009

Untying 'postretirement' jobs

Prime Minister Taro Aso has come out rather harsh against the job-placement practices of bureaucrats in postretiretment. But it is unclear whether this change of mind will lead to effective control of the practices criticized for giving unfair advantages to bureaucrats.

EDITORIALS

Feb 16, 2009

Waiting for the right pension

The existence of some 50 million hard-to-identify pension-premium payment records surfaced in 2007. Then, in 2008, the tampering of records related to Kosei Nenkin (pension system mainly for company employees) surfaced. Progress in rectifying the situation is slow.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 16, 2009

Involve, don't attack, China

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her maiden overseas trip has a golden opportunity to show that the new administration of Barack Obama understands and is prepared to make its best efforts to put America's most important bilateral relationship on a surer footing. I'm not talking...

EDITORIALS

Feb 15, 2009

EU-China relations back on track

Europe's relations with China appear to be back on track. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's recent tour of Europe was by all accounts a success, with both sides eager to put behind them last year's unpleasantness — a high-level China-EU meeting was canceled because of China's objections to French President...

COMMENTARY

Feb 15, 2009

Immorality of bushfires

By Gregory Clark

Australia will recover from its recent bushfire tragedy damage. But can it recover from the shock of discovering how much of the damage was due to arson? Japan could provide some answers, though not all optimistic.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 15, 2009

Do Japanese yet realize that culture's acquired, not in the blood?

By Roger Pulvers

There's no doubt that Japanese people's attitudes toward foreigners, and the ways they relate to them, have changed markedly in the 40-odd years since I first arrived here. But is this change we can believe in?

EDITORIALS

Feb 14, 2009

Cutting Kampo losses

Internal affairs and communications minister Kunio Hatoyama is holding back Japan Post Holding Co.'s plan to sell 70 Kampo no Yado inns and nine housing facilities to a subsidiary of leasing company Orix Corp. He thinks the facilities' sale price of ¥10.9 billion — about one-twentieth the cost of...

COMMENTARY

Feb 14, 2009

When it's wrong to protect

By David Howell

LONDON — A government's first duty is to protect its citizens. So say all the authorities and experts. It sounds simple, but in practice and in real life it is a very complex and problematic matter.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 14, 2009

Israel votes for firmer hand with Palestinians

By Daoud Kuttab

PRINCETON, N.J. — War and violence always have a direct effect on elections. Wars account for dramatic shifts in voter preferences, and radical leaders and parties often poll much higher after a round of sharp violence than in normal times. Minority ethnic groups are therefore often able to sway the...

EDITORIALS

Feb 14, 2009

Focus for Japan, South Korea

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone met with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and his counterpart Yu Myung Hwan in Seoul on Wednesday. Mr. Nakasone and Mr. Yu devoted half their meeting to North Korea-related issues and agreed to push for the North's denuclearization through the framework of the six-party...

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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