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October 06, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
May 19, 2006
Pride in a Yankee apology
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES -- In the sports-happy, internationally oblivious country of the United States, probably more people know who Hideki Matsui is than who Junichiro Koizumi is.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2006
Russian flirtation with the fascist threat
By Yegor Gaidar
MOSCOW -- Today's Kremlin thinks that democracy was being built too quickly in Russia. The government does not say that it is against democracy, only that it is untimely and needs to be delayed -- a logic that manifests itself in most official decisions. Thus, at the beginning of the current decade,...
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2006
Inequalities of pensions
In 1984, the government decided to rectify inequalities between the pension plan for company employees (kosei nenkin) and the one mainly for public servants (kyosai nenkin). Public servants are entitled to receive more benefits by paying smaller amounts of contributions than company employees.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2006
Futenma relocation agreement
Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine's tense expression while shaking hands with Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga and Prime Minister Junichiro Koiziumi last week told a lot about an agreement between him and the central government on the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The Okinawa governor...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2006
What's next, militarization of the Andes?
By Juan Gabriel Tokatlian
BUENOS AIRES -- While the world's attention is riveted on Iraq, the Colombia Plan, developed by the United States to fight drugs and leftwing guerrillas in Colombia, may soon be applied as a general strategy across the nations of the Andes, if not all of Latin America. Colombia, it seems, is only mentioned...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2006
Sub-Saharan Africa's failing leadership
By Sanou Mbaye
Why are the countries of sub-Saharan Africa the poorest in the world? One reason is the set of ill-designed development strategies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have implemented in the region for nearly half a century. But the centuries-old culture of leadership that is...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2006
Redefining the Middle East
By Ramzy Baroud
SARAWAK, Malaysia -- It may be convenient to perceive the Middle East as a politically charged, fractious region, rife with conflicts and disputes, void of many prospects, save those leading to even further uncertainty and turmoil.
COMMENTARY
May 18, 2006
Avert failure in Afghanistan
By Farhan Bokhari
ISLAMABAD -- A team of Afghan military officers who have just completed their first ever military exercises with Pakistani and U.S. troops in Pakistan represent Washington's hope for a new future for Afghanistan's beleaguered security apparatus. But the effort also promises to stir controversy because...
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2006
Revising the Organ Transplant Law
The Organ Transplant Law went into effect in 1997. Between February 1999 and March 2006, organs from 44 brain-dead people were used for 167 transplants, which involved hearts, lungs, livers, pancreases, kidneys and small intestines. But the number is extremely small compared with the United States, where...
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2006
Taro Aso has a history problem with Australia
By Robyn Lim
When Foreign Minister Taro Aso visited Australia recently, did he know that the father of the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, had been a Japanese prisoner of war in the notorious Changi jail in Singapore? And if Alexander Downer Sr. had been sent to a certain camp in Kyushu, as some 200...
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2006
An 'OPEC' with nuclear weapons?
By David Wall
LONDON -- When I was in Moscow a few months ago I got into an argument with a retired high-level NATO official.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2006
HIV toll rising in Japan
In the 23 years since the HIV virus was discovered, AIDS has become recognized as a "disease of the poor," one that is "incurable" but "100 percent preventable," in the words of its co-discoverer, Professor Luc Montagnier, president of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. While over...
Takaichi poised to become Japan's first female PM after winning LDP poll
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, holds a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
Tokyo's newest stationery store sells 'a slower, more human rhythm'
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
Retro-wrapped trains mark 100th anniversary of Tokyo's Yamanote Line
Trains decorated to resemble the 103 (left) and 205 series of trains that formerly ran on the Yamanote Line, in Tokyo on Saturday.
One dead, one missing in Japan after bear attack
A bear warning sign. More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.
Japan’s first foreign wine investor plants its roots in Hokkaido
Intrigued by Japanese wines, Burgundy winemaker Etienne de Montille decided to explore Hokkaido's wine scene, eventually setting up his outpost in Hakodate in 2017.
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.
The summer kabuki came roaring back
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 

Podcast

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

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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