Morearticles

 
Menu
Search
 
September 18, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

More Opinion stories

EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2008
Tokyo's emission controls
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly has enacted a by-law that will start imposing limits in fiscal 2010 on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by large business establishments. This is the first move in Japan to impose compulsory limits on COﾃｨ emissions.
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2008
New pension errors found
Another example of sloppy work by the Social Insurance Agency has come to the fore. Sampling of pension-related records on original paper registers and in computers shows errors in 1.4 percent of matched records that relate to pensions for company-employed workers or kosei nenkin. As health and welfare...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2008
Bill Gates' excellent adventure ends in tears
By John Naughton
LONDON — The scene: a tasteful, wooded corporate retreat north of Seattle. The time: one day last March. A large group — mainly chaps in their mid-40s — stand around. They seem to be in quite a state.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2008
The hollow heart of the West
By Dominique Moisi
WARSAW — It is tempting to compare NATO and the European Union to the French and Italian football teams in this year's Euro 2008 competition. What unites them, above all, is a process of "competitive decadence." The EU and NATO may see themselves as potential rivals or complementary partners in the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2008
Puzzle awaits G8 delegates
By Gregory Clark
Spare a thought for the puzzle that will meet foreign delegations to the Group of Eight Summit in Hokkaido on July 7. On the one hand they will find a nation that organizes itself with clockwork perfection. Indeed, the summit organization will almost certainly be over-perfection, with every detail scripted...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2008
Fishermen win round one
The Saga District Court has ordered the state to keep open the gates of the dike in the Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture for five years, ruling in favor of some 2,500 fishermen who claim that the land reclamation project damaged the local fisheries. The ruling would effect a revamp of the state's policy....
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2008
Prioritize the budget
The government has approved the 2008 "big-boned" policy guidelines submitted by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. They will serve as the basis for budgetary negotiations for fiscal 2009. In step with the basic idea of the 2006 guidelines, which called for ¥11.4 trillion to ¥14.3 trillion spending...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2008
Fukuda's heart for G8 leadership
By Kevin Rafferty
This fragile earth of about 6.5 billion souls faces grave and unprecedented challenges: soaring prices of oil and basic commodities that fuel daily life; price increases that make staple foods like rice and wheat too expensive for millions of poor people; a savage profusion of natural and man-made disasters...
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2008
Iraqi refugees desperate for a haven nation
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — Several recent reports on the situation in Iraq draw attention to the desperate plight of nearly 5 million Iraqi refugees. If the situation is not better addressed, hundreds of thousands of lives, including women and children, will be jeopardized. The world cannot continue to turn deaf ears...
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2008
The watch that failed
The Japan Coast Guard has turned over to prosecutors a case against two former watch officers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Atago over its collision with a fishing boat, which claimed the lives of two fishermen. The MSDF must take this tragedy seriously, raise its members' consciousness...
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2008
Resistance to devolution
The government's devolution promotion headquarters has decided on a general plan for devolution in response to the first set of recommendations made by a government panel dealing with the issue. The general plan shows that some ministries are still putting up resistance to giving up their powers. The...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2008
Taiwan's way with dignity
By Hisahiko Okazaki
The inaugural address that Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou gave was titled "Taiwan's Renaissance." It was well-composed, reflecting the president's views clearly while not evoking excessive alarm or expectations on complex and sensitive issues. These include the future of Taiwan's democracy, relations...
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Japan dispatches five language education 'partners' to India
Five members of the Japan Foundation's Nihongo Partners program (front) gather at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.
Struggling train firm in Chiba Prefecture turns to self-deprecating humor
"Laughter is important when you're in a difficult situation," said Katsunori Takemoto, president of Choshi Electric Railway, on Aug. 5 in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Japanese athletes inspired by raucous home fans at World Athletics Championships
Fans cheer on the home favorites during the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER