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September 14, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Oct 2, 2005

Katrina relief wrings contributors dry

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Americans are proving yet again that they are a generous people. They have contributed more than $1.2 billion to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 2, 2005

A stinging voice of conscience who told it like it is

By Roger Pulvers

He would have turned 80 this month. And in our time of ill-lived religious fanatics and retrograde policy planners, we feel his loss all the more.

EDITORIALS

Oct 1, 2005

Teach our children well

The nation's boards of education have finished their selection of textbooks to be used at junior high schools from April 2006 for the next four years. The process gained widespread attention because among the candidate textbooks was a controversial revisionist history textbook published by Fusosha Publishing...

EDITORIALS

Sep 30, 2005

Extending the SDF missions

The government has opted to extend by one year the Maritime Self-Defense Force mission to supply fuel in the Indian Ocean to ships of the U.S. Navy and allied nations engaged in antiterrorist activities related to security in Afghanistan. A law specifying a duration of two years -- enacted after the...

EDITORIALS

Sep 29, 2005

Can a watchdog watch itself?

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's plan to go public in fiscal 2005 (ending next March 31) seems unlikely to go smoothly as the Financial Services Agency opposes the plan. At issue is a debate over whether the bourse can continue to properly execute its public role as a watchdog over the stock market after going...

COMMENTARY

Sep 29, 2005

Toward a nuclear Japan?

By Robyn Lim

The United States cannot stop nuclear proliferation, even though Japan and others will expect it to keep trying. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) has allowed North Korea and Iran to develop nuclear weapons on the sly. What will Japan conclude from this?

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2005

Get ready for a newly confident Japan

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landslide election victory, which saw his ruling coalition gain control of more than two-thirds of the Lower House, could open a new era for Japan as the country faces the future with greater confidence and seeks to redefine its role in East Asia.

EDITORIALS

Sep 28, 2005

Now for some bold reforms

With the resounding victory of the Liberal Democratic Party in the general election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi can now boldly kick-start the stagnant process of structural reform. Utilizing the strong leadership consolidated in the triumph, Mr. Koizumi must set about breaking up the LDP cliques...

EDITORIALS

Sep 27, 2005

Worthy of the term 'opposition'?

As the Democratic Party of Japan, which suffered a crushing defeat in the Sept. 11 Lower House election, begins a rejuvenation effort under its new leader, Mr. Seiji Maehara, the No. 1 opposition party must solve difficult problems to turn it into a party capable of seizing power.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 27, 2005

Merkel too weak to derail Turkey's bid

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- The near-tie in the Sept. 18 German poll, in which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder came from 13 percentage points behind conservative challenger Angela Merkel in late August to less than one point behind her by election day, has thrown German politics into turmoil.

EDITORIALS

Sep 26, 2005

Avoiding a spinout over oil

It's as if a new oil shock had arrived. Prices of crude oil futures, which once hit $70 a barrel, have not come down enough, still hovering above $60 a barrel -- more than three times the prevailing level of three years ago.

COMMENTARY

Sep 26, 2005

China should face its own unsavory past

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- The new foreign-policy subtleness that China has displayed in recent years is a far cry from the coarse image its earlier Communist rulers presented, especially when they set out, in then-Premier Zhou Enlai's words, to "teach India a lesson" in 1962, or when, to quote strongman Deng Xiaoping,...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.

The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight

By Mai Yoshikawa

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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