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CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Mar 25, 2010

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2010

The seed of secret deals

Japan paid the United States $320 million in costs for the 1972 reversion of Okinawa, according to the government's long-held official position. But on March 12, following an internal probe, Finance Minister Naoto Kan said that he believes the actual amount paid was much greater.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 24, 2010

Don't just wait for disaster

By Ban Ki Moon and Ban Ki-moon

NEW YORK — No country can afford to ignore the lessons of the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti. We cannot stop such disasters from happening. But we can dramatically reduce their impact, if the right disaster risk reduction measures are taken in advance.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 24, 2010

Catalyzing consumption and balancing growth

By Anoop Singh

WASHINGTON — China has weathered the great recession well. The world now waits to see if last year's impressive domestic demand growth can be sustained, and if China can, in the words of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, "give full play to the leading role of consumer demand in driving economic growth."

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2010

Scars of the sarin attack

Fifteen years after the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by AUM Shinrikyo cult members, the effects of the crime continue to be felt. The March 20, 1995, attack killed 13 people. It was recently confirmed that at least 6,252 people suffered injuries, a number that may increase as the victim-certification...

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2010

Japan must change tune on tuna

Proposals to prohibit international trade in bluefin tuna caught in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea were voted down March 18 at a U.N.-sponsored meeting in Doha, Qatar, attended by representatives of signatory states to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2010

Political meddling hurts corporate value

By Lucian Bebchuk

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down limits on the freedom of companies to spend money on political elections. Large, publicly traded companies in other countries also often have a loose rein on their use of corporate resources to influence political outcomes, fueling fears...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2010

Former POW rejects idea that DPJ is anti-American

By Lester Tenney

CARLSBAD, Calif. — As a survivor of Imperial Japan's infamous prisoner-of-war camps, forced labor at a Mitsui coal mine in Fukuoka and the horrors of the Bataan Death March in the Philippines, I know anti-Americanism when I see it. Some say the ruling Democratic Party of Japan is anti-American. I know...

EDITORIALS

Mar 23, 2010

New foundations for contract law

A panel of the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council has begun discussing revisions to the law of obligations, which sets down rules related to personal liability for sales and other commercial contracts. The discussions come at the request of Justice Minister Keiko Chiba.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2010

Redressing incentives for executives to fail

By Lucian Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Holger Spamann

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In a report just filed with the U.S. court that is overseeing the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a court-appointed examiner described how Lehman's executives made deliberate decisions to pursue an aggressive investment strategy, take on greater risks and substantially increase leverage....

EDITORIALS

Mar 23, 2010

When airports eat each other

Japan has 98 airports. The transport ministry's recent survey of 72 of them indicates that the economic viability of many airports is low. Unless local governments and concerned businesses make serious efforts to attract more passengers, some airports may be forced to close.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Mar 22, 2010

A haphazard approach to making foreign policy

"I wonder to what extent the Hatoyama administration relies on bureaucrats for its foreign policy," a diplomat from a Middle Eastern country said recently. "It has not expressed its own messages on issues such as Iran's nuclear weapons programs and the Mideast peace process. That makes me wonder who...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.

With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear

By Jason Coskrey

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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