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July 22, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2009
Crime, punishment and the quality of mercy
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, N.J. — The recent release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, sparked outrage.
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2009
Getting disarmament started
The 21st U.N. Conference on Disarmament Issues was held last week in the Sea of Japan coastal city of Niigata, attended by about 90 people from 21 countries, mainly government officials and researchers who exchanged opinions as individuals. In a positive development, they agreed that the international...
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2009
An erroneous broadcast
Nippon Television Network Corp. aired a special program at 12:50 a.m., Aug. 24, to examine a grave error in its Nov. 23, 2008, program of "Shinso Hodo Bankisha." The Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization, a body made up of NHK and private broadcasting companies, had called on NTV to...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2009
The tails are now wagging the Kremlin dog
By Alexander Golts
MOSCOW — Imagine a crank who tries to pass himself off as a 19th-century Russian baron. He grows sideburns, wears a long frock-coat and carries a walking stick. Anyone who runs into such a figure would sneer and mock him. Now, suppose that same crank attempted to treat passersby as if they were his...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2009
Afghans must take the lead in cleaning house
By C. Christine Fair and Jamie F. Metzl
NEW YORK — Although the outcome remains uncertain, Afghanistan's presidential election has demonstrated that the Afghan people yearn for more accountable leadership. But it is no less clear that this aspiration is far from being met, and that the country's poor governance is laying a dangerously weak...
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2009
Justice, clemency and U.K. politics
By Hugh Cortazzi
The secretary for justice in the devolved government in Scotland decided Aug. 20 to release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only individual who had been convicted of involvement in the so-called Lockerbie tragedy. This terrorist incident occurred more than 20 years ago when a Pan American airliner was...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2009
Japanese metamorphosis
By Masahiro Matsumura
OSAKA — Sunday's landslide general-election victory by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) terminated the one-party- dominated system that the catch-all Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has controlled almost without interruption since 1955.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2009
DPJ prepares to lead
The Democratic Party of Japan is making preparations for taking over the government as the Diet is expected to choose DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister in the middle of this month. It has to decide on the personnel lineup of the party itself and the new Cabinet, while carrying out talks with...
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2009
North Korea's charm offensive
North Korea appears to be on a dialogue offensive. In early August it let former U.S. President Bill Clinton visit the country and released two captured American journalists. When South Korea's Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong Eun visited Pyongyang, the North released a detained Hyundai worker and...
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2009
When cops drink and drive
Aug. 25 marked the third anniversary of a tragic traffic accident in the city of Fukuoka that caught nationwide attention. On that night in 2006, a car driven by a drunken Fukuoka city government worker rear-ended a sports utility vehicle carrying a family of five — a couple and their three children...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2009
A dose of common sense for the crisis in capitalism
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — The global economic turmoil has sparked international debate over whether we are witnessing the death throes of capitalism or signs that a "new capitalism" needs to be devised. French commentators have gloated over the end of the Anglo-Saxon way of doing business, citing the need for the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2009
Historic day for Japanese politics
In a historic change in Japan's parliamentary political history, the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition in Sunday's Lower House election. The DPJ has captured 308 seats out of the 480 seats in the all-important chamber.
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Voters in Tokyo reflect shifting political views across Japan
Pedestrians walk in front of an election notice board displaying posters of candidates in Tokyo on Sunday.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.
In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food
You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.
Touring the Silk Road — without leaving Tokyo
One of the entrances to Pao Compound, a nine-story Silk Road-inspired complex in Tokyo's Higashinakano neighborhood

Podcast

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

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
By Alex K.T. Martin

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