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July 17, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 30, 2008
Every Japanese is party to their state's 'barbaric' legal murders
By Roger Pulvers
The death penalty brutalizes everyone connected with it: Judges and juries who pass it down, politicians who turn an evil or a blind eye to it, jailers, executioners, and more than anyone, the person whose life is extinguished by it.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2008
Building a curative response to sea banditry
By Nazery Khalid
KUALA LUMPUR — Although the conditions for piracy and terrorism to thrive are similar, their objectives are different. The motivation for piracy is old-fashioned greed while terrorists are predominantly driven by political and religious ideology. Moreover, pirates usually want to grab their booty and...
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2008
Mr. Obama steps up
The standard response from any U.S. president-elect about his policies prior to inauguration is that there is only one president at a time. That deference is designed to avoid undercutting the current officeholder, to keep from marginalizing him and prevent confusion about who is in charge. President-elect...
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2008
Supplementary budget shelved
Prime Minister Taro Aso finally made it clear that he will not submit a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008, which is necessary to implement the ¥26.9 trillion economic stimulus package, to the current extraordinary Diet session. Instead, he will submit it to an ordinary Diet session to be convened...
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2008
Confusing remarks about grants
The Cabinet of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in May decided to free up road-related tax revenues from fiscal 2009 for use in such fields as education and social welfare. At the same time, it decided that care should be taken so that road construction is not hampered and that local governments do...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2008
Defense of an artist who had lived as a slave
By Norman Manea
NEW YORK — Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe. Liberated from the complexity of knowing too much about the cruel past, the young people of Eastern Europe's postcommunist generation seem uninterested in what their parents and grandparents endured.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2008
Spoiling for a Tibetan fight
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — The Dalai Lama spoke in his customary platitudes, and the Chinese regime responded with its habitual bluster, but a corner was turned in the China-Tibet dispute last week. From now on, it's likely to get worse.
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2008
Time to get tough with Somali pirates
By Gwynne Dyer
On one side are the eight navies, the world's largest shipping companies, the rich Gulf states that need to get their oil to market, and the great powers, whose commerce depends heavily on the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa. On the other side are a few thousand Somali pirates in small boats...
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2008
Accounting irregularities
The Board of Audit has detected 981 cases of inappropriate accounting in fiscal 2007 totaling ¥125.36 billion among government ministries and agencies, independent administrative agencies and local governments receiving financial support from the central government. The amount was the highest ever and...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2008
Letting the Big Three fail risks a meltdown
By Thomas I. Palley
WASHINGTON — The financial crisis that began in 2007 has been persistently marked by muddled thinking and haphazard policymaking. Now, the U.S. Treasury is headed for a mistake of historic and catastrophic proportions by refusing to bail out America's Big Three automakers.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2008
Odd motive for stabbings
A man turned himself in to the Metropolitan Police Department Saturday evening, claiming that he had killed a former health and welfare vice minister. Ten knives were found in a rented minivan he drove to the MPD; two were bloodstained. Police initially arrested the 46-year-old for illegal possession...
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2008
An Asia-Pacific cheerleader?
The test of any institution is its response to crisis. By that benchmark the annual meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is found wanting. This year the 21 assembled grandees, whose countries represent more than 50 percent of global wealth, vowed to "act quickly and...
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Japan team finds ancient ocean full of squids
The ancient ocean was full of squids, whose population exceeded that of fish or ammonites, a Japanese research team mainly from Hokkaido University has found through a new method using technology.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
Japan launches government body to address concerns over foreign nationals
The new administrative body would serve as a cross-agency "control tower" to respond to issues such as crime and overtourism involving foreign nationals, according to the government.
Trump signals the end of the road for Japan tariff negotiations
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (left) and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.
Tokyo stocks hit by a perfect storm of tariffs, politics and budget worries
Tokyo stocks are underperforming shares in other large markets globally.
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Tokyobike founder believes in taking in sights of dynamic cities slowly
Ichiro Kanai, founder and president of Tokyobike, is developing a niche but a new customer base who want to cycle as part of a lifestyle.

Podcast

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

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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