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August 16, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2011
What can take the dollar's place?
By Barry Eichengreen
For more than a half-century, the dollar has been not only America's currency, but the world's as well. It has been the dominant unit used in cross-border transactions and the principal asset held as reserves by central banks and governments.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2011
Fall of Berlin Wall wasn't the end of barriers
By Reece Jones
Fifty years ago, on Aug. 13, under the cover of darkness, East Germany broke ground on the construction of the Berlin Wall, which became one of the most iconic symbols of violence and exclusion the world has ever known.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2011
Steps to a higher autopsy rate
The number of bodies inspected by the police has been rising year by year, but in 2010, autopsies were conducted on only about 11 percent of them. On July 26, Cabinet ministers concerned decided to start a working team to study how to raise the autopsy rate to 20 percent in five years. The team will...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2011
Pondering victims and the future
Japan on Monday marked the 66th anniversary of its surrender to the Allied Powers in World War II amid unprecedented circumstances. Both those who attended the anniversary ceremony at Tokyo's Budokan and other Japanese must have superimposed the Tohoku-Pacific region devastation from the March 11 earthquake...
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2011
Ten ways to reduce America's budget deficit
By Robert J. Samuelson
It's true: Deficit reduction isn't an economic panacea. It won't instantly boost the economy or the stock market. It won't automatically end financial turmoil. But none of this means that we should ignore deficits. Allowing the government's debt to spiral upward tempts a full-blown future financial crisis....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2011
Remembering the towering walls of August
By Nina L. Khrushcheva
History's milestones are rarely so neatly arrayed as they are this summer. Fifty years ago this month, the Berlin Wall was born. After some hesitation, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union's leader, allowed his East German counterpart, Walter Ulbricht, to erect a barrier between East and West Berlin in...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2011
Japan at critical tipping point
By Mark Pendergrast
Japanese trains run to the minute, and the country's businesses pride themselves on energy-efficiency. The Japanese boast of their eco-services for eco-products in eco-cities. Yet they rely primarily on imported fossil fuel and nuclear power, live in energy-wasteful homes, and import 60 percent of their...
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2011
ASEAN faces a Chinese dilemma
By Michael Richardson
As the United States and Europe struggle with heavy debts and weak growth, China increasingly powers the expansion of nearly every economy in the Asia Pacific region. It raises a critical question, particularly for Southeast Asia and Australia: Which are the ties that bind — those of commerce and rising...
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2011
Ray of light amid the nuclear gloom
The United Nations' latest renewable energy report is a ray of sunshine amid the gloom of Japan's nuclear disaster. According to the REN21 Renewables 2011 Global Status Report, last year renewable energy accounted for 16 percent of global final energy consumption and close to 20 percent of global electricity...
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2011
Rising superpower floats an aircraft carrier
By Tom Plate
China's new (and first) aircraft carrier isn't fully operational yet. But whatever its ultimate naval potency, we know that it does at least float! It's currently in a mainland dock for further dressing up and hosting of crew training before setting sail.
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2011
Britain gropes for solutions
By Hugh Cortazzi
The images of burning buildings and looting of shops that took place between Aug. 5 and 9 in parts of London and other major cities, including Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, have rightly made the English people ashamed. The damage caused has been serious and some families have lost their homes...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2011
The Song of Chu and Japanese politics today
By Kazuo Ogoura
"Song of Chu all around" (si-mian-Chu-ge) is an old Chinese saying that means "being besieged or deserted on all sides."
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong
J-pop idol Kenshin Kamimura leaves the West Kowloon Law Courts on bail in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after he was found guilty of indecent assault of a woman who worked as his interpreter at a restaurant in Mong Kok district in March this year.
Tens of thousands left stranded at Osaka Expo by train service interruption
Visitors rest inside the Osaka Expo venue early Thursday morning
Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
Hiker missing in Hokkaido after bear attack found dead
The Rausu mountain range at Hokkaido's Shiretoko National Park. A man in his 20s who went missing after being attacked by a bear while hiking on Mount Rausu has been found dead.
Recent deaths of Japanese boxers underline importance of emergency action plans
The Japan Boxing Commission's safety protocols have been thrust into the spotlight following the deaths of Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa, who suffered fatal brain injuries while fighting on the same card on Aug. 2.
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Will Ishiba's critics be able to garner enough support for a leadership race?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's political survival likely hinges on whether a leadership race will take place within the Liberal Democratic Party following its decision to have its election committee canvass the opinions of party members and prefectural chapters on the subject.
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.

Podcast

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

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

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