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July 23, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2009
Balancing act begins
Budgetary requests for fiscal 2010 from all ministries and agencies — the first such requests under the Hatoyama administration — total a record ¥95.038 trillion. Compared with the fiscal 2009 main and supplementary budgets (¥102 trillion-plus), the sum is smaller, but not against the initial fiscal...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2009
A day to act in the name of planetary justice
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, N.J. — What we are doing to our planet, to our children and grandchildren, and to the poor, by our heedless production of greenhouse gases, is one of the great moral wrongs of our age. This Saturday is a day to stand up against this injustice.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2009
Makeover of postal privatization
The Cabinet this week decided to revamp the two-year-old privatization process for Japan Post group. The decision, which responds to fears among some people that Japan Post group may curtail services in the countryside, emphasizes the public role of Japan Post group.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2009
A base Okinawans can live with
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa in Tokyo this week. The two sides failed to resolve differences over the relocation of a U.S. military base on Okinawa Island. Under a 2006 bilateral agreement,...
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2009
Influential Asian groupings
By Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE — Can Asia leverage its growing weight in the global economy into a more influential leadership role in the world? This will be tested soon.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2009
New government finding its feet
More than a month has passed since the Hatoyama administration was inaugurated. People can see that it is trying in earnest to implement policy promises spelled out in the Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto. The administration, which at its outset enjoyed an approval rating that topped 70...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2009
Unexpected Olympic pitch
The mayors of the atomic-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have announced their desire to invite the 2020 Summer Olympics to their cities and have called on the central government and the Japan Olympic Committee for support. Mayors Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima and Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki put...
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2009
Does Japan really want to stay competitive?
By Hugh Cortazzi
LONDON — The reported remarks to members of the foreign press in Tokyo on Oct. 14 by Shizuka Kamei, Japan's minister for financial issues, made me wonder whether he was living in the real world — where nations are interdependent and must compete to survive.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2009
Conflicting strategies Islamicizing Malaysia
By Maznah Mohamad
SINGAPORE — In Malaysia's current political climate, it is no longer possible to distinguish Islamic radicals from Islamic moderates. Despite official boasting about the country's diverse population and commitment to pluralism, Islam and the government have essentially merged.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2009
Fading trust in the political class
By David Howell
LONDON — The world is clearly passing through a crisis of political legitimacy. People in growing numbers do not trust their governments or their governing classes. In many cases they despise them.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2009
Another twist and shout from North Korea
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES — Like the baby that hurls its rattle out of the crib to grab attention, North Korea has never been known for a subtle diplomatic style. Right now, though, it appears to have abandoned, temporarily at least, the crude infantile approach for a more adult turn.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2009
A question of accountability
Any report on alleged war crimes is going to be controversial. An investigation that focuses on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians will be even more sensitive. Thus the uproar surrounding the Goldstone report, an investigation into the behavior of the Israeli Army and Hamas militants during...
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.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
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.
Induction of Ichiro has Cooperstown fretfully preparing
Ichiro Suzuki will soon become the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
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.

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

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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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