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July 21, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2009
Finance firms letting the good times roll again?
By Lucian Bebchuk
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Goldman Sachs announced this month plans to provide bonuses at record levels, and there are widespread expectations that bonuses and pay in many other firms will rise substantially this year. Should the good times start rolling again so soon?
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2009
Gubernatorial influence
In the past, an important job of prefectural governors was lodging petitions with the central government to get funds and projects for their prefectures. But the nation's 47 governors seem to have become aware of the political potential they can exert if they act in concert. People like Gov. Toru Hashimoto...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 20, 2009
Two brothers competing on Japan's political ladder
One of the major topics of speculation among political observers nowadays is what course of action former internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama will take following his revolt against Prime Minister Taro Aso. He will have to make up his mind soon now that the date of the next general election has just...
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2009
H1N1 flu still spreading
The H1N1 flu pandemic is spreading not only in the Southern Hemisphere but also in such countries as the United States, China and Britain. The World Health Organization announced that as of July 10, the number of confirmed cases of infection in the world topped 100,000 in 142 countries. As of July 6,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2009
NEETs on the rise
The number of NEETs (people Not in Employment, Education or Training) now totals 640,000 people in Japan, according to a government white paper released in July. At the current rate of increase, NEETs may approach a million within five years, becoming a significant social problem that the government...
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2009
Temp worker casualties
A new report by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry revealed that 5,631 dispatch workers were injured or killed in work-related accidents in 2008. Most of these were injured after being sent to temporary jobs in the manufacturing industry, which accounted for two-thirds of the accidents. The transportation...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2009
Like it or not, China is not about to go away
By Tom Plate
KUALA LUMPUR — There was never the slightest doubt in the mind of a single reputable expert anywhere in the world that China was a caldron of ethnic unrest ready to boil over. Nor was there the slightest possibility that the masters of the People's Republic of China would be able to escape, within...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2009
To be human in today's Japan, is it best to be 'no longer human'?
By Roger Pulvers
On June 22, playwright and novelist Hisashi Inoue appeared on national broadcaster NHK's television program, "Close Up Gendai." The occasion was the centenary of the birth of the novelist Osamu Dazai.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2009
Out of step over failed price deal
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — Australia is having to rethink its dealings with China following the bizarre jailing in Shanghai of an Australian businessman and a flurry of undercover diplomatic requests for explanations from Canberra to Beijing.
CARTOONS / ZERO GRAVITY
Jul 19, 2009
OL rumors
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2009
Expanded relief inadequate
The Diet on July 8 enacted a special law offering financial relief to more sufferers of Minamata disease, with the support of the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito as well as the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Under the law, anyone showing one or more of the following...
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2009
Come clean on secret agreement
In 1967, then Prime Minister Eisaku Sato declared Japan's three-point nonnuclear principle of not "producing," not "possessing" and not allowing the "bringing in" of nuclear weapons. The third point has been interpreted to mean that Japan will not allow either the stationing or transiting of nuclear...
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.
Polls open for key Upper House election that could shake Japanese politics
People vote during Japan's Upper House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
Sunken WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki found off Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands. A team from the U.S. nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust has discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki on the deep seabed off the Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.
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.
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.
‘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
The self as a muse: Leonard Foujita's world in paintings and photos
One of Leonard Foujita’s biggest muses was himself. He painted self-portraits, often with a cat on his side, looking back at the viewer. He posed for photographers throughout his life, the displayed photos showing he retained his signature bowl cut and round glasses.
Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.

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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