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July 21, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2009
German genetics law a double-edged sword
By Peter Singer
MELBOURNE — In April, Germany's parliament placed limits on the use of genetic diagnosis. Is the new German law a model for other countries to follow as we grapple with the ethical issues posed by our growing knowledge of human genetics?
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2009
The LDP in disarray
The ruling and opposition blocs are heading for a showdown in the general election as the opposition bloc in the Upper House on Tuesday passed a censure motion against Prime Minister Aso Taro and started boycotting all Diet proceedings. Separately, in the Lower House, the ruling bloc earlier in the day...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2009
Scrutinizing fitness to lead
By Hugh Cortazzi
LONDON — How much importance should we give to the right to privacy? Should politicians and personalities in the public eye be expected to forgo this right because the public need to know the facts about them in order to judge their fitness for office?
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2009
World sympathy lies with Tibet, not Xinjiang
By Frank Ching
The rioting in Xinjiang last week echoed violence in Tibet last year but, interestingly, the international reaction has been very different.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2009
More challenges await Hillary Clinton in Asia
By Simon Tay
SINGAPORE — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is again scheduled to travel to Asia this month to meet foreign ministers at the ASEAN Regional Forum, and to visit India. On her first Asian trip in February, she provided a welcome contrast to the past with her openness to others' views, her willingness...
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 2009
Gloomy employment prospects
Somewhat bright reports on the Japanese economy have been issued by the government and the Bank of Japan. But other data show that the economy is still in difficult straits. Careful attention should be paid especially to the gloomy prospects for employment.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2009
Reflecting on the lessons of Robert McNamara's war
By Gregory Clark
The death of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at age 93 has reopened the debate on his role, first as architect for the Vietnam War, and then later in apologizing for it with his 1995 book "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." Since a hawk with a conscience is a rare commodity,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 2009
Universal organ donorship
The Upper House on Monday enacted a bill to revise the Organ Transplant Law. Current law does not recognize brain death as actual death and allows, with family approval, organs to be taken only from people aged 15 or over who not only had accepted brain-death as actual death but indicated in writing...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2009
A last gasp for the G8?
The rationale for the Group of Eight, composed of leading industrialized nations, has been thinning for years. Not only has the group produced little of substance at its annual leaders' summit, but its members are unable to deliver on whatever pledges are produced. Moreover, the political heft of the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2009
Remembering McNamara
By Jonathan Schell
NEW YORK — I first met U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who presided over the U.S. buildup in Vietnam, in the summer of 1967. I had just returned from a trip to South Vietnam, where, as a reporter for The New Yorker, I witnessed the destruction, by American air power, of two provinces, Quang...
COMMENTARY
Jul 15, 2009
China's false monoculture
By Brahma Chellaney
By blanketing the oil-rich Xinjiang with troops, China's rulers may have subdued the Uighur revolt, which began in Urumqi, the regional capital, and spread to other heavily guarded towns like Hotan and Kashgar, the ancient cultural center whose old city is to be razed and redeveloped to help drain supposed...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2009
Anatomy of an Iranian revolution delayed
By Mansoor Moaddel
YPSILANTI, Mich. — The ongoing conflict between Iran's rulers and the Iranian public is the result of a head-on collision between two contradictory forces. In recent years, public attitudes in Iran have become more liberal. At the same time, power has shifted from conservative pragmatism toward a much...
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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