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July 17, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2008
Replacing nuclear reactors
Chubu Electric Power Co. has announced a plan to decommission two aging reactors at its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Shizuoka Prefecture and build a new reactor as a replacement. The decision to decommission the No. 1 and No. 2 boiling water reactors with a combined output of 1.38 million kW is reasonable....
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2008
Reform in the name of revenue
The government has endorsed a medium-term tax reform program designed to secure revenue sources to cover the ballooning costs of social security, which includes pensions plus medical and nursing care services. It mentions raising the consumption tax from fiscal 2011, but equivocates, because the program...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2008
Doctors held for talking with the 'enemy'
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — Cyrus the Great, the first Achaemenid emperor and founder of Persia, would be ashamed of the actions of the Iranian government with regard to the uncalled for detention in June of two Iranian doctors, who are experts on AIDS. The flagrant abuse of their basic human rights would have been...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2008
Rudd takes on climate change
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — Christmas is the best time of year for Australian governments to announce bad news. So when Canberra says this country will spend big to help stop world pollution, holidaying citizens are less than stunned.
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2008
Populist eyes default
It was only a matter of time, really. President Rafael Correa declared a default on Ecuador's foreign sovereign bonds earlier this month, vowing to fight "monster" debt-holders who had "illegal," "immoral" and "illegitimate" claims against his country. The question now is whether this is a precursor...
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2008
Preventing child pornography
In late November about 3,500 people from some 170 governments and from international and nongovernmental organizations attended the third World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Rio de Janeiro. The conference declared that accessing, downloading, storing or viewing child...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2008
Worsening economic prospects
The government's economic report for December states that Japanese economic conditions are "worsening," a downgrade from the previous month's assessment that "the economy has weakened further." The term "worsening" was used for the first since February 2002, after the information-technology bubble had...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2008
Climate-change meeting stalls
There is near-unanimous agreement — the few stubborn holdouts will likely never be convinced — that climate change is real and the world must respond aggressively to it. The existing framework for action, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012 and its effectiveness has been limited by the failure of...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2008
Asia will rise as dollar sinks
By Joergen Oerstroem Moeller
SINGAPORE — The world faces a depreciation of the dollar, a phenomenon that will result in the transfer of purchasing power from the United States to other parts of the world, specifically to Asia and to a lesser extent, Europe. An unprecedented economic decline for the U.S., never evinced in its history,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 23, 2008
DPJ has a foot in the door
As the odds grow that the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan will take the reigns of government after the next general elections, the focus in the Japanese political arena is shifting to the lineup of a Cabinet headed by DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, and to who would succeed him if he retired early...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2008
Scoring the ability to think
The education ministry says that a halt to the recent slide in Japanese children's scholastic ability is indicated by the relatively high scores of Japanese fourth and eighth graders who took international achievement tests in 2007 for math and science. But it should not be proud.
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2008
Cross-strait ties leap ahead
Cross-strait rapprochement leaped forward last week as Taiwan and China launched direct flights and cargo shipping services. These new links reflect the economic reality that binds the two sides of the strait: Annual trade between the island and the mainland is about $100 billion. Political issues have...
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.
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
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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