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September 06, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Jun 15, 2010

Disease still threatens livestock

It was believed that the outbreak of food and mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture would tail off thanks to the government's containment operation. But things haven't gone as expected.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2010

Large-scale agriculture won't cure hunger

By Olivier De Schutter and Nikolaj Skydsgaard

BRUSSELS — The World Bank, U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and U.N. Conference on Trade and Development Secretariat recently presented seven "Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment."

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2010

Poor grades for U.K. schools

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON — The new British government has declared its intention to do all it can to improve standards of education in Britain. This was also a high priority for the previous Labour administration. As prime minister, Tony Blair used to declare that his mantra was "education, education, education."

EDITORIALS

Jun 15, 2010

Japan's new ambassador to China

Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to appoint Mr. Uichiro Niwa, former chairman of Itochu Corp., a major trading firm, as Japan's new ambassador to China. Mr. Kan apparently wants to demonstrate his political leadership by choosing a businessman who has considerable experience in China, which is now Japan's...

COMMENTARY

Jun 14, 2010

India's post-Bhopal recklessness

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

CHENNAI, India — More than 25 years ago on a cold winter night, thousands of sleeping people died after inhaling toxic gas escaping from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal. A train full of passengers at the nearby Bhopal station never moved. Nobody on it woke up.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Jun 14, 2010

South Koreans show split over what sank their ship

Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2010

Vision for competing

As the Japanese economy suffers from sluggish domestic demand amid stubborn deflation and the graying of the population, and as Japanese companies are challenged by Chinese and South Korean firms in overseas markets, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Industrial Structure Council has unveiled...

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2010

Problematic new Broadcast Law

The Lower House Internal Affairs and Communications Committee on May 25 railroaded a bill to establish a new Broadcast Law, and the bill is now before the Upper House's corresponding committee. The ruling parties should not pass the problematic bill. Instead they should put it to public discussions so...

EDITORIALS

Jun 13, 2010

Flawed pretrial investigation

On June 14, 2009, the special investigation squad of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office arrested Ms. Atsuko Muraki, who was then chief of the welfare ministry's Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau, on suspicion of issuing a fabricated certificate to recognize an organization as a...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 13, 2010

Palestinians preparing for 'independence'

By Shlomo Avineri

JERUSALEM — Although the crisis over Israel's naval interventions to defend its blockade of Gaza is gaining all the headlines around the world, something of far more historic importance is taking place in the Middle East. The Palestine National Authority is preparing to issue a unilateral declaration...

COMMENTARY

Jun 13, 2010

Japan-U.S. relations cry out for new management, dialogue

By Kazuo Ogoura

Ripples, frictions, uneasiness, concern and even dismay — these are the words by which most of the Japanese mass-media commentaries characterize present Japan-U.S. relations.

CARTOONS / ZERO GRAVITY

Jun 13, 2010

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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