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August 21, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2007

Japan's first regional EPA

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is Japan's third largest-trading partner after China and the United States. In 2006, trade between Japan and ASEAN totaled ¥18 trillion. Japan and ASEAN have concluded an economic partnership agreement covering the goods trade, services and investment....

EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2007

Spending without accountability

A report submitted by the Board of Audit to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda shows that government organizations and state-financed corporations still waste public money. The board uncovered 451 cases of inappropriate or illegal accounting amounting to ¥31 billion in fiscal 2006. Some cases border on crimes....

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Nov 27, 2007

Politicians who took a stand

We often hear nowadays that politicians in Japan are "smaller" than they used to be. The reference, of course, is not to physique but rather to the capacity of today's politicians to demonstrate broad-mindedness and magnanimity as their predecessors did.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 27, 2007

Ghosts of possibilities haunt Annapolis

By Alvaro De Vasconcelos

America's return to the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic front is a welcome development — one surely that EU diplomacy has sought to bring about. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to push the peace process forward during her last years in office seem genuine. If they succeed, Rice and...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Nov 26, 2007

Plenty wrong with U.S. agricultural policy

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK — The U.S. farm bill — a blanket term for all measures related to agriculture, some barely so — appears doomed this year. The House version passed at the end of July, but the Senate version has been stalled in such a way that there's even talk that its enactment may not occur until after...

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

U.K. liberties versus security

By David Howell

LONDON — The director general of the British Security Services (MI5) has been telling the world that there are at least 2,000 people inside Britain who are involved in terrorism-related activities, and there may be many more. Or to put it crudely, there are at least 2,000 individuals bent on killing...

EDITORIALS

Nov 26, 2007

GDP raises warning flags

The nation's gross domestic product in the July-September period grew an annualized 2.6 percent from the previous quarter — more than economists expected. This was a rebound from the 1.6 percent contraction in the previous quarter.

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

One (very) small step forward for ASEAN

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU — The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) has, in commemoration of its 40th anniversary, adopted its first formal charter, thus conferring "legal personality" upon this intergovernmental organization, complete with its own flag, emblem, anthem (to be written), and motto: One Vision,...

EDITORIALS

Nov 26, 2007

Breakthrough in stem-cell research

Scientists from Kyoto University and the University of Wisconsin have announced that they have succeeded in producing equivalents to embryonic stem cells by reprogramming human skin cells. The new findings represent a breakthrough in regenerative medicine research. Behaving like embryonic stem cells,...

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

Koreans who paid for Japan

By Kiroku Hanai

This summer I visited several monuments in Hiroshima and Okinawa that console the souls of Koreans who died during the Pacific War while living in Japan or serving in the Japanese military. It was a heart-wrenching experience.

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

Upbeat band of moderates keep the faith

By Tom Plate and Elizabeth Moore

BALI, Indonesia — A bad idea can sometimes illuminate the darkest landscape of truth with brilliant flair in a way that mere fact cannot. Consider, for example, the idea that Islam is incompatible with democracy. It's a really bad idea, but it can serve a very good purpose.

EDITORIALS

Nov 25, 2007

Higher consumption tax on the table

For the first time in three years, the Tax Commission has proposed raising the consumption tax (now at 5 percent) in its tax-reform recommendations for fiscal 2008. It regards the consumption tax as a stable core revenue source to cover growing social security costs. But the commission, an advisory body...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.

The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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