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August 15, 2025
 

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EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2005
Child violence raises concern
Japan's primary-school children appear to have become more violent, according to statistics from a recent report by the Education and Science Ministry. To use a contemporary Japanese expression, they have become "kire-yasui." This expression, which literally means their "nerves tend to snap easily,"...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2005
No winners in the noodle wars
A recent scientific report appeared to reassure the world that not everyone in China is dwelling on that country's muscle-flexing space program or the intractability of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Some Chinese, it suggested, are focused on less tendentious things. Take archaeologists, the subject...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2005
A bad rap for a subtle season
Have you noticed the light changing? It's the best thing about autumn. In midsummer, and even well into September, the sun bleaches everything in sight. The sky will be milky-white, rarely blue, even on a cloudless day. There's a hard, brassy shimmer to the air.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 23, 2005
Best to dig deep and study language from its roots
By Roger Pulvers
W hen I was growing up in Los Angeles during the 1950s, the L.A. County Board of Education decided that the children of the city should learn Spanish. While the language was not made compulsory, it was taught to us regularly with the usual visual aids, such as pictures of elephants, giraffes, mountains...
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2005
Look for change next year
By Gregory Clark
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's determination to visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine needs to be seen in the perspective. The visit was not necessarily, as Beijing and Seoul seem to believe, a final proof of prime-ministerial evil.
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2005
How not to manage U.S.-Singapore ties
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps the last thing that the well-run city-state of Singapore needs is for some outside columnist to defend it. Among the many natural-born rhetorical defenses available on this amazing island is the redoubtable Lee Kuan Yew. Even at 82, the founding prime minister of modern Singapore...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2005
Leveling the finance playing field
A review of the nation's eight government-affiliated financial institutions is gaining momentum in response to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's drive to abolish, integrate or privatize them. Shortly after Mr. Koizumi took power in 2001, he included the reform of those institutions in his "reform without...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2005
Sex inequality slows growth
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK -- A growing number of countries have adopted population and development policies to meet the health-care and education needs of women, including their reproductive health needs. In spite of that, gender inequality persists in most countries around the world. According to the United Nations...
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2005
China tackles its growing pains
The title is dry -- the "Communist Party of China Central Committee Proposal Regarding the Formulation of the 11th Five-Year Program for National Economic and Social Development" -- but its contents are very important. The document is an outline of how China can tackle the pressing problems created by...
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2005
The squeeze on Syria
The suicide of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan is a sign of the steadily growing pressure on the Syrian government. Mr. Kanaan's death eliminates a central figure in the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, but it will not end the inquiry, nor is it likely...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2005
Panic over bird flu isn't wholly misplaced
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON -- It would be funny if it were not so serious. As migratory birds carry the avian influenza virus west across Europe, Britain is following in the footsteps of Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Turkey and asking hunters to shoot down as many incoming ducks and geese as possible. They have been issued...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2005
Proposals threaten South Korean growth
By Christopher Lingle
NEW DELHI -- Han Duck Soo, South Korea's deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economy, has unleashed a perfect storm of destructive policy proposals that may ensure that his country's economy remains stuck in under-performance mode. His declarations reveal him to be an inept custodian of...
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Will Wakatakakage bring balance to the banzuke?
Wakatakakage during a ring entering ceremony in February 2020
Taiwanese drama 'Zero Day Attack' on Chinese invasion to stream in Japan
A scene from the Taiwanese television drama "Zero Day Attack," which will stream in Japan from Friday.
Ukraine war has transformed North Korean military: Kyiv’s military intel chief
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike, on July 30. Moscow has dispatched military specialists to train the Korean People’s Army on how to use combat drones and air-defense systems.
1 in 55 Japanese middle schoolers abuse over-the-counter drugs, survey shows
Among the middle school students who admitted to abusing over-the-counter medication, the majority — around 64% — said they got them from pharmacies while a third said they had access to them in their own households.
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Will Ishiba's critics be able to garner enough support for a leadership race?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's political survival likely hinges on whether a leadership race will take place within the Liberal Democratic Party following its decision to have its election committee canvass the opinions of party members and prefectural chapters on the subject.
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul
At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
By Naoko Abe

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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