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EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2008

Reintroducing the Ainu

Both chambers of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution last week urging the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. It says the fact that many Ainu people suffered discrimination and poverty during Japan's modernization should be taken seriously. Noting that the Ainu have their own...
Reader Mail
Jun 8, 2008

Invest in counseling, not weapons

Regarding the May 30 article "Japanese found hanged on KAL jet": It's a sad statement of a country's culture that so many Japanese people's ultimate form of expression is suicide. It must be hard for many non-Japanese to understand why this anomaly has persisted for so long.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2008

Protection from a Web of harm

The Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Communist Party have worked out a bill aimed at shielding children from harmful Web sites. The Education Resuscitation Council had called for restricting the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren to direct calls and GPS...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2008

Diet officially declares Ainu indigenous

The Ainu celebrated a historic moment Friday as the Diet unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes them as indigenous people of Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2008

South Korea's 'bulldozer' stalls

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak must wonder whatever happened to his honeymoon. His first 100 days in office were marked by the sharpest plunge in popularity ratings of any democratically elected Korean leader. The fault is not Mr. Lee's alone, but the majority of the blame is his. Only he can stop...
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2008

Energy-cost issue boils over

Is the green party over? Is the ferocious rise in energy costs worldwide, driven by the soaring price of oil, undermining all the enthusiasm for saving the planet in the longer term via cutting carbon emissions and penalizing all forms of fossil-fuel consumption?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 1, 2008

Generic drugs? Brand-name drugs? Any old drugs will do

On April 1, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare notified local governments that from now on welfare recipients entitled to free medical care must only use generic pharmaceuticals rather than more expensive brand-name drugs. Almost immediately the plan was attacked in the media, which implied that...
JAPAN
May 31, 2008

Japan joins effort to ban cluster bombs

Japan will agree on a draft convention to immediately and completely ban cluster bombs in principle, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Friday, marking a shift in Tokyo's position on the controversial munitions.
JAPAN
May 31, 2008

SDF quake-relief airlift to China is ruled out

Acknowledging apprehension in China, Japan has dropped plans to send Self-Defense Forces aircraft to China to transport emergency supplies to earthquake survivors, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2008

Prime ministers in trouble

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda face a sea of troubles. Neither looks likely to keep his job long enough to make a significant contribution to solving the problems in Britain or in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 28, 2008

Fukuda slates scores of Africa minisummits at TICAD

YOKOHAMA — Leaders from all but one African nation have arrived in Yokohama to attend the three-day Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which kicks off Wednesday to explore ways to promote economic growth and fight poverty.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2008

Recognizing the limits of American influence

JERUSALEM — Israel's 60th anniversary has come and gone. So, too, has President George W. Bush's final visit to the Middle East. Amid the celebrations and the soul-searching, no meaningful breakthrough in the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is visible.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2008

BOJ chief willing to cut rates as economy slows

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said Friday he will not rule out lowering the BOJ's benchmark interest rate from the current 0.5 percent amid the slowing economy.
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

Japan taps rice reserves to help continent

Japan will use some of its huge rice stockpile to help ease the global food crisis, with about 20,000 tons destined for five African nations in the coming weeks, a government official said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2008

Remember the black swans

The great global economic establishment is once again divided as to what is going to happen next. Half say we are lurching toward a new bout of world inflation. Half say the danger is deflation and world recession, even depression.

Longform

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