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EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2007

Low number of organ transplants

Ten years have passed since the Organ Transplantation Law was enacted, allowing organ transplants from brain-dead people. So far there have been only 56 of these organ transplants. The latest was carried out on June 14 and 15, using the heart, pancreas and kidneys from a woman in her 50s. The small number...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2007

Hazy fiscal reform plan

The government has approved an economic and fiscal reform plan for 2007 that will serve as the basis for compiling the fiscal 2008 budget. It encompasses a variety of policy measures that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration thinks are necessary to ensure both economic growth and financial reconstruction....
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2007

Afghan vice president seeks support, open to SDF

Japanese people should decide on, but our friend Japan's support is very important for Afghanistan's reconstruction, development, disbandment of illegal armed groups and other areas," the 57-year-old vice president told reporters at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. "We would very much like to...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2007

Abe admits knowing pension problem last year

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revealed Friday that he was aware of problems with the nation's pension premium payments by late last year, long before the government acted at the end of May.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2007

N. Korea talks could restart next month: Hill

are very aware of the fact that this is a step-by-step process, with many steps to come," Hill said. Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for access to frozen funds at a Macau bank. The funds were frozen after the U.S. blacklisted the bank for allegedly assisting North Korea in...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2007

SIA probes computer glitch amid rise in queries

must be enhanced. We will strengthen manpower to respond to people's worries and complaints," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting involving the government and the ruling coalition. The problem hit computers Sunday at the 130 offices in 23 prefectures, including Kanagawa, Hyogo and Fukuoka, at...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2007

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door — but no answer

Two deaths made headlines on May 28. Izumi Sakai, the lead singer of the pop group ZARD, was found at the bottom of an outdoor staircase at Keio University Hospital, where she was undergoing treatment for cancer. Her management quickly released a statement to pre-empt media speculation that the death...
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2007

Energy savings start at home

The white paper on the environment and a recycling-based society approved by the Cabinet expresses serious concern about global warming and stresses the importance of individual citizens taking conscious action to alleviate environmental problems and to help slow global warming. The white paper comes...
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2007

Old image of Serbia sells

The May 24 article "Appeasing Serbia hurts EU," by Natasa Kandic and Mabel Van Oranje, is one-sided in the sense that it focuses on Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica without making single mention of the more democratic President Boris Tadic, who is far more dedicated to turning former Bosnian...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2007

Ex-farm bureaucrat takes helm at ministry

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has appointed a 48-year-old agriculture policy expert in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a former farm ministry bureaucrat as the new farm minister to replace Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who committed suicide Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2007

Name game toughens Taiwanese parties

HONG KONG — The dispute over the renaming of a memorial hall in Taiwan would be hilarious if it were not for the very serious political tensions that are pitting the two main political parties against each other.
JAPAN / Q&A
Jun 1, 2007

Poll-wary ruling bloc gropes to fix pension fiasco

The government is facing a crisis over its handling of the creaky public pension system, in part because the Social Insurance Agency scrambled the data on 50 million premium payments during a bungled shift to computerization in the 1980s. Since it cannot identify who made the payments, many pensioners...
SOCCER
May 30, 2007

Andean nations protest FIFA ruling on altitude

LA PAZ (AP) Bolivia President Evo Morales says FIFA's decision to ban all international soccer matches above 2,500 meters discriminates against Latin America's high-altitude nations.

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