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November 22, 2024
 

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Kiroku Hanai
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2004
Cracking police shell games
Police in Hokkaido, Shizuoka and Fukuoka prefectures have allegedly misused taxpayers' money. A number of active and retired officers have disclosed that money appropriated for phony business trips and investigative activities was diverted to slush funds.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2004
Revise the antimonopoly law
Experts agree that Japan must strengthen its Antimonopoly Act, push deregulation to promote economic reform, reactivate its sluggish economy and protect consumer interests.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2004
Avoid the road to isolation
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi once again showed insensitivity to the feelings of fellow Asians by going to Yasukuni Shrine on New Year's Day to honor Japan's war dead. Convicted Class-A war criminals are among those whose memories are enshrined there.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2003
Time to revise unequal SOFA
A group of lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party is campaigning for the drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. The group, headed by Lower House member Toshio Kojima, has come up with a proposal for revising SOFA in cooperation with a council of governors of 14 prefectures,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2003
Stub out the smoking habit
The Tokyo District Court has rejected a damage suit filed against Japan Tobacco Inc. and the national government by seven former smokers who said they developed cancer and other health troubles from long years of smoking. The suit, filed by victims of lung cancer, cancer of the larynx and emphysema,...
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2003
Resuscitating Japanese labor
Following a protracted economic slowdown, the labor movement in Japan is in the doldrums. The unionization rate has fallen to about 20 percent due to stepped-up corporate restructuring and widespread worker distrust of unions. The nation's top labor federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2003
Decentralization will finish road to democracy in Japan
Some independent or reformist prefectural governors have come out with their own plans to revitalize local politics and economies. Their ultimate goal is to end the centralization of administrative power that dates back to the Meiji Restoration and establish real local autonomy. To achieve the goal,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2003
Fujimori case testing Japan
The Japanese government is facing mounting pressure from the Peruvian government for the extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori, who has been in exile in Japan since November 2000. Last March, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for the disgraced former leader and late last month, the Peruvian...
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2003
More transparency needed in investigations of suspects
Little progress is reported in Japan-U.S. talks on legal proceedings in the alleged rape of an Okinawan woman by a U.S. serviceman. A hitch has developed over the demand by U.S. authorities for greater protection of the suspect's rights.
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2003
Diet group takes uneasy steps toward abolishing death penalty
Among major industrial countries, only Japan and the United States retain capital punishment. In Japan, however, there is a growing abolition movement. The Diet Members' League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a suprapartisan group headed by Shizuka Kamei of the governing Liberal Democratic Party,...
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003
High cost of the farm lobby
The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2003
Fair, transparent foreign aid
Last September the Japanese government was stunned by a lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court by 3,861 residents of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. The plaintiffs said their life had been disrupted by a dam for hydroelectric power and flood control built with Japan's official development assistance....
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2003
Weak tobacco pact reflects Japan's lukewarm attitude
The member-nations of the World Health Organization have recently approved a draft Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), putting an end to four years of negotiations. The draft is expected to be adopted at the general meeting of the WHO in May, and will take effect after 40 countries have ratified...
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2003
Reform of the fourth estate
I was stunned by recent media reports that Takuhiko Tsuruta, president of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, had become a whistle-blowing target. At a company shareholders meeting, a proposal demanding Tsuruta's dismissal from the board was presented by an editor and shareholder of the newspaper. Tsuruta...
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2003
The war dead deserve better
I was stunned by news reports that Junichiro Koizumi recently made his third visit as prime minister to Yasukuni Shrine. After his two previous visits drew strong protests from China and South Korea, and after he struggled to justify the visits, officials in both countries must be amazed and angered....
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2002
Contrived crisis in education
Educational reform is becoming a political issue in Japan. At the center of the controversy is the Education Basic Law, which took effect in 1947 when the Constitution was established. Earlier this year the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education minister, published an interim...
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2002
Flawed civil service proposal
To carry out the first major reform of the national civil service system in 50 years, the government plans to introduce legislation in the Diet next year to revise the national public service law. Under present plans, the new law would be implemented beginning in fiscal 2006. A task force of the Cabinet...
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2002
Reformists persist in Iran
Late last month I made my first visit in 22 years to Iran, where I had covered the Islamic revolution under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini as a Japanese newspaper correspondent. Some conspicuous changes in the country attracted my attention.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2002
Building corporate integrity
A spate of corporate scandals have rocked Japan this year. Snow Brand Foods Co. and Nippon Ham Co. mislabeled beef, abusing the government's buyback program that was set up to bail out the beef industry following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan. Trading giant Mitsui & Co. was implicated in a...
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2002
Build alternative to Yasukuni
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in April inflamed Beijing, casting a chill on Japan-China relations. The row forced Koizumi to cancel a visit to Beijing he had planned for this fall to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China diplomatic relations....
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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