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January 24, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Oct 28, 2012

A mother's message

Twenty years after Mieko Hattori's 16-year-old son, Yoshihiro, was fatally shot while studying in America, the outspoken mother has once again called for tighter gun control laws in the United States and around the world. Her latest speech was delivered in Baton Rouge, the town where 20 years ago her...

EDITORIALS

Oct 27, 2012

A chance to pay pension arrears

At the beginning of October, a system started to allow people who are up to 10 years in arrears on premium payments for the kokumin nenkin pension to pay the unpaid premiums. Kokumin nenkin mainly covers self-employed or jobless people, but also serves as the basic pension for corporate workers. The...

EDITORIALS

Oct 27, 2012

Treat Okinawans with respect

The alleged rape on Oct. 16 of an Okinawan woman by two U.S. servicemen outside her apartment building in the city of Okinawa has stoked great anger among the prefecture's residents. Adding insult to injury, Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto and Vice Foreign Minister Shuji Kira made insensitive remarks...

EDITORIALS

Oct 26, 2012

A travesty of justice

The police have apologized to four people for mistakenly arresting them over threats posted on the Internet. The police admitted their error after it became evident that the threats had been made by a still unknown person who hacked their computers — but not before the police had extracted confessions...

EDITORIALS

Oct 26, 2012

Nation honors an athlete

The government will bestow the People's Honor Award on Ms. Saori Yoshida — a wrestler who has won three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships — "for bringing hope and courage to society." As Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said in announcing the government's decision to give her the...

EDITORIALS

Oct 25, 2012

Monitoring sex offenders

A by-law went into force in Osaka Prefecture on Oct. 1 that requires people who have completed their sentences for sex crimes targeting children to report their addresses and other information to the prefectural governor for five years. Violators will face a fine of up to ¥50,000. The Osaka prefectural...

EDITORIALS

Oct 25, 2012

Coping with rising grain prices

More than 30 farm ministers and deputy ministers took part in an emergency meeting in Rome on Oct. 16 organized by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to discuss the soaring prices of wheat, corn, soy beans and other grains. It is regrettable that major grain exporters Russia and the Unites States,...

EDITORIALS

Oct 24, 2012

Don't squeeze welfare recipients

The government plans to reduce the spending for livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) in the fiscal 2013 budget and has started a review of the system. Because cases involving the illegal or questionable receipt of welfare benefits have cropped up and benefits...

EDITORIALS

Oct 24, 2012

Mr. Noda suffers another blow

Justice Minister Keishu Tanaka resigned Tuesday citing ill health, but the real motivation for his resignation is a scandal in which he was accused of receiving political donations from a company run by a foreign national and of having personal ties with a gangster. He served as a Cabinet minister for...

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2012

Japan Post aims to boost business

The Japan Post group was reorganized on Oct. 1 under the revised postal privatization law that was enacted in the last Diet session. The main aim of the revision is to boost business by increasing convenience for customers. In a difficult business environment, the Japan Post group must strive to improve...

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2012

Rectify vote disparity

The Supreme Court on Oct. 17 ruled that in the Upper House election held in July 2010, the value of a vote between depopulated rural areas and populated urban areas was extremely unequal to the point of "giving rise to an issue of unconstitutionality." Although the ruling stopped short of declaring the...

EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 2012

NRA must ensure transparency

More than a month has passed since the Nuclear Regulatory Authority was inaugurated on Sept. 19. The NRA started in a deplorable manner. In a political maneuver, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda used a provision of the relevant law and appointed the five commission members without Diet approval.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.

Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go

By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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