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January 27, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Apr 17, 2012

Mr. Noda's taxing problem

One-on-one Diet debates between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and opposition leaders held on April 11 primarily concerned Mr. Noda's plan to raise the consumption tax from April 2014. The prime minister has stated that he will stake his political life on the tax hike plan, and added that he will tackle...

EDITORIALS

Apr 17, 2012

Unwise attempt to restart reactors

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, trade and industry minister Yukio Edano and two other Cabinet ministers on April 13 concluded that the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai Electronic Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture are safe enough to restart even though adequate safety standards and...

EDITORIALS

Apr 16, 2012

China's prodemocrats lose a giant

Fang Lizhi, one of China's best-known dissidents, has died. He passed away in the United States, where he had spent the last two decades of his life after being forced to flee China in the aftermath of the 1989 crackdown on prodemocracy activists. The movement for a democratic China has lost a leading...

EDITORIALS

Apr 15, 2012

The Titanic and the nuclear fiasco

On the night of April 15, 1912, 100 years ago today, the allegedly unsinkable luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Of the ship's 2,200 passengers, 1,500 lost their lives. Since then the Titanic has become an object lesson, an obsession and the subject of countless...

EDITORIALS

Apr 14, 2012

Postal privatization with service

The Lower House on Thursday passed a bill to revise the privatization scheme of the Japan Post group. The bill was jointly submitted to the Diet on April 3 by the Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. It represents a rare case in which consultations among the three parties...

EDITORIALS

Apr 14, 2012

North Korea's failure that provokes

North Korea on Friday failed in its anticipated satellite launch, with the rocket splintering into pieces. The North should not attempt another launch or nuclear test, which will only contribute to heightening tensions in the region.

EDITORIALS

Apr 13, 2012

Reimpose weapons export ban

The Noda administration in December 2011 drastically relaxed Japan's long-standing weapons export ban. On the strength of this step, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on April 10 agreed with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron to push joint development of weapons.

EDITORIALS

Apr 13, 2012

A few rungs short of devolution

The Noda administration has drafted a plan to transfer regional bureaus and offices of central government ministries to regional administrative bodies, and is expected to submit a related bill to the Diet in May. If such transfers are carried out in a genuine manner, they would promote devolution since...

EDITORIALS

Apr 12, 2012

New horizons for cooperatives

The United Nations General Assembly has designated 2012 as the U.N. International Year of Cooperatives. The world body recognizes the contribution of cooperatives to socioeconomic development, particularly their roles in poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

EDITORIALS

Apr 12, 2012

Ill-advised hiring cuts

The Noda administration has decided to reduce the number of recruits by government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2013 by 56 percent from the fiscal 2009's level — that is lower than the 70 percent average reduction Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada asked the central bureaucracy to achieve. The...

EDITORIALS

Apr 11, 2012

Disasters impact land prices

For the fourth consecutive year, Japan's land prices have fallen. Prices decreased an average 2.6 percent in 2011, but the decline was smaller than the 3.0 percent in 2010 as the economy bounced back from the 3/11 disasters. Commercial land prices slipped 3.1 percent in 2011, less than the 3.8 percent...

EDITORIALS

Apr 11, 2012

New airport management model

New Kansai International Airport Co. was established on April 1 and the operations of Kansai and Itami airports will be integrated. It is hoped that the new firm will succeed so that it can serve as a model for privatizing the operations of other airports such as Shin Chitose (Hokkaido), Sendai and Kumamoto....

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.

Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick

By Alex K.T. Martin

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