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February 01, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Jul 5, 2010

Better view of business

Business confidence gauged by the diffusion index (DI) among major manufacturers climbed for the fifth straight quarter in June to plus 1, up 15 points from March — the first positive figure since June 2008 — the Bank of Japan said Thursday. The DI has now reached the level it was at before the global...

EDITORIALS

Jul 5, 2010

Funding social welfare

Social welfare such as pensions, medical and nursing care as well as support measures for families rearing children is an important issue. A fiscal 2009 Cabinet Office survey shows that the largest portion of those polled — 69 percent — want the government's priority to be on establishing a pension...

EDITORIALS

Jul 4, 2010

Quiet change in Japan

Anyone reading about the failure in letting married women use their maiden names in their family registers, or watching the latest to-do over whaling, could be forgiven for concluding that nothing ever changes in Japan. Quiet currents of change, however, are running under the surface.

EDITORIALS

Jul 4, 2010

Environmental literature

Preparations are now under way for the 76th annual International PEN Congress to be held in Tokyo this September, only the third time Japan has hosted the event. It promises to be a stimulating occasion with such guests as Chinese Nobel laureate in literature Gao Xingjian and authors from Europe, Asia,...

EDITORIALS

Jul 3, 2010

Lower summits of expectations

It is summit season. The Group of Eight club of leading industrialized powers held its annual shindig in Canada last week. That conclave was followed, for the first time, by the summit of the Group of 20, which accounts for 85 percent of global wealth and has emerged as the "director" of the global economy...

EDITORIALS

Jul 2, 2010

Exporting nuclear technology

India, a nuclear-armed country, has not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Regrettably, Japan, which has advocated for a nuclear weapons-free world ever since the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, has started talks with India on a pact to allow India to import civilian...

EDITORIALS

Jul 2, 2010

Well-deserved praise for Japan

Japan's Blue Samurai deserve praise: In reaching the second round of this year's World Cup in South Africa, they did much better than expected. Tuesday's 5-3 defeat to Paraguay on a penalty shootout — after a grueling 120-minute contest without a goal — was heartbreaking. Although the team failed...

EDITORIALS

Jul 1, 2010

A Rudd-erless Australia

The sudden resignation last week by Kevin Rudd, following a revolt within his own party, capped a stunning fall from grace for a politician who until recently had been one of Australia's most popular prime ministers ever. His success in navigating Australia through an economic crisis was not enough for...

EDITORIALS

Jun 30, 2010

Shadow over sumo world grows

The Japan Sumo Association has accepted recommendations made by a third-party special oversight panel investigating some JSA members' illegal gambling on professional baseball games. Acting on the recommendations, JSA is expected to expel ozeki Kotomitsuki and stablemaster Otake and to take strong disciplinary...

EDITORIALS

Jun 30, 2010

Mr. Kan meets Mr. Obama

At their Sunday meeting on the fringe of the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is a cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Their first meeting took place after bilateral ties had become...

EDITORIALS

Jun 29, 2010

Plan for gender equality

The government's Council for Gender Equality is scheduled to submit by the end of this month a proposal for the third basic plan to build a gender-equal society. Two such plans have been written on the basis of the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society, which went into effect in 1999. The draft for the...

EDITORIALS

Jun 29, 2010

Devolution on the move

The Cabinet on June 22 adopted a devolution strategy outline that covers the next two to three years. The decision is good news for local governments because it had been feared that following the sudden resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who was eager to push devolution, the Cabinet...

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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