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January 24, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Mar 31, 2008

Bailout of Tokyo's bank

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Friday decided to inject an additional ¥40 billion of taxpayer money into the money-losing Shinginko Tokyo. The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito supported the capital bailout while three groups, including the Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Communist Party,...

EDITORIALS

Mar 30, 2008

Improper watch at sea

The Defense Ministry has released an interim fact-finding report on the Feb. 19 collision between an Aegis destroyer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force and a fishing boat that left two fishermen missing. The 7,750-ton Aegis destroyer Atago collided with the 7.3-ton tuna trawler Seitoku Maru around 4:07...

EDITORIALS

Mar 29, 2008

Taiwan takes a new approach

The election of Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou, the Nationalist (KMT) candidate, in Taiwan's presidential campaign last weekend could herald a diminution of tensions in the Taiwan Strait, one of the remaining legacies of the Cold War and a potential nuclear flash point. Mr. Ma has called for closer relations with...

EDITORIALS

Mar 28, 2008

Police priorities crossed in stabbings

Eight plainclothes police officers on the lookout for a 24-year-old man were unable to stop him from going on a stabbing spree in and outside JR Arakawaoki Station in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on March 23. One man was killed and seven other people were injured, two of them critically.

EDITORIALS

Mar 28, 2008

The considerate thing to do

With the ruling and opposition parties at loggerheads over tax-related bills, the fiscal 2008 tax-code bill will likely fail to be enacted on or before March 31. As a result, temporarily raised gasoline and other road-related tax rates will come down to normal, leading, at least for a while, to lower...

EDITORIALS

Mar 27, 2008

Seeding the nuclear renaissance

The world is on the brink of a second nuclear renaissance. Prodded by rising oil prices and concerns about global warming, nations are reconsidering the nuclear energy option and finding it attractive. A significant increase in the number of nuclear reactors worldwide, however, also increases the risk...

EDITORIALS

Mar 26, 2008

Japan's new ocean policy

The Cabinet has adopted a basic ocean policy program based on the Basic Law of the Sea, which went into effect in July 2007. Lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan jointly wrote the law, which was enacted in April 2007, to properly develop marine resources...

EDITORIALS

Mar 26, 2008

Fertile ground for policy formation

More than 100 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and Kokumin Shinto have formed a supra-partisan lawmakers' association in response to a call by Sentaku (Choice), a policy study group mainly pushing for devolution and elections based on concrete and...

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2008

Respect for public documents

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has had Population and Gender Equality Issues Minister Yoko Kamikawa double as state minister in charge of improving the custodianship of official documents. In a related move, a nine-member government panel has started discussing rules on proper maintenance of such documents....

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2008

Heart of darkness

The Akita District Court last Wednesday sentenced a 35-year-old woman to life imprisonment for murdering her 9-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old neighborhood boy in Fujisato, a town with a population of just over 4,000, in Akita Prefecture. The crimes appear to point to problems that may have arisen...

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2008

Japan's salary gap

White Day was celebrated March 14, but along with giving cookies and chocolates, men might have done better to give women the one-third of their salaries they are missing. According to new data, Japanese women are paid 33 percent less than men. A recent report on average salary gaps from the International...

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2008

Security for cultural treasures

The burning of South Korea's Namdaemun Gate in February was a terrible tragedy. A month after the fire was set by an arsonist, Koreans still mourn their national treasure, now a cinder. Along with many people around the world, we extend our deepest sympathy for the terrible loss of an ancient symbol...

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’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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