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January 23, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2007

Is tax diversion a good idea?

Liberal Democratic Party politicians are touting a proposal to allow citizens to divert a portion of their residential tax payment to local governments of their preference. The idea is called "furusato nozei" (tax payment diversion to one's native place, or hometown) and the Abe administration is pushing...

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2007

Another black mark for the U.N.

The conviction of a former United Nations purchasing official has focused attention once again on the growing need for reform at that institution. Fraud and corruption not only deprive the U.N. of resources it needs to do its work but they also contribute to the erosion of the U.N.'s legitimacy. The...

EDITORIALS

Jun 13, 2007

Crime and punishment

The Upper House is discussing bills that will allow crime victims and their family members to sit with prosecutors and question defendants and witnesses in trials for serious crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping and confinement. If the accused are found guilty, crime victims and their...

EDITORIALS

Jun 13, 2007

Learning from the Comsn scandal

A scandal involving Comsn Inc., the nation's largest nursing-care services operator, shows that the government and the public must be on guard against operators that put profits before all else. It also highlights the need to improve working conditions for nursing-care employees to ensure the field attracts...

EDITORIALS

Jun 12, 2007

Mr. Zoellick to the World Bank

U.S. President George W. Bush has picked Mr. Robert Zoellick to be president of the World Bank. Mr. Zoellick, a former U.S. trade representative and a former deputy secretary of state, is almost certain to be confirmed by the World Bank board. The best thing that can be said about the nomination is that...

EDITORIALS

Jun 12, 2007

Justice for Lebanon's late leader

A special court that the U.N. Security Council voted to set up to prosecute the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri came into force on Sunday. The U.N. vote was a direct challenge to Syria, which has been implicated in the killing while denying any involvement.

EDITORIALS

Jun 10, 2007

Another frustrating G8 summit

One step forward, one step back. That's likely to be the verdict on the just-ended summit of the Group of Eight industrial powers. Progress came on climate change; the retreat was on AIDS. Yet the trimming of ambitions regarding AIDS policy should shape perceptions of the historic deal on greenhouse-gas...

EDITORIALS

Jun 9, 2007

Surveillance of citizens

The Japanese Communist Party has made public copies of two documents it says were prepared by the Ground Self-Defense Force's information security units during a period when grassroots opposition to the dispatch of the GSDF unit to Iraq was strong. The documents are said to show detailed surveillance...

EDITORIALS

Jun 9, 2007

Energy savings start at home

The white paper on the environment and a recycling-based society approved by the Cabinet expresses serious concern about global warming and stresses the importance of individual citizens taking conscious action to alleviate environmental problems and to help slow global warming. The white paper comes...

EDITORIALS

Jun 8, 2007

Popularity takes a tumble

The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has hit a record low since he came into power last September. A telephone poll at the beginning of this month by Kyodo News shows that the support rate has sunk to 35.8 percent, a drop of 11.8 points from mid-May and a big slide from the...

EDITORIALS

Jun 8, 2007

Defection from the North

Four North Koreans — a married couple and their two adult sons — were spotted in a small boat off Fukaura port in Aomori Prefecture last Saturday and are now in custody. They arrived in a 7.3-meter-long open wooden boat equipped with an old outboard engine. They say they left a port near the northeastern...

EDITORIALS

Jun 7, 2007

Six Day War left mixed legacy

Forty years ago, Israel won one of the most unlikely military victories in history. The Jewish nation's triumph over its Arab neighbors in the Six Day War was a stunning blow from which the world is still reeling. Sadly, four decades have not made Israel more secure, and many Israelis now concede that...

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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