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January 20, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Apr 29, 2004

Worrisome low voter turnout

In Sunday's Lower House by-elections, which had been billed as a prelude to July's Upper House election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party won all three seats at stake. Thus the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, having suffered defeat, will need to rethink its campaign strategy if it is to succeed...

EDITORIALS

Apr 28, 2004

Back to the future in Indonesia

The first round of voting in Indonesia's electoral pageant has revealed a wave of nostalgia for the past. Golkar, the party of disgraced former leader Suharto, came out on top in national parliamentary elections in early April. Days after the results were announced, Golkar picked Mr. Wiranto, a former...

EDITORIALS

Apr 27, 2004

Mixed marks for Mr. Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who completed his third year in office on Monday, is already one of the nation's longest-serving postwar prime ministers. Although the stratospheric popularity he enjoyed early in his administration is no more, media polls still give him considerably high approval ratings...

EDITORIALS

Apr 26, 2004

No place for partisanship

With national elections around the corner, partisan politics is blocking progress on pension reform. Although debate has resumed in the Lower House Welfare and Labor Committee, the two largest parties, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, are spending more...

EDITORIALS

Apr 25, 2004

'A long fuse has been lighted'

With the earlier-than-usual arrival of warm weather, the influenza season in Japan is almost over, and the number of patients reported to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is down 40 percent from last year. However, the danger of the bird flu virus mutating and a new type of influenza breaking...

EDITORIALS

Apr 24, 2004

Observing the Earth as it is

As the human world is embroiled in seemingly endless conflict, the global environment that supports our continued existence -- the Earth system -- apparently continues to deteriorate. To sustain the system, we must first understand it better. And understanding is promoted through observation.

EDITORIALS

Apr 23, 2004

Mr. Vajpayee has reason to smile

India ushered in the world's largest democratic pageant this week as it began the first phase of national elections. The vote will stretch out over three weeks, with counting and final results set for May 13. Blistering economic growth appears to be the springboard for yet another parliamentary majority...

EDITORIALS

Apr 22, 2004

A beef with the USDA

Until recently, it was not that hard to understand the standoff between the U.S. and Japanese governments over this country's ban on imports of American beef. Both nations have experienced mad cow disease scares, but they have responded differently. Japan, with 11 cases of the disease since 2001, tests...

EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 2004

Wanted: an honest broker

An Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement is looking more like a will-o'-the-wisp as a cycle of retaliatory violence continues unabated. Last week's assassination by the Israeli military of the new Hamas leader, Mr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi -- less than a month after the killing of the Hamas founder and spiritual...

EDITORIALS

Apr 20, 2004

Remembering Saint-Exupery

Which is better: a mystery or a clue? Absence or a relic? Proponents of both sides had plenty to say this month after French researchers discovered part of the answer to a puzzle that's endured nearly 60 years: Whatever happened to Antoine de Saint-Exupery?

EDITORIALS

Apr 19, 2004

The confident Mr. Bush

It has been a rough couple of weeks for U.S. President George W. Bush, but it would be hard to tell from his performance at a press conference last week. Mr. Bush showed no doubts or hesitation about the decisions he has made concerning Iraq or the wider war against terror. He and his administration...

EDITORIALS

Apr 18, 2004

A political quake in South Korea

Parliamentary elections last week have transformed politics in South Korea. The Uri Party -- which did not exist a year ago -- has won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, giving President Roh Moo Hyun control of the legislature for the first time since he was elected a year and a half ago...

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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