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January 17, 2025

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EDITORIALS

May 18, 2000

Digital exterminators

The year rang in with the threat of a computer meltdown — the Y2K bug — but it proved to be more hype than horror. Yet having weathered that digital storm, the world has faced a succession of bugs and viruses that have done real damage to both computer systems and confidence in the network economy....

EDITORIALS

May 17, 2000

A stewardship cut short

Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died on Sunday without having regained consciousness after he was seriously incapacitated by a stroke April 2. He was 62. Mr. Obuchi's death came before he could realize his cherished dream of hosting the annual G8 meeting in Okinawa and also before being able to confirm...

EDITORIALS

May 16, 2000

Rockets under review

There is no humor to be found in Japan's recent disappointing -- and expensive -- rocket failures. Nevertheless, the news that the spectacular crash of an H-II rocket last November may have been caused by design and planning errors does more than suggest that the nation's rocket scientists should go...

EDITORIALS

May 15, 2000

Mr. Putin takes command

Russia made history last week. With the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin, that country marked its first truly democratic transition of leaders in over a millennium. It was a remarkable moment for the nation, as well as for the once-obscure former KGB functionary who took the oath of office as...

EDITORIALS

May 14, 2000

The rites of spring

Anyone poking about in newspapers or on the Internet lately might have come across a couple of essays expressing a view that seems to pop up seductively in public discourse whenever the weather turns warm. Like a view of cool woods from the window of a stuffy classroom in spring, this idea offers the...

EDITORIALS

May 13, 2000

A first step in electoral reform

With the passage of a bill amending the flawed Public Offices Election Law, the next Lower House election -- which most likely will be held late in June -- promises to be a fairer one. The current system, which was used for the first time in the 1996 Lower House election, is a combination of single-member...

EDITORIALS

May 12, 2000

Sierra Leone, and the U.N., at risk

Sierra Leone is once again about to dissolve in violence. This time, however, it threatens to take the United Nations with it. A rebel leader bent on undermining a peace agreement faces a poorly organized, ill-equipped peacekeeping force that has been denied the political support that is critical to...

EDITORIALS

May 11, 2000

After the tour, the real work begins

During his nine-day whirlwind trip of seven major nations that ended last weekend, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori laid the groundwork for a G8 summit scheduled for July in Okinawa, a meeting that he will chair as head of the host government. His main purpose, of course, was to get acquainted with leaders...

EDITORIALS

May 10, 2000

The IRA cuts the knot

The Irish Republican Army has broken the logjam in the Northern Irish peace process. Last weekend, the group offered to put its vast stockpiles of weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use." That gesture will allow the suspended power-sharing agreement in the province to go forward. The implicit...

EDITORIALS

May 9, 2000

Crime knows no boundaries

Crime was very much on people's minds during this year's Golden Week holiday period. While the calendar made it possible for record numbers of Japanese to travel abroad, those who stayed behind for whatever reason were transfixed by news of two appalling crimes one day apart, each allegedly committed...

EDITORIALS

May 8, 2000

The return of 'Red Ken'

Red is the color of the British Labor Party. Last week, British voters were a little too red for Prime Minister Tony Blair. The election of Mr. Ken Livingstone, known as "Red Ken" for his feisty leftwing politics, as London's first directly elected mayor, left Mr. Blair with a nasty black eye, but that...

EDITORIALS

May 7, 2000

Gods and monsters

It wasn't so much a papal bull that was issued by the Vatican recently as a papal bear, and a teddy bear at that. In the week that "Pokemon: The First Movie" opened in Italy, an announcement on the Vatican's satellite television station reassured Italian children -- or their parents, since the children...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.

Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

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