EDITORIALS At their first summit meeting, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance. Their overriding priority likely was to dispel any misgivings that could impair the alliance. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The education ministry Thursday announced the results of its latest fact-finding survey on bullying, showing that the number of bullying incidents reported nationwide in fiscal 2006 exceeded 120,000 for elementary, junior high and senior high schools. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS Testifying under oath at the Upper House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya on Thursday finally revealed politicians’ names, saying, “I think they were lawmakers Kyuma and Nukaga.“ [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS International competition to secure rare metals–indispensable materials for manufacturing high-technology products–has been getting fiercer. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Thursday left for his first overseas visit since he took office in September. He will meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington and fly to Singapore next week to meet with Asian leaders taking part in the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and […] [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS Former Administrative Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya appeared before a House of Councillors panel as a sworn witness Thursday in a new situation that has emerged since the arrest of a former executive of a defense equipment trading company who treated Moriya to an excessive number of golf outings. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The slumping dollar and lackluster stock market are threatening to choke Japan’s economic growth. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS One of the best ways to restore public security is to come up with a system to prevent people who have committed crimes from doing so again. Society as a whole must try to come up with ideas for such a system. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The Board of Audit’s annual report on government spending in fiscal 2006, released Friday, lists numerous examples of waste, fraud and abuse. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS A highly divisive bill to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean was approved Monday by the special Lower House committee on anti-terrorism measures. After being passed by a plenary session of the Lower House on Tuesday, the bill will face debate in the opposition-controlled Upper House. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS The House of Representatives has passed a new antiterrorism bill aimed at resuming the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s refueling activities in the Indian Ocean. The MSDF suspended its refueling mission when the Antiterrorism Law expired on Nov. 1. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The current Diet session has been jolted by a series of political tremors. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS Stock prices continue to fall and the yen continues to appreciate at an accelerated pace. The phenomenon began in the U.S. market, but stocks are falling more sharply on the Tokyo market due to concerns over the negative impact of the stronger yen on exporters. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The business failure of Nova Corp.–the nation’s largest English-language school chain–left about 300,000 students in the lurch. This raises the question of how customers can be better protected when a business goes belly-up [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS The current state of the Diet is a far cry from what the legislative body is supposed to be. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS Ichiro Ozawa announced his decision to stay on as president of Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) on Wednesday. He denied the formation of a “grand coalition” with the Liberal Democratic Party and vowed to “desperately fight” to win the next Lower House election. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS To make the Japan-U.S. alliance solid, Japan has to work at steadily solving various pending issues that could hurt mutual trust between the two countries. [YOMIURI]

EDITORIALS In its ruling convicting two former senior officials of a government-affiliated agency involved in bid-rigging, the Tokyo District Court bitterly criticized their behavior. Muneo Takagi, 59, who was then executive director of Japan Green Resources Agency (J-Green), was handed a two-year prison term, suspended for four years. Tsuneo Shimooki, 57, a former chief of J-Green’s forestry-road planning section, was given an 18-month term, suspended for three years. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS Only two days after announcing his resignation as Democratic Party of Japan rpresident, Ichiro Ozawa changed his mind and said Tuesday, “This may seem really embarrassing, but I want to take another shot (as party president).” His extraordinary flip-flop must have stunned the nation. [ASAHI]

EDITORIALS Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa retracted Wednesday his statement that he would resign as party leader and pledged to stay on just three days after his initial announcement on Sunday. This difficult-to-understand, flip-flop drama has brought to the surface doubts about Ozawa’s words and behavior as a political leader while revealing the immaturity of the DPJ as a party. [YOMIURI]