JAPAN

JAPAN
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, May 10: Following the disastrous accident on the Takarazuka Line, West Japan Railway Co. put together a five-point policy on securing safety for its passengers.
The first item on the list is to "build a corporate culture that gives priority to safety." As one of its urgent tasks, the company will install the latest automatic train stop systems on all major lines in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area. It will also consider cutting down the number of train services to rectify the overly tight train schedules.
All of those steps should have been taken long ago. If those measure had been in place, the tragedy could have been averted.
New policy
The fact that safety is listed as the top priority in the new policy probably means that, even in the eyes of JR West's executives, the company was not so sensitive to safety before the latest accident.
JR West must undergo the difficult task of changing its own culture that has leaned toward a single-minded obsession with money-making.
ITALY
Corriere della Sera, Milan, May 10: Currently the most arduous obstacle is the approval of the constitutional treaty, in certain cases submitted to simple parliamentary ratification and in others, to referendum. The difficulty with forming a common European identity has many different reasons. Europe, unlike the United States, has a history of modern nationalism. More than 450 million multinational citizens speaking 20 different languages will have to get ready to live under the same law.
Deeper reflection
The referendum will be voted first by the French on May 29. The potential threat of France's ambiguous position or Great Britain's insular tendency impeding this next step could lead to a general shock, but then possibly also to a deeper reflection. It is only reasonable that the EU, as the other major world powers, should have the political authority and representation that its global economical and commercial position implies.
BRITAIN
Daily Telegraph, London, May 11: Thomas Matussek, the German ambassador to Britain who has been complaining about the British obsession with the Nazi period, will have had a difficult week so far. Yesterday came the unveiling of Berlin's Holocaust Memorial and the revelation that Albert Speer, the supposedly "Good Nazi", did know about Auschwitz, despite his denials.
Ignorance
That said, it is better to overdose on the war than forget about it, which many are in danger of doing: in a survey of 4,000 adults last year, half of them admitted that, unlike Speer, they had never heard of Auschwitz. The prime minister's absence from VE Day celebrations in Moscow and his refusal to allow the Queen to attend London's commemoration were bad misjudgments of how great a part war memories play in a country's identity.
Knowledge of the Second World War is not just good for moral instruction; it is vital, too, for understanding the modern world.
AUSTRALIA
The Age, Melbourne, May 5: In an interview before he was taken hostage in Iraq at the weekend, Australian engineer Douglas Wood appeared to take the dangers of working as a foreigner there somewhat lightly.
"I've heard the sounds of mortars dropping nearby, rifle fire in the streets, but this is like occasional background music," he said. "The reality is that it's not all that difficult. There are probably scarier places in downtown (Washington) D.C."
But then kidnappers took Mr. Wood, 63, and gave him a different perspective on the perils of his chosen life.
Video appeal
In a two-minute video, he called for U.S., Australian and British authorities to withdraw their troops from Iraq. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has predictably -- and rightly -- said he will not bow to terrorist demands, but in the meantime the government is doing what it can to secure Mr. Wood's freedom.