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November 22, 2024
 

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Ralph Cossa
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2003
U.S. can return to the moral high road
KUALA LUMPUR -- On Aug. 6, peace activists from around the world flocked to Hiroshima to pray for peace and remember those who died when the first nuclear bomb was dropped on that city 58 years ago. More subdued ceremonies marked the anniversary of the second, and we all hope last, use of nuclear weapons...
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2003
Too early to toast Kim's cooperation
HONOLULU -- Let's not open up the champagne too quickly! The announcement that North Korea finally has agreed to attend multilateral talks "to resolve the nuclear issue" is good news indeed . . . if they actually show up at the yet to be scheduled meeting. But sitting down at the table, as important...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2003
Isolation strategy working
HONOLULU -- Washington's strategy of applying international pressure to further isolate North Korea appears to be working, thanks in large part to the actions of one country in particular.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2003
A sharper U.S.-ROK alliance
HONOLULU -- Why is the United States pulling its forces away from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the Korean Peninsula? Will the lack of a "tripwire" mean a reduced U.S. commitment to South Korea's security? Or, is Washington moving its forces out of harm's way in anticipation of a preemptive strike...
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2003
Force restructuring anxiety
SINGAPORE -- There was a time when the Pentagon saw "relieving regional anxiety" as one of its primary alliance maintenance tasks in East Asia. Today, it seems more adept at creating this anxiety, rather than providing the reassurance that lies at the heart of sustaining America's critical alliances...
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2003
Narrowing the U.S.-South Korean gap
WASHINGTON -- The summit meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun was, by almost all accounts, a success. The main reason, according to the skeptics, was that expectations were very low. No major breakthroughs were achieved, they argue; "success" merely meant...
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2003
Which side blinked, and why?
HONOLULU -- The announcement that United States and North Korea had agreed to multilateral talks with China in Beijing on Wednesday was most welcome after six months of escalating tensions. Conventional wisdom is that America's success in Iraq was the primary factor in bringing Pyongyang to the bargaining...
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 2003
Implications of the Iraq war
HONOLULU -- Why diplomacy failed in Iraq remains a subject of intense debate. Even Baghdad's supporters could not argue that Iraq had fully complied with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which found Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime in material breach of numerous earlier resolutions and promised...
COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2003
U.S., ROK narrow the gap
HONOLULU -- Debates are raging among the security policy communities in the U.S. and South Korea over North Korean motives and intentions and how best to deal with Pyongyang. There seems to be only one point upon which all agree: no solution to the current standoff is practical unless Washington and...
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2003
Time to face North Korea
HONOLULU -- While the Bush administration is to be commended for not overreacting to North Korea's saber-rattling and for its continuing assertion that it seeks a diplomatic solution to the current nuclear standoff, Washington needs to stop pretending that there is no "crisis" or that there is no difference...
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2003
Don't ignore greater threat
HONOLULU -- The big debate raging in Washington these days is over which country poses the greater threat: North Korea or Iraq (with some throwing Iran into the mix, just to keep the old "axis of evil" intact).
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2003
Advice for Roh Moo Hyun
HONOLULU -- A recent visit by South Korean President-elect Roh Moo Hyun's foreign-policy transition team reveals that the incoming administration's policy toward North Korea is still very much in the formative stage. As a longtime student of Korean security affairs, allow me to offer South Korea's incoming...
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2003
Avoiding World War III
HONOLULU -- Help me get this straight!
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2002
Fix the U.S.-ROK alliance
HONOLULU -- Now that the South Korean presidential elections are over, it's time for outgoing President Kim Dae Jung to take the necessary steps to ensure a proper legacy. No, I am not talking about his "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea. His bold, if only partially successful, efforts...
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2002
Pyongyang's dangerous game
HONOLULU -- In the past week, North Korea has attempted to create a crisis on the Korean Peninsula by threatening to restart its frozen nuclear reactor while demanding that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remove monitoring devices aimed at ensuring that the reactor operates in accordance...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2002
Moving in the right direction
Never in recent memory has a government advisory group engaged in such a bruising battle of words and ideas. Last week, following a stormy debate that caused its chairman to resign, a commission on privatizing debt-ridden highway corporations adopted a final report calling for a drastic cut in toll-road...
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2002
A reunion on neutral ground
HONOLULU -- Shame on Pyongyang . . . and shame on Tokyo, too!
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2002
North Korean motives fan speculation
SEOUL -- I have given a series of lectures on U.S. Asia policy in the weeks since the revelation about North Korea's secret nuclear weapons program. While the audiences and locations in South Korea, Japan and the United States have varied widely, the questions have been remarkably similar. Along with...
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2002
How safe is nuclear energy?
Recent scandals regarding Tokyo Electric Power Co. safety inspection procedures have added a new sense of urgency to a long-standing question: "Are nuclear power reactors throughout East Asia being operated safely?"
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2002
Is it deja vu all over again?
SEOUL -- Is it deja vu all over again on the Korean Peninsula? The short answer is yes . . . and no.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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