David Howell - The Japan Times

August 15, 2024

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David Howell

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2006

Energy grief ahead for EU

LONDON -- If all the energy experts, the analysts and the consultants are right -- and often they are not -- the people of Western Europe, and especially Britain, are in for an uncomfortable time over the next few years.

COMMENTARY

Nov 17, 2006

Tough advice from a friend

LONDON -- Embattled U.S. President George W. Bush has asked for new ideas to help him on Iraq and on how to disentangle from the Middle East morass. He will of course get plenty, but he needs to be very careful over what he chooses.

COMMENTARY

Nov 2, 2006

Curbing the Iranian empire

LONDON -- The preemptive strike doctrine -- that is, hitting the other party quickly when it looks as though it is going to hit you -- is as old as mankind itself. History is strewed with accounts of daring raids to catch the threatening enemy unprepared, from the wars of Greek mythology to modern times....

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2006

Change the tune on climate

COMMENTARY

Oct 5, 2006

The right kind of nationalism

LONDON -- The appointment of Shinzo Abe as Japan's new prime minister has aroused considerable Western interest, and not a little enthusiasm. People in the West like to see a clear-thinking younger leader emerge. And they like what they hear from Abe about Japan becoming fully qualified as a normal nation...

COMMENTARY

Sep 29, 2006

The struggle to follow Blair

LONDON -- The struggle for the succession to the premiership, when Tony Blair finally goes, is assuming all the qualities of a Shakespearean play.

COMMENTARY

Sep 13, 2006

Bush creating a more dangerous world

LONDON -- Directly after the horror of 9/11 there was a moment when America held the good will of almost the entire world in the palm of its hand.

COMMENTARY

Aug 24, 2006

New lessons in the Mideast

LONDON -- It was not meant to be like this. The plan, and the promise by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was that the operation would be over swiftly, the Hezbollah forces with their missiles would be surrounded, rooted out and crushed, the kidnapped Israeli soldiers would be returned, and southern...

COMMENTARY

Aug 4, 2006

Disaster in the Middle East

LONDON -- This time Israel has surely gone too far.

COMMENTARY

Jul 20, 2006

Good people, poor leaders

NEW YORK -- So bad has been recent publicity for the United States and its foreign policies that the visitor arriving in the U.S. nowadays has come to expect a grim reception and a nation of inward-turning people who care nothing for the world beyond America's shores.

COMMENTARY

Jul 8, 2006

Britain soars without euro

LONDON -- Britain now receives more inward investment than any other country in the world. So says the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based in Paris.

COMMENTARY

Jun 26, 2006

End of the oil age in sight?

LONDON -- First there was wood. Then it was replaced by coal. Then coal was replaced by oil. Is it now the turn of oil -- which currently accounts for some two-thirds of the world's primary energy -- to be pushed aside by other energy sources and devices?

COMMENTARY

Jun 8, 2006

Big lessons from a small town

LONDON -- Al Gore has been visiting Hay-on Wye. Who is Al Gore and where is Hay-on-Wye?

COMMENTARY

Jun 1, 2006

Will tottering governments hold back Europe's future?

LONDON -- Like a vampire rising from the grave, the issue of a new constitution for the European Union, which many people had assumed was dead and buried, has returned to haunt the corridors of power and government in the capitals of Europe.

COMMENTARY

May 11, 2006

It's crying time for Labour

LONDON -- In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has clearly announced the time when he will depart from office. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has left the time of his departure wide open. Therein lies the difference, and the core, of the deep problems currently besetting...

COMMENTARY

Apr 28, 2006

Oasis of stability in Britain

LONDON -- The British are currently in one of those moods of self-congratulation and self-esteem that seizes them from time to time.

COMMENTARY

Apr 14, 2006

Tattered NPT needs repairs

LONDON -- What has become of the globally agreed regime designed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons -- the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)? The answer these days is that while it has served the world well for many years it is now in tatters.

COMMENTARY

Apr 3, 2006

Protectionism has returned to Europe

LONDON -- The big idea was that Europe would do away with economic nationalism, sweep away frontiers and stand as a shining example to the rest of the world of free trade and open markets. That was the dream. The reality is turning out rather differently.

COMMENTARY

Mar 15, 2006

Flawed system aided dictator's atrocities

LONDON -- The death of former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic brings back bitter memories. Here was a man shaped in the mold of a 20th century European dictator, obsessed by dreams of racial superiority, unconcerned about the methods his subordinates might use to fulfill his will, oblivious to the...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2006

Solving the energy puzzle

LONDON -- Energy security and politics do not mix well. Energy security requires huge long-term investment, freedom from political interference and social tranquillity. Politicians live in the short term, love to interfere and tend to deliver nasty surprises that economic forecasters usually fail to...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.

In search of the ‘Japanese dream’

By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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