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November 28, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2003

A firmer Japan in the tussle with China

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- The ASEAN-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Sept. 11-12 came at a crucial moment in ties between Tokyo and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with the ASEAN heads of state just as Japan is bottoming out from a decade of economic doldrums....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2003

U.N. voice for 'civil society'

By Ramesh Thakur

In his opening address in Beijing to the U.N. conference on the question of Palestine on Dec. 16, China's Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo paid particular at- tention to the role of civil society -- academic and business communities, nongovernmental organizations and others -- in appealing for peace...

COMMENTARY

Dec 28, 2003

Making U.S. voters happier, not safer

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- "The capture of Saddam Hussein has not made America safer," declared Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, and denunciations have rained down upon him. But Dean obviously was correct: "The capture of Saddam does not end" the coalition's difficulties in Iraq.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2003

A chance for Europe to stand on its own

By Glyn Ford

LONDON -- Disneyland, the Kennedy Space Center and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were all on the agenda during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's visit to Orlando, Florida, this month. Missing were members of the U.S. Congress. They weren't in Istanbul 12 months ago -- apparently because of problems with their...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2003

Shedding light on Kissinger's dark legacy

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Recently released documents from the U.S. National Security Archive shed important light on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's role in Argentina. These documents indicate that Kissinger approved of the Argentinian military junta's ruthless tactics to eliminate any opposition to its...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 26, 2003

The image of Japan in ASEAN's dream

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The Japan-ASEAN Summit on Dec. 11-12 has already been broadly analyzed and generally hailed as a kind of embryonic con- ceptualization of the long-term goal of creating an "East Asian Community." So what could one possibly add to this debate by comparing the reactions between...

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2003

Blair's overcast breaking up

By David Howell

LONDON -- As the old year turns, life is looking a little brighter for the besieged British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his team, thanks to a few lucky breaks.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 25, 2003

Kyoto pact down but not out

By W. Bradnee Chambers

The recent confusing announcement by the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, that Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol continues to spur some pessimists to declare that death of the pact has come at last. The Kyoto accord is not dead; rather, it is asleep, waiting to enter into...

COMMENTARY

Dec 24, 2003

Ball now in China's court on Taiwan independence

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- With the Taiwan presidential election less than three months away, the behavior of the incumbent, President Chen Shui-bian, and that of the opposition Kuomintang candidate, Lien Chan, shows just how much things have changed in the last decade.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 23, 2003

EBRD must rethink its role

By David Wall

LONDON -- When people hear the word "globalization" they differ in how they react. Some think about how globalization has spread around the world raising incomes and the quality of life wherever it goes. Others think about how the capitalist forces of the West extend their exploitative tentacles to grab...

COMMENTARY

Dec 22, 2003

Time to revise unequal SOFA

By Kiroku Hanai

A group of lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party is campaigning for the drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. The group, headed by Lower House member Toshio Kojima, has come up with a proposal for revising SOFA in cooperation with a council of governors of 14 prefectures,...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 22, 2003

Is Kim sweating over dictator's capture?

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- Intelligence agencies from Seoul to Singapore would pay dearly for the answer to perhaps the most intriguing question in Asia arising from the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: What does the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, who, like Hussein, is a charter member...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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