More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

November 28, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 29, 2003

Sensible plan for South Korea

By Michael O'Hanlon

WASHINGTON -- Even those who admire U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld rarely consider his diplomatic skills among his strongest suits. Capable of being charming and engaging in person, he tends to come across less well when sniping at allies across oceans over the chief foreign policy issues...

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2003

No resting on laurels in Asia

By Brad Glosserman

SEOUL -- This is a remarkable moment in international relations. Despite a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, there are no doubts about the U.S. commitment to East Asia. Despite widespread criticism of U.S. policy, Washington currently enjoys "the best relations ever" with both Japan and China....

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 27, 2003

More Americans ditch the lingual desert

By Domenico Maceri

SANTA MARIA, California -- Although America is a land of immigrants from all over the world, when it comes to language fluency one could easily say we suffer from monolingualism. An old joke goes something like this:

COMMENTARY

Nov 27, 2003

Across the Bush-Briton gap

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush's state visit to Britain ended Nov. 21 with a carefully stage-managed call on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency in the North East of England. The visit went well despite generally peaceful protests. Although there was some of the usual pageantry,...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 25, 2003

Ghosn, Koizumi and structural reform

By Jay Rajasekera

Carlos Ghosn and Junichiro Koizumi are two well-known names in Japan. Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, is famous for his rescue of the company from the brink of bankruptcy. Prime Minister Koizumi's "trademark" is structural reform, which he promised in 2001 would lead to the creation of 5 million jobs within...

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 2003

Stub out the smoking habit

By Kiroku Hanai

The Tokyo District Court has rejected a damage suit filed against Japan Tobacco Inc. and the national government by seven former smokers who said they developed cancer and other health troubles from long years of smoking. The suit, filed by victims of lung cancer, cancer of the larynx and emphysema,...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Nov 24, 2003

High price of media-fabricated heroism

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Good for her. U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, finally given a chance on TV to have her say, punctured the notion of heroism concocted by the Hollywood publicist placed in Baghdad and the American mass media, ever the willing partner of their government when it comes to war.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Nov 24, 2003

End in sight for campaign-finance limits

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- The experts are calling it the end of the road for the public-finance system that has propped up our presidential nominating system for 30 years. Candidate George W. Bush started the ball rolling by declining the opportunity to take federal money in his race in 2000 -- opting instead for...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Nov 24, 2003

Navigating the deep Internet

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- There could hardly be a tougher opponent for a struggling college professor than the Internet. You ask your students to write an essay about Moscow, and you end up with the papers based on sources like www.moscow-taxi.ripoff.com and www.moscow-hotels.dump.ru. When, fuming with rage, you inform...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 23, 2003

U.S. takes first step away from S. Korea

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's visit to South Korea this past week should be seen for what it really was, an early step in a long, gradual disengagement of U.S. land forces from South Korea and a greater reliance on sea power to maintain an American security posture in Asia....

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 22, 2003

Weaker LDP worries ASEAN

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Japan's Nov. 9 general election was generally regarded as a political setback for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his reforms program. His Liberal Democratic Party emerged with fewer seats in the Diet than before -- but bolstered by a political merger with a smaller party, the governing...

COMMENTARY

Nov 22, 2003

Balancing act gets tougher

By David Howell

LONDON -- It is getting ever more difficult to assess what is actually happening in Iraq.

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

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports