More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

November 28, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 30, 2003

Malaysian mood resurgent as Mahathir bids farewell

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- After more than 20 years at the helm of Malaysia, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will step down Friday to make way for his chosen successor, Abdulla Badawi, who will become the country's fifth prime minister. All indicators point to a smooth and successful political transition, only the...

COMMENTARY

Oct 29, 2003

Democracy for whom?

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Although the Bush administration won formal U.N. recognition for its rule in Iraq, that diplomatic victory is likely to yield few allied troops for occupation duty. In fact, even Turkey, which agreed to dispatch 10,000 soldiers after Washington's approval of $8.5 billion in loans, is now...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 28, 2003

Coaxing Iran, North Korea

By W. Andy Knight

EDMONTON, Canada -- Since no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, some critics of the Bush administration are suggesting that the use of the military option was premature or even unwarranted unless, of course, the goal all along was to overthrow a dangerous despot -- Saddam Hussein. Certainly,...

COMMENTARY

Oct 27, 2003

Ignorance is no longer bliss for China

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was understandably angry that her memoir, "Living History," was censored by the Beijing publisher who put out the Chinese edition. Her comments on the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, on her experience at the 1995 United Nations conference...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Oct 27, 2003

War perspective of poets oceans apart

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- A gentleman named Paul Preusser, describing himself as "a composer and fresh graduate from the New England Conservatory," has recently written to ask if I could help him with poems of Kotaro Takamura (1883-1956). He has been commissioned to compose "a song cycle using poetry which is influenced...

COMMENTARY

Oct 27, 2003

Resuscitating Japanese labor

By Kiroku Hanai

Following a protracted economic slowdown, the labor movement in Japan is in the doldrums. The unionization rate has fallen to about 20 percent due to stepped-up corporate restructuring and widespread worker distrust of unions. The nation's top labor federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation,...

COMMENTARY

Oct 27, 2003

EU may bite off more than it can chew in euro-dollar rivalry

By David Howell

LONDON -- How fares Europe's single currency, the euro? Much too well.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 25, 2003

Recipe for a leaner, keener Pentagon

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- In a leaked memo that caused a stir in Washington and throughout the far-flung American military forces last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked: "Is the DoD [Department of Defense] changing fast enough to meet the new 21st Century security environment?"

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2003

Taiwan power rivals must win or perish

By Kanako Takahara

TAIPEI -- With five months to go before Taiwan's presidential election, the campaign is heating up between the incumbent, President Chen Shui-bian, leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and the opposition Kuomintang's (KMT) Lien Chan.

COMMENTARY

Oct 24, 2003

Criticism prods Bush to tune diplomacy

By Kenzo Uchida

So far, the war in Iraq and the issues surrounding North Korea have topped news of international events in 2003.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2003

Secrecy robs space feat of its glory

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- For those who have labored long and hard to keep China's space program alive and moving forward, it must have been a wonderful moment when, on Oct. 15, the complicated machinery of initiating space travel performed flawlessly, and China scored a first.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2003

Antinuke regime crumbling

By Ramesh Thakur

Speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly's disarmament committee on Oct. 6, Ambassador Sergio Querioz Duarte of Brazil noted that "to attain a nuclear-weapon-free world, it is vital to prevent nuclear proliferation, and at the same time, it is imperative to promote nuclear disarmament."...

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports