More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY

Jun 28, 2003

Appeasers selling India short

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- Belgian scholar Pierre Ryckmans coined the phrase the "100 percenters" to describe Beijing's international fans who support whatever China says 100 percent. Publishing under the pen name Simon Leys, Ryckmans compiled the statements of these toadies in defense of Chinese actions, including...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 28, 2003

Asia's future leaders take center stage

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- "If you've got it," as the saying goes, "flaunt it!" And Asia's "New Leaders" have got "the right stuff" in spades. But what to do with it?

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2003

End North Korea's drug-trade addiction

By Ah Young Kim

HONOLULU -- The recent seizure of the ship Pong Su off Australia and its cargo of more than $144 million of heroin has put North Korea's drug trafficking in the international spotlight. The attention is long overdue. There must be a strong response by the international community and concerted efforts...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2003

U.S.-EU axis of divergence

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- When the war in Iraq ended, politicians, diplomats and commentators in Europe stressed the need to repair the rift that had grown up between the United States and countries led by France and Germany, which had opposed the invasion. There was a general anticipation that relations would revert...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 25, 2003

Hu recasting China's foreign policy

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- China's new president, Hu Jintao, appears to be remaking his country's foreign policy. Taking over in mid-March after the 16th Communist Party Congress, Hu was immediately plunged into one of China's biggest crises in modern times, the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jun 23, 2003

U.S. deficit skyrocketing to new heights

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush cheered millions of American fathers last week by enabling them to contemplate how to spend a tax bonus of $400 per child that will be arriving just in time for their late summer vacation this year. They should be happy with that.

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2003

Asia-watcher likes what he sees

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Like the American stock market, the Asian political scene suffers ups and downs. Today, Asia might seem more like a hibernating bear in a China shop than anything else. SARS-hit Hong Kong is experiencing its highest jobless rate in years, China is toying with the idea of a currency devaluation,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2003

Diet group takes uneasy steps toward abolishing death penalty

By Kiroku Hanai

Among major industrial countries, only Japan and the United States retain capital punishment. In Japan, however, there is a growing abolition movement. The Diet Members' League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a suprapartisan group headed by Shizuka Kamei of the governing Liberal Democratic Party,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 22, 2003

Let Sri Lankan premier deal with Tigers

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- The Sri Lankan peace process is under serious threat. Fifteen months after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government began negotiations, differences between the two have snowballed into an ugly confrontation.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 22, 2003

A lifelong need for university reforms

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The chorus of university critics in general keeps increasing, both in numbers and intensity. In a way, the debate is natural -- as every institution seems to need adjustment in this cataclysmic era of globalization -- as well as beneficial for correcting eventual shortcomings...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 21, 2003

A breakthrough for Thaksin

By Michael J. Montesano

BANGKOK -- Nearly 2 1/2 years after his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party's unprecedented electoral victory, recent weeks have seen Thailand's Premier Thaksin Shinawatra score an unmistakable psychological breakthrough. The change has nothing to do with Thaksin's own psychology; his supreme self-confidence seems...

COMMENTARY

Jun 21, 2003

Isolation strategy working

By Ralph Cossa

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.

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

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

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

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