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November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jan 5, 2003

Time for a U.N. response

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship is escalating. Pyongyang is now claiming that only a nonaggression treaty between North Korea and Washington can prevent "a catastrophic crisis of a war" on the Korean Peninsula.

COMMENTARY

Jan 5, 2003

No room for thoughtful patriot in China

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- China's release of prominent dissident Xu Wenli on Christmas Eve was a welcome gesture, but not much more than a gesture, unless the Communist Party fundamentally alters its policies and allows its citizens basic rights such as the peaceful expression of differing political views and the...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 5, 2003

Israeli 'transfer' of Palestinians feared

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- A war against Iraq could have devastating consequences not only for the Iraqi people but for the course of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as well. A statement by 187 Israeli academics -- later joined by several hundred from overseas -- calls attention to the possible "transfer"...

COMMENTARY

Jan 4, 2003

Pluses and minuses of 2002

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- "It could have been worse!" say the pundits. There was no repeat of Sept. 11, and there has not been a major conflict. Nor has there been a world-shaking financial crisis. But 2002 was not a good year for many people, and 2003 may not be any better. The balance sheet is not easy to calculate,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 3, 2003

'Dear Leader' no madman

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- When I was in Beijing the week before Christmas, the topic of North Korea came up several times in conversations with friends and colleagues. Several of them referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a madman. Kim's state of mind is quite an important question at a time when...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 3, 2003

Koreans on either side sweep offbeat honors

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- The two Koreas swept the board with the most Asian Institute of Discord Analysis (Aida) "awards" for 2002, in a way reminiscent of the glory days of the Indo-Pakistani antagonism, before those two South Asian nations won the "Rivalry of the Year" award in perpetuity.

COMMENTARY

Jan 3, 2003

Little love lost in year of discord

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- Once again, it is time to give away the Asian Institute of Discord Analysis (Aida) "awards" for the just concluded Year of the Horse, an offbeat listing made exclusively for The Japan Times.

COMMENTARY

Jan 1, 2003

Pols are but small cogs in the machine

By Sarah Benton

LONDON -- My God, the shame of it. Prime Minister Tony Blair is a poodle, yapping obediently when U.S. President George W. Bush snaps his fingers. This bitter vein of comedy runs through the thin political culture we have at the moment. But perhaps, muse the bitter critics, this British subservience...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 1, 2003

Trials of Khmer Rouge must serve true justice

By Mike Jendrzejczyk

WASHINGTON -- The New Year may finally see the start of trials for Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s, if the Cambodian government seizes the opportunity. But it's also possible that the United Nations could be dragged into a flawed process to set...

COMMENTARY

Dec 31, 2002

Koizumi losing ability to lead

By Kenzo Uchida

The most striking impression about 2002 is that the world has become increasingly insecure. When two jetliners hijacked by suicide terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, old-fashioned big-power games ended and a new struggle between civilized society and international...

COMMENTARY

Dec 30, 2002

Missiles challenge diplomac

By Keizo Nabeshima

Defense chief Shigeru Ishiba's rash remarks regarding a joint Japan-U.S. missile defense project deviate from Tokyo's official defense policy and could give the impression that Japan is advancing the bilateral initiative beyond research to the development stage.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Dec 30, 2002

Pomp, ceremony and the U.S. presidency

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- A new book by Christopher Anderson is called "George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage." Andersen, who also wrote "Jack and Jackie" and "Bill and Hillary," may not always be "respectful," to quote a reviewer, toward America's First Couples, but the appearance of his latest book...

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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