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November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Oct 2, 2002

Saving the banking system

By Pascal Nguyen

The Bank of Japan announcement that it would purchase part of the stakes that banks hold in listed companies has raised question marks among investors.

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

China keeps its cool, and its national focus

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- When U.S. President George W. Bush won the last election, Beijing warmly congratulated the winner. This was remarkable, given his harsh campaign rhetoric, which was anti-China and pro-Taiwan. Yet, China avoided losing its cool and, as we have seen since, pretty much remained focused on...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Sep 30, 2002

Great Tokyo Air Raid was a war crime

By Hiroaki Sato

On Dec. 7, 1964, the Japanese government conferred the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun upon Gen. Curtis LeMay -- yes, the same general who, less than 20 years earlier, had incinerated "well over half a million Japanese civilians, perhaps nearly a million."

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 30, 2002

Give democracy a chance in postwar Iraq

By Russell Working

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- In recent months, the Iraqi debate has played in the news like a tennis match, with observers awarding points to U.S. President George W. Bush for his U.N. speech, then to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his shrewd move to admit inspectors "without conditions" -- subject, of course,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

Japan as a 'banana republic'?

By Hugh Cortazzi

The announcement that the governor of the Bank of Japan was considering the purchase of company shares held by Japanese banks at market prices has done nothing to reassure opinion in Britain about the state of the Japanese economy. The general view remains, to quote the Financial Times, "that price deflation...

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

A theory that doesn't work

By Takamitsu Sawa

For the market economy to function effectively, equal opportunity must be guaranteed in all sectors of society. In today's Japan, however, there is no such guarantee. For example, the opportunity for a Japanese person to become a Diet member is far from equal, because many retiring Diet members have...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 30, 2002

Peacemaking efforts deserve applause

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- International public opinion seems focused almost exclusively on the issue of Iraq these days while other important regional developments are relegated to the back burner. Among the developments that deserve greater attention are the moves toward peace in Sri Lanka.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2002

Exactly when does old age really begin?

By Hisashi Uno

"Put simply, we are having fewer children and living longer," says Michelle Gunn, an Australian journalist and social-affairs writer. Our time is undeniably the age of longevity.

COMMENTARY

Sep 29, 2002

Signs the EU is coming of age

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- The most striking fact to emerge from the recent Germany elections is that for the first time a majority of voters in a EU member-state has been motivated by foreign-policy concerns. In the past, the country's worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate would have cost Chancellor...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2002

Speculation rife as CPC Congress nears

By Harvey Stockwin

The Communist Party of China's leadership-succession process remains shrouded in secrecy, but six broad scenarios have been identified by China-watchers as likely to unfold in the next six months as that process is completed at the 16th Party Congress starting Nov. 8, and then at the National Peoples'...

COMMENTARY

Sep 28, 2002

U.S. report surprises few, worries many

By Brad Glosserman

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- I spent a week earlier this month in Vladivostok, Russia, lecturing to university students. Focusing on U.S. foreign policy, I was trying -- honestly, I can say -- to convince them that American foreign policy was less unilateralist than it seemed, and that the U.S. didn't deserve...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Sep 28, 2002

Plague of smoke and scandal

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- The last few months have been tough on the people of Moscow. The exceptionally hot, dry summer resulted in peat fires in the capital's suburbs.

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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