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November 25, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2001

Justice takes a step backward in Texas

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to veto legislation that would have banned the execution of mentally retarded criminals is a setback to the elimination of a barbaric policy that has almost universal repudiation. This decision comes at the same time as the release from prison -- where he...

COMMENTARY

Jun 25, 2001

Another blast from Mr. Bix

By Sam Jameson

To more than 80 percent of Japanese voters, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi looks like a populist reformer. But to the American winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, Koizumi is a "rightwing nationalist."

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 25, 2001

Debunking America's 'Good War' myth

By Hiroaki Sato

The movie "Pearl Harbor" may be copying what happened after Japan's actual assault: a spectacular initial success followed by a string of disappointments. But since I'm invoking history, I must hasten to add that there won't be anything remotely resembling an unconditional surrender in store for the...

COMMENTARY

Jun 25, 2001

Montagnards still paying for Vietnam War

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- It's understandable. Now 85, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in his new book "Wilson's Ghost," is urging that America get involved in foreign crises only under the umbrella of multinational efforts. And you would take that view, too, if you had been the boss of the U.S....

COMMENTARY

Jun 25, 2001

Textbook criticism on target

By Kiroku Hanai

China and South Korea are demanding revisions in Japanese history textbooks approved by the government for use at middle schools, arguing that they contain distortions of facts. In making the demands, China singled out a textbook compiled by the Society for History Textbook Reform; South Korea directed...

COMMENTARY

Jun 25, 2001

How to best honor Clinton? Forget him

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- "Since Bill Clinton left office, we've been through a lot together," writes political consultant James Carville in his letter to me. But Clinton supporters "have much to be proud of." So please give to the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 24, 2001

More than words are needed in Myanmar

By Nyunt Shwe

Myanmar is no longer a closed-door country and people who have an interest in it and its people now enjoy much greater access than in the past. Information that would have remained secret in the past quickly becomes public knowledge in today's global village. The old adage "Honesty is the best policy"...

COMMENTARY

Jun 24, 2001

In diplomacy, two tracks is better than one

By Brad Glosserman

There is a better than even chance that this is the only article you will ever read about the Asia Pacific Roundtable that was held earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur. That's a pity. Not only because the meeting has some history behind it -- this year marked the 15th annual get-together -- or because...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 24, 2001

Abuses overshadow Mahathir's message

By Gerald Paul Mcalinn

Recently, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad delivered the inaugural U Thant Lecture on "Globalization, Global Community and the United Nations" to a standing room audience at the United Nations University in Tokyo. U Thant, the statesman from Myanmar who served as the secretary general of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 23, 2001

Learning the lessons hidden in victory

By Glyn Ford

It was a stunning night for Labour June 7. British political geography has been permanently transformed. Yet learning the lessons of defeat is comparatively easy. British Conservatives are already starting to learn those lessons.

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2001

Past still weighs heavily today

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Those of us who were involved in the Pacific War look with suspicion and a tinge of fear at manifestations of Japanese nationalism, especially if it has ethnic or militarist overtones.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jun 23, 2001

U.S. Democrats take control

By Bob Keefe

Despite the confusion surrounding the changing of power in the Senate, things are still getting done in Washington. The Senate recently passed the education bill, a major item from the agenda of President George W. Bush, and sent it on to conference with the House of Representatives that had already...

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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