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November 25, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Apr 30, 2001

A high price for textbook flap

By Brad Glosserman

Japan ignores the history-textbook controversy at its peril. While many Japanese dismiss the tempest -- exaggerated attention, they say, given to a small group of nostalgic conservatives or a freedom-of-speech issue best left to constitutional scholars -- South Koreans see the new history textbook as...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 28, 2001

Jospin still far from the top

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- Created 43 years ago by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, France's Fifth Republic has had 14 prime ministers but only five presidents. Most of these premiers have harbored an ambition to become head of state, but only two of them managed to fulfill this dream. Will Lionel Jospin be the third?

COMMENTARY

Apr 27, 2001

Calls for change heeded

By Minoru Tada

In his year as prime minister, Yoshiro Mori caused public disillusionment with the Liberal Democratic Party through his gaffes and incompetence. The LDP's presidential election Tuesday, in which former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi beat former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto by a wide...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 27, 2001

Is Asia's little dragon awakening at last?

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- When Vietnam set out on the path of economic liberalization in the early 1990s, everyone expected another Asian miracle, Chinese-style. The liberalization program adopted by the country, known as Doi Moi, was expected to bring about the same radical reforms of economic policy that...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 27, 2001

India can't afford another border enemy

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- India helped liberate Bangladesh from the tyrannical rule of Pakistan some three decades ago, but ties between the two neighbors have often been marked by suspicion, even hostility. This animosity have its roots in a boundary dispute and a smuggling issue, as well as illegal migration by...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 26, 2001

Parliamentary democracy isn't perfect but it's the best form of government we have

By Ramesh Thakur

The persistent weakness of prime ministerial leadership in India begs the question of whether it would be better off with presidential government. Does the latter offer a better solution to the chaotic spectrum of splinter parties, the debilitating hold of caste politics and the cancer of corruption?...

COMMENTARY

Apr 26, 2001

Antiglobalism guarantees poverty for all

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Despite the worst efforts of violent protesters in Quebec, Canada, leaders of countries throughout the Western hemisphere concluded their Summit of the Americas by proposing a broad free-trade agreement. Bringing more of the world's poor into the global economy is the best hope for raising...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2001

Global green alliance swells Down Under

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- The trouble with hosting an international Greens convention is that the host country draws the criticism. Japan is still agonizing over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Now Australia is left holding the bag following far-reaching pro-Kyoto support demonstrated at last week's Canberra talkfest.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2001

Riding roughshod over planet and people

By Rick Mercier

While many of us were celebrating Earth Day on Sunday, environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera spent another day in a Mexican jail. Soldiers arrested the pair in May 1999 and, says Amnesty International, tortured them until they confessed to guerrilla ties. Amnesty rejects this, saying...

COMMENTARY

Apr 24, 2001

Economy keeps Blair on top

By David Howell

LONDON -- All being well, there will be a general election in Britain on June 7. It is not yet official but it seems almost certain.

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2001

Diplomatic tests await Japan

By Keizo Nabeshima

In just the past six weeks, with Japan plunged into a political vacuum following the virtual declaration of resignation by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, several incidents have occurred that have shaken the world: the simultaneous fall of stock prices in Japan, the United States and Europe; the withdrawal...

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2001

Textbook serves Japan poorly

By Kiroku Hanai

A junior high-school history textbook edited under the direction of a nationalist group, the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform, continues to stir controversy both here and abroad. The textbook recently received the green light from the Education and Science Ministry after the editors accepted all...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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