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November 23, 2024

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COMMENTARY

Aug 14, 1999

Junk science has U.S. justice on the ropes

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Most people expect a justice system to provide justice. In recent years, however, the U.S. tort system has run wild. Plaintiffs eschew responsibility for their own actions, trial lawyers search for deep corporate pockets and experts-for-hire promote fantastic negligence theories. The resulting...

COMMENTARY

Aug 13, 1999

Ozawa's future appears bleak

By Minoru Tada

Japan is engulfed in severe political turmoil as the Diet session closes today. Things have turned out as I have been predicting since last fall regarding the coalition strategies of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the chief strategist in Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's administration.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 8, 1999

Japan makes its mark in U.S.

ALFRED BALITZER Special to The Japan Times The town of Kanab, population 4,500, is located on a two-lane highway between Zion National Park and Lake Powell in southern Utah. The country is filled with breathtaking scenery -- tall, lonesome bluffs, massive rock formations the color of copper, natural...

COMMENTARY

Aug 8, 1999

Uncle Sam doesn't need draft registration

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- The Cold War has been over for a decade, but you wouldn't know it after looking at U.S. security policy. Spending on the military is rising; all 18-year-old men must register for the draft. However, a House appropriations subcommittee has voted to kill the Selective Service System, along...

COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM

Aug 7, 1999

For the Japanese, the future is now

By Shin-ichi Terashima

There has been much soul-searching among the Japanese in recent years, following the collapse of the bubble economy and the recession it triggered. Economic woes aside, a crisis of confidence exists at the most fundamental level. People have come to doubt not only the ability of society as a whole, but...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 7, 1999

Nationalism to the rescue

By David Howell

LONDON -- A French philosopher remarked some years ago that national politics had become "a secondary activity." What he meant was that, with the globalization of finance and economic forces, and with the citizens of the world linking up across borders (700 million people will be linked to the Internet...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 7, 1999

Afghanistan's miserable war continues

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- The fresh military victories scored by Afghanistan's Taliban militia in the past few weeks have once again thrown into doubt the prospects for a stable government in the war-torn central Asian country. Despite controlling more than 90 percent of Afghan territory, the Taliban is no closer...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 4, 1999

Facing the reality of Taiwan

By Hisahiko Okazaki

Later this week, government officials I have never used the words "one China." In fact, I have never learned the usage of "one China," and today I have found that this is not my singular experience. One of the distinguished participants from the United States told us that he did not remember having used...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Aug 1, 1999

Russia's Navy lists in port

By Constantine Pleshakov

There is only one place where modern submarines dock in Venetian canals, the replica of Aya Sofya is home to a naval theater company, and young people date in the ruins of old Scandinavian forts. Few small towns have such a special destiny, but Kronshtadt, situated on barren Kotlin Island, a mere 29...

COMMENTARY

Aug 1, 1999

Congress squanders another opportunity

By Doug Bandow

Although Republicans retain the control of the U.S. Congress that they won in in 1994, they have done little good with their power. U.S. President Bill Clinton, despite his endless scandals, continues to aggressively expand government. His administration has enacted 10,866 new regulations since 1997...

COMMENTARY

Jul 31, 1999

Provocation or extortion?

By Ralph Cossa

The latest North Korean crisis, now that the mysterious underground facility at Kumchang-ri has proven to be nothing more than a huge hole in the ground, centers on the reportedly imminent launch of another multistage long-range missile. The last launch, on Aug. 31, 1998, involved an overflight of Japan...

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 1999

Selling out in Nagata-cho

By Minoru Tada

"Japanese politics today lacks principles," former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi said when I met him recently as a member of a journalists' group. Koizumi also criticized government budget outlays of 80 trillion yen, against national and local tax revenues of only 50 trillion yen. He...

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

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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