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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 2, 2007

A country of consumers who salivate over swank

By Roger Pulvers

Does any country have as many food programs on television as Japan?

COMMENTARY

Nov 30, 2007

Blame for administrative incompetence

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON — In Japan the apparent loss of millions of payment records has jeopardized full pensions for many who must now "prove" what they have paid into the scheme. The debacle was a major factor in the Liberal Democratic Party losing its majority in the Upper House in the July 29 election.

COMMENTARY

Nov 30, 2007

Culture as a common asset

By Kazuo Ogoura

Politics (political phenomena) has become disconnected from culture (cultural phenomena) in East Asia.

COMMENTARY

Nov 29, 2007

Building better Japan-China relations

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG — The deterioration of China-Japan relations during the five years of Junichiro Koizumi's premiership has been reversed, but concrete progress needs to be made if the dramatic improvement in relations in the last 14 months is to be sustainable.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 28, 2007

Globalization blurs North-South divide

By James D. Wolfensohn

NEW YORK — The notion of a divide between the rich north and the poor and developing south has long been a central concept among economists and policymakers. From 1950 to 1980, the north accounted for almost 80 percent of global GDP but only 22 percent of its population, and the south accounted for...

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2007

Hello to the euro, goodbye to the dollar

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — It's just straws in the wind so far. India's Ministry of Culture announces that foreign tourists can no longer pay in dollars when visiting the Taj Mahal and other heritage sites; they have to pay in good, hard rupees. Iran and Venezuela call for a joint OPEC statement on the weak dollar,...

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2007

Labor wins by a Rudd-slide

By Ramesh Thakur

WATERLOO, Ontario — Poor John Howard. Reckless on climate change, clueless in Iraq, fickle on civil liberties, mean to migrants and minorities, ruthless toward the workers — and now jobless. He also was set to lose the Parliament seat he has represented since 1974, the first sitting prime minister...

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Nov 27, 2007

Politicians who took a stand

We often hear nowadays that politicians in Japan are "smaller" than they used to be. The reference, of course, is not to physique but rather to the capacity of today's politicians to demonstrate broad-mindedness and magnanimity as their predecessors did.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 27, 2007

Ghosts of possibilities haunt Annapolis

By Alvaro De Vasconcelos

America's return to the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic front is a welcome development — one surely that EU diplomacy has sought to bring about. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to push the peace process forward during her last years in office seem genuine. If they succeed, Rice and...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Nov 26, 2007

Plenty wrong with U.S. agricultural policy

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK — The U.S. farm bill — a blanket term for all measures related to agriculture, some barely so — appears doomed this year. The House version passed at the end of July, but the Senate version has been stalled in such a way that there's even talk that its enactment may not occur until after...

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

U.K. liberties versus security

By David Howell

LONDON — The director general of the British Security Services (MI5) has been telling the world that there are at least 2,000 people inside Britain who are involved in terrorism-related activities, and there may be many more. Or to put it crudely, there are at least 2,000 individuals bent on killing...

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2007

One (very) small step forward for ASEAN

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU — The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) has, in commemoration of its 40th anniversary, adopted its first formal charter, thus conferring "legal personality" upon this intergovernmental organization, complete with its own flag, emblem, anthem (to be written), and motto: One Vision,...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties

By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

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