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January 30, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Sep 29, 2005

Toward a nuclear Japan?

By Robyn Lim

The United States cannot stop nuclear proliferation, even though Japan and others will expect it to keep trying. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) has allowed North Korea and Iran to develop nuclear weapons on the sly. What will Japan conclude from this?

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2005

Get ready for a newly confident Japan

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landslide election victory, which saw his ruling coalition gain control of more than two-thirds of the Lower House, could open a new era for Japan as the country faces the future with greater confidence and seeks to redefine its role in East Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 27, 2005

Merkel too weak to derail Turkey's bid

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- The near-tie in the Sept. 18 German poll, in which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder came from 13 percentage points behind conservative challenger Angela Merkel in late August to less than one point behind her by election day, has thrown German politics into turmoil.

COMMENTARY

Sep 26, 2005

China should face its own unsavory past

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- The new foreign-policy subtleness that China has displayed in recent years is a far cry from the coarse image its earlier Communist rulers presented, especially when they set out, in then-Premier Zhou Enlai's words, to "teach India a lesson" in 1962, or when, to quote strongman Deng Xiaoping,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 26, 2005

Underwhelmed in Okinawa

By Kiroku Hanai

Most of the Japanese political community is all agog over the overwhelming victory of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party in the Sept. 11 Lower House election. Okinawa Prefecture is the exception.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Sep 26, 2005

Constitutional debate welcome

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- I was recently intrigued by the constitutional debate -- not in Iraq, but in Japan -- when I read a book on the art of writing, "Bungei Tokuhon," that Yukio Mishima dictated in 1958.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 26, 2005

Finessing a tougher Taiwanese defense

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- The new commander of American forces in Asia and the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, has begun making subtle but distinctive changes in his command's endeavor to keep the peace between Taiwan and China, widely considered to be potentially the most explosive conflict in Asia.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Sep 25, 2005

Storm surge of deficit spending forecast

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- When things go wrong, they all go wrong for U.S. President George W. Bush. We have watched his approval ratings sag through the summer as his policies in Iraq and elsewhere have begun to unravel. Then came Hurricane Katrina nearly four weeks ago, and it appears that the bottom has fallen...

COMMENTARY

Sep 24, 2005

Global help in Afghanistan remains vital

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Uncertainty over Afghanistan's political future has finally begun to recede with the successful conclusion of the country's first parliamentary elections in years. Although violence continues to plague Afghanistan, its political progress is impressive. In the long run, however, its stability...

COMMENTARY

Sep 23, 2005

Chinese show commendable patience

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- In very important negotiations, the Chinese tend to work things in a manner different from the West. Their diplomats generally dislike framing positions in an edgy, confrontational, take-it-or-leave-it style. That approach strikes them as too risky. They tend to process an initial rebuff...

COMMENTARY

Sep 23, 2005

Small but vital step for man

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- The agreement on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula reached Monday in Beijing was "one small step for man." It is, however, premature to call it a "giant leap for mankind." The agreement provides a template for working toward a solution to the denuclearization problem; it is not yet a road...

COMMENTARY

Sep 22, 2005

Japan's 'Thatcher' moment?

By David Howell

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koziumi's smashing election victory could give him the same kind of political power as that which fell into the hands of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Should he therefore follow the Thatcher recipes and methods for structural economic reform,...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.

Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick

By Alex K.T. Martin

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