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COMMENTARY

Mar 10, 1999

Clouds looming on the Diet's horizon

By Kenzo Uchida

The situation in the Diet looks calm for now. The debate on the fiscal 1999 government budget, the most important item before the Diet, is proceeding smoothly. The budget bill has already cleared the Lower House and is expected to pass the Upper House around March 20, well before the start of the new...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 7, 1999

Violence: The Americas' new pandemic

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- From Argentina in the south to Canada in the north, violence is becoming an increasingly serious problem in the Americas, affecting all nations in the hemisphere. What makes this phenomenon especially worrisome is that children and adolescents are among its main actors, and victims. Violence...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Mar 7, 1999

Is patience a Russian virtue?

By Constantine Pleshakov

Amid the apocalyptic news about Russian pensioners being unable to afford any medicines beyond traditional folk remedies, Russian workers not paid salaries for months and Russian children in the on the verge of starvation, one piece of news is conspicuously missing: reports of mass protests. It is true...

COMMENTARY

Mar 4, 1999

Sunshine alone isn't enough

By Ralph Cossa

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's announcement of a proposed "package deal" with North Korea, put forth once again on the first anniversary of his inauguration, represents a valiant attempt to save two very important initiatives: his own constructive engagement policy with the North (also known as...

COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 1999

Japan's other big Year 2000 problem

By Gregory Clark

For over 40 years now, the ritual has been the same. Each new Japanese administration resolves firmly that it will solve Japan's festering territorial dispute with Moscow, once and for all. Delegations and prime ministers visit Moscow. And each time the results are zero.

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 1999

A world bereft of leaders?

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Hardly a day goes by without someone deploring the lack of political and economic leadership in our world. Commentators bemoan that with the departure of politicians like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl the world is bereft of political leadership....

COMMENTARY

Feb 28, 1999

Constitution unfit for a sovereign nation

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

Most Japanese do not realize that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is a military alliance pact. Unlike a conventional military alliance treaty, however, the pact is not based on reciprocal obligations. For the U.S., the treaty is unfair and is not really bilateral.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 28, 1999

Avoiding a N. Korean crisis

By Scott Snyder

Will 1999 bring the second North Korean nuclear crisis in five years, perhaps leading to a military confrontation similar to the recent U.S. attack on Iraq, or can such a confrontation be avoided? Although heightened tensions may be inevitable in the coming months, the ability of policymakers in Washington,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 25, 1999

Courage pays off in Seoul

By Donald J. Johnston

The crisis that has hit emerging-market economies around the world may not yet be over, but the "policy courage" that the South Korean people and the Seoul government have shown in reaction to it is already bearing fruit. South Korea has impressed its OECD partners by turning the crisis into an opportunity...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 23, 1999

A new bridge over the Pacific revealed

By Fred Balitzer

Is friendship between nations possible? Can Japan and the United States be friends as the U.S. is with Canada and Britain, or are they forever destined to have a relationship that turns on a calculation of mutual advantage?

COMMENTARY

Feb 23, 1999

Small weapons, big problems

By Keizo Nabeshima

The major challenge for post-Cold War disarmament negotiations on conventional weapons is to devise ways of controlling machine guns, automatic rifles and other small arms. Those are main weapons used in civil wars in Asia, Africa and Central America. To tackle the challenge, the U.N. Group of Governmental...

COMMENTARY

Feb 21, 1999

Medicare plan cuts care more than costs

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Pension programs in the United States as well as many other countries are heading over the fiscal cliff. Even President Bill Clinton has noticed the problems with Social Security.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

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