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COMMENTARY / World

Apr 23, 2007

Latin America's responses to U.S. power

By Carlos Perez Llana

CORDOBA, Argentina -- U.S. President George W. Bush's free-falling popularity, his loss of control over Congress, the nagging doubts about the economy and most of all his discredited reputation as a result of the debacle in Iraq all magnify the characteristic weakness of lame-duck American presidents....

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 22, 2007

Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku?

By Roger Pulvers

Is one of the great institutions of Japanese cul- ture succumbing to a slow, gnawing attack? It may be. I tell you, if this icon is lost, all we'll have left of the culture will be a few cartoons and some rusting karaoke machines.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 20, 2007

France's identity politics

By Raphael Hadas-Lebel

PRAGUE -- One big surprise of the current presidential campaign in France is how "national identity" has surged to the forefront of the political debate. During the 1995 presidential campaign, the main issues were unemployment and social divisions. In 2002, the priority was security. But the three main...

COMMENTARY

Apr 19, 2007

Nuclear basics for the alliance

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- Nuclear strategy has become a core concern in the U.S.-Japan alliance. North Korea is the immediate trigger for Japanese anxiety, but similar uncertainties lie just beneath the surface when Japan contemplates China as well. U.S. assurances are needed -- both to Japan and to potential adversaries...

COMMENTARY

Apr 19, 2007

Asia's latest great power joins the game

By Gwynne Dyer

The test would hardly have made the news outside of India if the local air-traffic controllers had posted a warning in advance, but when an Indonesian airliner had to turn around in Indian airspace last Thursday and return to Jakarta to avoid flying into the missile's path, it was bound to draw attention....

COMMENTARY

Apr 16, 2007

Preserving the countryside

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- In Britain we have not yet quite lost the battle to preserve the countryside, but it is far from won. In Japan, however, it looks to many outsiders as if preservation is a lost cause.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 15, 2007

Iranians blinked with release of hostages

By Francis Fukuyama

BALTIMORE -- While commentators have charged that Britain capitulated to Iran and handed them a humiliating victory in obtaining the release of the 15 British marines, it would appear that something more like the opposite is actually the case. But to understand why this is so, we have to look at the...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 15, 2007

It was 40 (very different) years ago today . . .

By Roger Pulvers

The re-election last Sunday of Shintaro Ishihara as Tokyo governor has demon- strated once again that the people of Japan's capital city remain attracted to the policies of this outspoken author-turned-politician.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 14, 2007

Japan: Say no to India-U.S. nuclear deal

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is hardly a household name. The proceedings of its meetings are secret and it doesn't even have its own web site, but in recent months it has become the focus of more attention than usual. The reason is that each of its 45 member countries, including Japan, has veto...

COMMENTARY

Apr 13, 2007

Legacy of Asian liberation

By Kazuo Ogoura

Taiwanese politics appears to be "boiling." Scandals involving political leaders or their relatives have "heated" the political waters. Seen from the perspectives of democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law and justice -- rather than from that of what effects the turmoil might have on Japan-Taiwan...

COMMENTARY

Apr 12, 2007

Australia's anti-China pact

By Gregory Clark

Australia does some strange things in its foreign policies. The latest "security" (read "military") tieup with Japan is no exception.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 12, 2007

Transforming our way of living

By Daisaku Ikeda

This year, the Doomsday Clock devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was advanced two minutes, for the first time in five years. It now stands at 11:55 p.m., just five minutes away from the "midnight" of human annihilation. This change not only reflects last year's nuclear test...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

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