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November 27, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jul 8, 2003

Greenspan should quit while he's ahead

By Christopher Lingle

News that U.S. President George W. Bush intended to support the continuation of Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was greeted with wide support. However, if Greenspan cares about his place in history, he might be wise to decline the offer.

COMMENTARY

Jul 8, 2003

Vajpayee kowtows to China

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- Seeking to placate longtime rival China, India has subtly shifted its stand on Tibet in a way to clearly recognize the Chinese annexation of "the roof of the world," delighting Beijing but raising questions about New Delhi's diplomatic game-plan and spurring concern among Tibetan exiles....

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 7, 2003

A productive EU presidency for Greece

By Kyriakos Rodoussakis

"The Greek presidency succeeded because it had good cooperation with everyone," said Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the outgoing president of the European Council, while addressing the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on July 1. All in Europe realize, he added,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 7, 2003

Consensus culture hinders missile defense

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- If the Japanese are to build a defense against ballistic missiles, as increasingly seems likely, their main difficulty in making it work will be cultural -- not technical or political -- and will require a revolution in the way they make decisions.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 7, 2003

Politics of human migrations

By Ramesh Thakur

One in five Canadian workers, one in four Australians or -- at the other extreme -- one in 500 Japanese workers is foreign-born today. The 1 million Indians in the United States comprise a meager 0.1 percent of India's population, but earn the equivalent of an astonishing 10 percent of India's national...

COMMENTARY

Jul 7, 2003

Little gain but lots of pain

By Takamitsu Sawa

Ever since his administration took power in April 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been asking the Japanese public to endure the pain associated with structural reform. This request is justified only when all Japanese equally share the pain.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 6, 2003

An offer Yangon's generals can't refuse

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Two elements could become the basis of further efforts toward a Myanmar solution: an emerging uneasiness -- if not outright division -- among the generals in power over how to handle the growing following of the "the Lady" (democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi), and the long-awaited...

COMMENTARY

Jul 6, 2003

Iraqi case far from hopeless with time, creative thinking

By David Howell

LONDON -- Iraq is not Afghanistan. It is necessary to repeat this obvious point because the impression has been growing that occupied Iraq, like occupied Afghanistan, is a murderous and lawless stew of rival factions and impoverished tribes and factions, where democracy and stable government are impossible...

COMMENTARY

Jul 5, 2003

'Neocon' recipe for disaster

By Glyn Ford

BRUSSELS -- Newspapers are awash with speculation as to the likely outcome of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear crisis. Will it be the United States that blinks or North Korea? Nobody knows. What is clear is that while North Korea and the world wants and needs a solution, opinion in the U.S. is sharply...

COMMENTARY

Jul 5, 2003

Tony Blair: a casualty of war

By Sarah Benton

LONDON -- As the grim business of policing a vanquished Iraq drags on, it seems less and less likely that Prime Minister Tony Blair's authority over party and country will survive. For the first time since Labour's landslide victory in 1997 the Conservatives are nudging ahead of Labour in opinion polls...

COMMENTARY

Jul 4, 2003

Does irrelevancy await Japan?

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- Japan-U.S. relations are at a postwar high, "the best they have ever been," report policymakers on both sides of the Pacific and longtime observers of the relationship. Credit growing realism in Japan about security issues, unprecedented decisions in Tokyo and a remarkable personal relationship...

COMMENTARY

Jul 2, 2003

Drive for European unity gets a boost from Iraq war

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- Two months ago, the European Union seemed bound to be one of the major casualties of the trans-Atlantic rift generated by the Iraqi war. Now, however, the climate is improving.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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