More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

November 26, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2002

Trans-Atlantic rift widening

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- U.S. President George W. Bush's recent State of the Union speech referring to an " 'axis of evil' arming to threaten the peace of the world" appears to have polarized the feelings of doubt and reluctance many Europeans now harbor toward the sole superpower.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2002

Bush puts U.S.-China ties back on track

By Gary Klintworth

U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing on Feb. 21-22 signals clearly that Sino-U.S. relations are back on track toward a constructive, cooperative relationship. Bush met Chinese President Jiang Zemin and his successor, Vice President Hu Jintao. Bush re-assured China on the Taiwan issue. He...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2002

Bush fails to show Korean peace map

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- The stage was set for a summit showdown when U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Seoul last week, and it did not disappoint. At stake was not only the future of Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea -- which is highly dependent on the resumption of talks between...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 1, 2002

Tempest over headscarves ruffles Singapore's multiracial calm

By David Chew

SINGAPORE -- As the controversy over the prohibition of wearing the Muslim headscarf, the tudung, in public schools in Singapore moves on to the next stage, a cardinal doctrine of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- noninterference in the domestic affairs of member countries -- looks set to...

COMMENTARY

Mar 1, 2002

Revisiting the 'axis of evil'

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- Those of us who comment on U.S. foreign policy are deeply indebted to U.S. President George W. Bush for his State of the Union reference to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as an "axis of evil." Never before have three simple (if not simplistic) words spawned so many editorials, fed so many talking...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 28, 2002

Familiar faces fail to stir French voters

By Jonathan Fenby

PARIS -- It could happen only in France. The president of the Republic is running for re-election as the opposition candidate while his main challenger is defending the government's record over the past five years.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Feb 28, 2002

Salt Lake City Games spark Gold War

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Moscow is furious, Russia indignant. President Vladimir Putin frowns, the Russian Parliament wails. The people would be burning American flags in the streets if they could get some. The hotheads are already talking about boycotting McDonald's and "The Lord of the Rings." The nation feels humiliated...

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2002

Australia: a 'lucky' country no longer

By Gregory Clark

The debate over Canberra's handling of several thousand Afghan and other boat people from Indonesia claiming to be political refugees says a lot about Australia. Holding the refugees in barbed-wire desert camps or dumping them on remote Pacific Islands may have upset the rest of the world, but in Australia...

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2002

Beware the axis of hubris

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- As U.S. President George W. Bush wandered across Northeast Asia, it appeared that he thought it was 1942, not 2002. He seemed to believe that the world was engaged in a twilight struggle between good and evil, and only overwhelming American military involvement everywhere could prevent...

COMMENTARY

Feb 26, 2002

Bush's policies give allies reason to worry

By Kiroku Hanai

U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" statement in his State of the Union message has worried not only the European Union but also America's Asian allies, particularly Japan and South Korea. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" toward North Korea is now in danger of collapsing,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 25, 2002

Help the huddled masses

By Ramesh Thakur

To Canberra's continuing irritation, the scandal of the Norwegian freighter Tampa will not go away. It now turns out that the Australian government's election victory last year may have been conceived in deceit and born in sin.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Feb 25, 2002

Memoir sheds light on Chinese atrocity

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- My businessman friend Michio Hamaji, whose avowed mission is to improve international understanding, recently brought me a Japanese book titled "Charz." He told me it's a childhood memoir describing a Chinese atrocity in the late 1940s. If translated into English and published in the United...

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

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports