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November 25, 2024

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COMMENTARY

Mar 16, 2001

Pointless summits as Mori clings to power

By Minoru Tada

I have worked as a political journalist for over half a century. I started out covering Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's Cabinet for a Japanese newspaper. As a rookie reporter, I befriended the late Shintaro Abe, who shared the same beat with me. Later he turned to politics when he became secretary to...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2001

Has cycle of peace begun?

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- Sri Lanka's 18-year-old bloody ethnic crisis between Tamils demanding an independent homeland and the government has always been marked by hope. Even during some of the darkest days of the strife a little over a decade ago, there was always a glimmer of light. Then, New Delhi interfered...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2001

Failed experiment haunts Jakarta

By David Chew

SINGAPORE -- As Indonesia assesses the carnage from the recent ethnic violence in its province of Kalimantan, a poignant legacy of the failure of its transmigration policy slowly but surely emerges.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2001

The choice is North Korea's

By Robert A. Manning

WASHINGTON -- The curtain has come down on the first act of the Bush administration's Asia policy, and there are far more questions than answers about U.S. policy after President Kim Dae Jung's visit to Washington. The media feasted on the mixed messages from a skeptical President George W. Bush and...

COMMENTARY

Mar 14, 2001

Agriculture policies gone wild

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain has caused a panic among farmers here and in the rest of Europe. Farms have been isolated and large numbers of animals, slaughtered on suspicion of harboring the disease, have been incinerated on the spot. Parks, where deer may be found, have...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 14, 2001

The anti-Buddhist fury in Afghanistan

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Indignation at the ongoing destructive fury of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has been unanimous, with protests coming from the Muslim as well as the non-Muslim world. In fact, the recent destruction of the unique Buddhist monuments in Bamiyan prompts reflection on the huge...

COMMENTARY

Mar 13, 2001

Postindustrial economy calls

By Takamitsu Sawa

In the 1980s, most Japanese economists were under the illusion that the American economy would continue to decline and that Japan would surpass America as the world's largest economy. In fact, the Japanese economy was reaching the apex of its prosperity while the U.S. economy, with its different systems...

COMMENTARY

Mar 11, 2001

Regionalism threatens global prosperity

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Not many prominent Americans saw the huge cloud forming over globalization as early as did then-President Bill Clinton. After an address on the subject at last year's World Economic Forum in Davos -- in which he virtually pleaded with well-heeled corporate execs to put themselves in the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 11, 2001

Trade NMD for the CTBT

By David Malone and Ramesh Thakur

The new administration in Washington has taken office firmly committed to the concept of a national missile defense system, arguing that future U.S. security needs take precedence over arms-control agreements rooted in Cold War history. Its views on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, an agreement signed...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 11, 2001

History will affirm Kim's heroism, vision

By Ronald Meinardus

SEOUL -- A classical drama consists of five acts. Usually, the key part occurs in the third act. In this regard, the North Korea policy of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung may have something in common with classical theater.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 10, 2001

Timetable for a departure

By Kenzo Uchida

On March 5, the Lower House voted down an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Theoretically, the apparent vote of confidence for the Mori Cabinet should have restored a semblance of political stability, but things do not work that way in Japanese...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 10, 2001

Taliban's defiance isolates Afghanistan

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- As if the destruction of some key human values were not enough to satisfy the blind zeal of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, they have now turned their guns on historical relics.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

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