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November 30, 2024

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EDITORIALS

Dec 19, 2003

Juggling act obscures real threat

The two ruling parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, earlier this week agreed on plans to shore up the faltering pension system for private-sector employees. The package calls for painful adjustments beginning in fiscal 2004: higher premium rates and lower benefit levels. What is missing...

COMMENTARY

Dec 19, 2003

Bush rightly responded to Chen's tactics

By Ralph Cossa

SINGAPORE -- U.S. President George W. Bush got it just about right last week when he publicly criticized Taiwan's leader during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Washington. Accusations from "friends of Taiwan's democracy" notwithstanding, Bush was not kowtowing to China; he was merely expressing...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 19, 2003

Canberra's silly season of politics

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Midsummer madness is already upon us. Australians can always tell when the silly season strikes by the antics of Canberra politicians. This time it's come early -- and they're playing their games with comic vengeance.

EDITORIALS

Dec 18, 2003

Lame explanations for SDF dispatch

The Diet, although in recess, discussed the Iraq issue on Monday and Tuesday. The debate followed the government's decision last week to send ground troops to Iraq and, of course, Sunday's breaking news of the capture of Saddam Hussein. The government's answers, however, proved mostly unconvincing.

COMMENTARY

Dec 18, 2003

Conservatives smell an upset

By David Howell

LONDON -- A transformation has taken place on the British political scene, and it is one that could have profound effects on the wider European landscape as well as on trans-Atlantic relations. The nature of this change can be summed up in two words -- Michael Howard. This is the man who has now emerged...

EDITORIALS

Dec 17, 2003

Deepening ties with ASEAN

During two days of summit talks in Tokyo last week, leaders from Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, agreed to establish a broad-gauged relationship that includes not only trade and investment but also political and security cooperation. Described as the "Tokyo declaration,"...

EDITORIALS

Dec 16, 2003

With these words, Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer announced on Sunday that American military forces had captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. His arrest symbolizes the end of an era in Iraq. It also could break the back of a resistance that has stymied efforts to bring peace and stability...

EDITORIALS

Dec 14, 2003

What the Wright brothers wrought

History is rife with illustrations of those rueful conditional verbs "could have," "would have" or "should have" -- and never more so than when a momentous anniversary rolls around. The latest example is the 100th anniversary this Wednesday of the huge accomplishment of the American Wright brothers,...

COMMENTARY

Dec 14, 2003

Getting Asia's youth behind their party

By Ronald Meinardus

MANILA -- As elections approach, politicians remember the importance of being on good terms with the youth. Young people are easily motivated and are inexpensive workers in political campaigns. The young generation also constitutes a sizable electoral constituency.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 14, 2003

Does Bush have any China policy at all?

By Richard Halloran

WASHINGTON -- After nearly three years of careful strides toward strategic clarity on a China policy, U.S. President George W. Bush has slipped back into strategic ambiguity, a posture that is certain to raise diplomatic questions in Asia and to cause him political problems at home.

EDITORIALS

Dec 13, 2003

A triumph for Mr. Wen

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is a happy man -- and with good reason. His four-day visit to the United States this week was a huge success, a personal triumph for the premier as well as a trip that helped advance his nation's relations with the U.S. His host, U.S. President George W. Bush, is probably less...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 13, 2003

Japan, don't send your soldiers

By Martin Halpern

ARKADELPHIA, Arkansas -- A recent New York Times carried the story that Japan will send 600 ground troops to southeastern Iraq. I read this news with sadness as I prepared to lead a discussion in my upper level class in 20th-century U.S. history on the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki....

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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