More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

November 30, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

Oct 24, 2003

Criticism prods Bush to tune diplomacy

By Kenzo Uchida

So far, the war in Iraq and the issues surrounding North Korea have topped news of international events in 2003.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2003

Secrecy robs space feat of its glory

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- For those who have labored long and hard to keep China's space program alive and moving forward, it must have been a wonderful moment when, on Oct. 15, the complicated machinery of initiating space travel performed flawlessly, and China scored a first.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2003

Antinuke regime crumbling

By Ramesh Thakur

Speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly's disarmament committee on Oct. 6, Ambassador Sergio Querioz Duarte of Brazil noted that "to attain a nuclear-weapon-free world, it is vital to prevent nuclear proliferation, and at the same time, it is imperative to promote nuclear disarmament."...

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Oct 23, 2003

Bush backers open their purses

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- It has stopped! U.S. President George W. Bush's men have determined that his slide has ended. The latest round of polling has him in the mid to low 50s.

EDITORIALS

Oct 23, 2003

Pride vs. responsibility

For the past few weeks, the embattled president of Japan Highway Public Corp., Mr. Haruho Fujii, has been fiercely resisting the government's move to oust him. A first showdown of sorts came at a hearing last week. The two sides went through the motions of blaming each other, leaving the impression that...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 23, 2003

'Israelization' of U.S. Middle East policy proceeds apace

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- Few disputed at the time that Israel was a factor that pushed U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war on Iraq. Just how much weight it had among all the other factors was the only controversial question. But what is clear, six months on, is that Israel is now a very important one indeed...

EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."

EDITORIALS

Oct 21, 2003

A victory for Iraq at the U.N.

The United States has returned to the United Nations to win international support to help stabilize and rebuild Iraq. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last week to approve a multinational force in Iraq, providing precious political cover for governments that wish to aid the war-torn country....

EDITORIALS

Oct 20, 2003

Manifestos appear out of focus

The central question in the Nov. 9 general election is whether a full-fledged two-party system will come into existence in Japan. Key to the answer is how voters will respond to manifesto-based debates between the two largest parties, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic...

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2003

'Swing vote' could usher in two-party system for Japan

By Keizo Nabeshima

A brewing political drama could open the way for a two-party system in Japan. Already the ruling and opposition parties are bracing for the Nov. 9 general election in which a transfer of power between two major parties looms as a real possibility for the first time since the end of World War II.

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2003

ASEAN further devalued itself at summit

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- It is almost impossible to see the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' ninth summit in Bali earlier this month as having regenerated the regional body, even though that was the objective asserted by the participants.

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2003

Danger welcomes Americans abroad

By Doug Bandow

JAKARTA -- "It's dangerous here for Americans," said my cab driver when I visited a few weeks ago. No question. A few blocks away sat the J.W. Marriott, its facade broken and blackened from the bombing in August. Scores of windows were blown out; mutilated blinds swayed in the wind. Wrecked autos sat...

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports