More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

November 29, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Apr 25, 2003

Peace overture in South Asia

Overlooked amid the hostilities in Iraq and the brinkmanship pursued by North Korea has been the steady escalation of tensions in South Asia. Missile tests and killings by terrorists have fueled concern that the standoff between India and Pakistan will culminate in violence. Yet, in a surprising development,...

COMMENTARY

Apr 25, 2003

North Korea policy hijacked

By Gregory Clark

Tokyo's never-ending capacity for emotional overreaction, irrational group-think and back-to-front foreign policies has reached new heights over North Korea. Somehow Pyongyang's remarkable willingness to admit and apologize for former abductions of Japanese citizens has been turned around 180 degrees...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2003

SARS may lift Japan's leadership role

By Phar Kim Beng

MEDFORD, Massachusetts -- At the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, two stories surrounded the role of China. One attested to China's positive role as a stabilizer; the other pointed to China's unsavory economic practice. According to the latter, China had intentionally devalued its currency...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 24, 2003

Responding to provocations

By Victor D. Cha

SINGAPORE -- In late February and early March, North Korea launched two antiship cruise missiles in the direction of Japan. Japan tried its best to downplay the events. In the first instance, it said the 90-km test did not technically violate the North's moratorium on ballistic-missile tests. After the...

EDITORIALS

Apr 24, 2003

Quick action needed to stabilize Iraq

Last Sunday marked one month since the war began in Iraq. The United States and its allies have yet to declare victory, but for all intents and purposes the military operation is over. In fact, the fighting in strategic areas ended in less than four weeks, making this war one of the shortest in history....

EDITORIALS

Apr 23, 2003

U.S. and North Korea to talk at last

After nearly two years of silence, the United States and North Korea are about to resume diplomatic discussions. Representatives from the two govEernments will meet this week in Beijing to discuss North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and, eventually, the entire range of relations between the two counEtries....

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2003

A bigger Europe may not be any better

By David Howell

LONDON -- A few days ago in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, EU leaders approved a major expansion of the European Union that will embrace 10 new members and 73 million more European citizens.

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2003

Which side blinked, and why?

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- The announcement that United States and North Korea had agreed to multilateral talks with China in Beijing on Wednesday was most welcome after six months of escalating tensions. Conventional wisdom is that America's success in Iraq was the primary factor in bringing Pyongyang to the bargaining...

EDITORIALS

Apr 22, 2003

The meaning of low interest rates

The global economic outlook remains dim despite the swift and decisive coalition victory in Iraq. In Japan the prospects are darker still, with deflation getting worse, not better. Stock prices are at their lowest level in about 20 years. Banks are still burdened with piles of bad debt. Prime Minister...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 22, 2003

Regulation remains a problem

By Mamoru Ishida

In his policy speech to the Diet earlier this year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced that the government would double foreign direct investment in Japan in five years to increase employment.

EDITORIALS

Apr 21, 2003

Joyless anniversary in N. Ireland

The fifth anniversary of the Northern Ireland peace accords came and went with little to celebrate. The peace process remains in a state of suspension over the Irish Republican Army's failure to commit to a permanent end to violence. Hopes that Britain and Ireland would be able to unveil a plan that...

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2003

Why war in Korea is less probable now

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Many fretful observers, on both sides of the Pacific, are convinced that U.S. military action against North Korea is inevitable. But this gloomy doomsday scenario, it seems to me, becomes increasingly improbable as time goes on.

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