More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

November 29, 2024

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COMMENTARY

Mar 4, 2003

Don't give up on alternatives

By Kenzo Uchida

Nearly three years have passed since Junichiro Koizumi made his dashing debut as prime minister with an unprecedentedly high public approval rate of 80 percent, after declaring somewhat self-contradictorily that he would not hesitate to destroy his own Liberal Democratic Party to attain his reform goals....

COMMENTARY

Mar 4, 2003

Signs of a thaw in cross-Strait relations

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- In a potentially significant move, China is reported to have pulled back some of its missiles along the Fujian coast facing Taiwan, something that the United States and Taiwan have been urging China to do for some time. An article in Taiwan's United Daily News on Thursday reported that "the...

EDITORIALS

Mar 3, 2003

Price of backing U.S. against Iraq

A pall of gloom hangs over the world economy as a war looms with Iraq. If war does come, world oil prices will go higher, crimping growth and investment worldwide. That much is fairly clear. What is not clear is just how much the price of petroleum will rise and how hard the global economy will be hit....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 3, 2003

Rising challenges to American power

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visits to Japan, South Korea and China were a key test of U.S. diplomacy in Northeast Asia. His renewed focus on the region comes amid growing anxiety in Tokyo and Seoul over Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship and increasing resistance on the part...

COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 2003

Rules of a premodern Japan

By Takamitsu Sawa

The Liberal Democratic Party has ruled Japan since 1955 -- except for a period of less than a year from August 1993. The name LDP may suggest modern Western ideologies of liberty and democracy, but it is doubtful that the party has been the guardian of these principles.

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 2003

Never upon a time

An American social ecologist last month published the results of tests that proved, she said, how easy it is to implant false memories in people. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine reported that in one experiment, subjects were shown advertisements featuring pictures of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2003

Ethnic cleansing by India's nationalists

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- A homicide is the murder of an individual. A genocide is the murder of an ethnicity. The purpose of a genocide is beyond doubt: cleansing society of what the powers that be consider undesirable. History's most famous -- or infamous -- purge was carried out in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2003

Dissent shaking institutions

By Sarah Benton

LONDON -- I don't know what destruction may be visited on the Iraqis by the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein himself in the next few weeks. But it is clear that great waves of destruction are already roaring through the institutions of social...

EDITORIALS

Mar 1, 2003

Sharon pushes peace process aside

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced the formation of a new government. The new 68-member coalition promises to be unwieldy: It is composed of Likud and three smaller parties that have little in common. While the new government can muster a majority in Parliament, it is unlikely to be able...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 1, 2003

Pull unwanted U.S. troops out

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- As a tsunami of anti-Americanism circles the globe from Seoul to Jakarta and on to Paris and Berlin, a focal point of protest is the visible presence of U.S. military forces.

COMMENTARY

Mar 1, 2003

Chirac remains on the attack

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- French Finance Minister Francis Mer has at last acknowledged that there is no chance the government will achieve its target of 2.5 percent growth in GDP this year. A steady increase in unemployment, a massive fall in stocks and plummeting car sales all indicate that France has not escaped the...

EDITORIALS

Feb 28, 2003

A new role in nation-building

Restoring internal security is an essential condition for nation-building in Afghanistan, where local warlords continue to defy the authority of the central government. It is welcome news, therefore, that the international community has pledged new aid for an Afghan program to disarm those chieftains...

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

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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