More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

November 28, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 6, 2002

Blocs should transcend members' shortcomings

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- As long as regional cooperation develops in various parts of the world, it is only natural that some concerns are voiced from time to time, especially about the composition of these groupings.

EDITORIALS

Dec 6, 2002

Aceh on the brink of peace

At long last, there is an end in sight to the two decades of deadly conflict in Indonesia's separatist province of Aceh. The Indonesian government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the Free Aceh Movement, the guerrilla group established in 1976, are expected to sign a peace agreement in Geneva next...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 6, 2002

Refer grim 'futurologists' to Adam Smith

By Christopher Lingle

GUATEMALA CITY -- It is both telling and disturbing that so many of those wishing to be regarded as "futurologists" seem to prefer Thomas Malthus to Adam Smith. For his part, much of Malthus' work was premised upon a view that world conditions are essentially static.

EDITORIALS

Dec 5, 2002

DPJ must assess its crisis

The resignation of Mr. Yukio Hatoyama as president of the Democratic Party of Japan, just two months after his re-election, is probably the most poignant reminder yet that the nation's largest opposition party is deeply divided. On Tuesday, taking the blame for his abortive plan to forge an opposition...

COMMENTARY

Dec 5, 2002

French moderates end feuds

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- Six months after last spring's presidential and general elections, the French political landscape is undergoing a deep transformation:

EDITORIALS

Dec 4, 2002

IOC stumbles but moves forward

The International Olympic Committee, at a general meeting in Mexico last week, discussed a proposal to drop three sports -- baseball, softball and the modern pentathlon -- from the 2008 Beijing Games, but in the end decided to postpone a decision until after the 2004 Games take place in Athens. IOC members...

COMMENTARY

Dec 4, 2002

The high price of Saudi oil

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- The U.S.-Saudi relationship is again engulfed in controversy. Did a Saudi princess, and wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, give money to two of the 9/11 hijackers? Yet again, both governments are paying a high price for their unnatural friendship.

COMMENTARY

Dec 4, 2002

Japan slams the door on stolen artwork

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- Stolen art is big business. According to Interpol, the traffic in stolen art is worth about $5 billion a year, about as much as the illegal trade in arms and drugs. Accurate estimates of the trade are hard to come by, but this figure is almost certainly low. After all, how does one value...

COMMENTARY

Dec 3, 2002

Japan must do its part in war

By Keizo Nabeshima

The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield...

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2002

Saudi Arabia's Faustian bargain

Ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia have come under increasing strain since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Suspicions about Saudi contributions to Islamic fundamentalist organizations and the kingdom's connections to international terrorism have raised questions about the durability...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 3, 2002

Deserter would likely face court-martial

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- Amid the swirl of diplomatic maneuvering among the United States, Japan, South Korea and North Korea stands the strange case of Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, who is accused of having deserted from the U.S. Army in South Korea in 1965 to defect to North Korea.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 2, 2002

Bridging North-South gap

By Ramesh Thakur

During the Cold War, the contours of the U.N. agenda were shaped by East-West and North-South fault lines. While the East-West divide disappeared with the Berlin Wall, the North-South divide continues to plague the organization, undermining its relevance at times. There is evidence of a recent relaxation...

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’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports