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November 28, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2002

Defense Agency deals democracy a blow

By Lawrence Repeta

The mushrooming scandal at Japan's Defense Agency highlights the ongoing struggle between advocates of free speech and government secrecy. The clumsy and duplicitous handling of this affair by the Koizumi administration leaves even the most cynical observers of government speechless.

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2002

Japan remains very abnormal

By Gregory Clark

When the framers of Japan's postwar Constitution included the much-debated Article 9 prohibiting the nation from ever having armed forces or from ever going to war, they had a reason. They saw Japan as a nation with an incurable propensity to slip into militarism.

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2002

A snooping agency

An in-house investigation by the Defense Agency has confirmed that the agency kept tabs on people who had requested information from it under the Freedom-of-Information Law. According to a fact-finding report released Tuesday, background lists were maintained by the agency's internal bureaus and all...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jun 14, 2002

Moscow's bloody Sunday

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- The Bloody Sunday of June 9 took Moscow by surprise. Nobody expected a mob of soccer fans, upset by the performance of the national team, to launch a drunken rampage barely 100 meters away from President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin residence. The outburst of violence lasted for several hours,...

EDITORIALS

Jun 13, 2002

Water, water everywhere?

Water covers about two-thirds of the Earth's surface, but precious little can be used by human beings. Only 2.5 percent -- a veritable drop -- of the world's water is not salty, and two-thirds of that is frozen in the ice caps and glaciers. Of the remaining third, 20 percent is located in remote places,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 13, 2002

Facing need for immigrants

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The problem of illegal immigrants (or economic migrants) and of people seeking asylum because of persecution in their home countries have become dominant themes in the European media. Popular antipathy to the plight of these people has been exploited by rightwing parties, especially in France,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 13, 2002

Wounds of flawed partition remain raw

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- Once again, Indo-Pakistani relations are seen to be teetering on the brink of potentially calamitous conflict. Yet too little attention is being paid to the possible solutions that could diminish the sustained Indo-Pakistani cold war with its proven tendency to occasionally become hot.

EDITORIALS

Jun 12, 2002

Unsure sign of recovery

The latest government report on Japan's gross domestic product -- that the economy in the first quarter of this year expanded 1.4 percent from the previous quarter, or at an annual rate of 5.7 percent -- has met with some skepticism. The general feeling appears to be that it is too good to be true. In...

COMMENTARY

Jun 12, 2002

Focus on military power overlooks crucial issues

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Months of rising friction followed by recent signs of an easing of tensions between India and Pakistan have sent analysts scrambling for fresh assessments of the military balance between South Asia's two nuclear powers.

COMMENTARY

Jun 11, 2002

Optimist has lost his bearings

By Kenzo Uchida

The government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to face greater difficulties than perhaps ever before. I previously criticized his Cabinet as beset with troubles, both at home and abroad, as a result of scandals involving lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, former Liberal Democratic Party secretary general...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 11, 2002

Flaws in Japan's nuclear-arms debate

By Jun Sakurada

The ongoing debate in Japan on nuclear arms lacks sophistication. On May 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said if the international situation were to change, public opinion might favor a nuclear-armed Japan. He was commenting on the government's long-standing three nonnuclear principles of not...

EDITORIALS

Jun 11, 2002

Loya Jirga gets down to business

A fghanistan takes a crucial step toward building a viable future this week with the convening of a grand assembly of tribal elders. The Loya Jirga will pick a government that will rule the country until general elections are held. While the conclave has been long anticipated, and is critical to the...

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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