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November 28, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

May 27, 2002

Learn to write better by reading the experts

By Hisashi Uno

"My dear Professor," reads a note I received about two weeks ago, "I've found your Japan Times editorial-page commentary most interesting. You say writing good English is more craft than art -- a craft that anyone can learn. But I don't think it's always the case." In the first place, continues the three-paragraph...

COMMENTARY / World

May 27, 2002

Perils of undervalued yuan

By Mamoru Ishida

I am concerned that China could repeat Japan's mistakes in economic policy. In Japan's high-growth years, the yen became increasingly undervalued, pegged at 360 to the dollar, while the nation's productivity kept increasing. Exports were profitable and the manufacturing industries built up excess production...

COMMENTARY / World

May 27, 2002

No military solution to the Kashmir crisis

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

The latest killings in the disputed Indian state of Kashmir could not have happened at a worse time. Islamic militants murdered about 40 men and women, mostly civilians, near Jammu just as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was arriving in New Delhi.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

May 27, 2002

Doing one's duty in a desperate situation

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- In April, when a young Palestinian woman blew herself up, killing and wounding many Israelis, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "The president condemns this morning's homicide bombing."

COMMENTARY

May 27, 2002

Global soccer invades Japan

By David Howell

LONDON -- Now for the really big story -- and Japan is at the center of it. But the focus this time is not on dreary economics but on soccer. With the curtain rising on the great drama of the Japan/South Korea-hosted World Cup, all eyes and world media attention are beamed on the teams, the players,...

EDITORIALS

May 26, 2002

A dash of sugar, a heap of confusion

Winston Churchill called it his "black dog." British medical biologist Lewis Wolpert has described it as "the cancer of the emotions." Once known politely as melancholia, it is more often referred to these days as clinical depression, and it has been estimated that as many as two-thirds of sufferers,...

COMMENTARY / World

May 26, 2002

Candidate of Kim's party in tough race

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- Roh Moo Hyun, the recently anointed presidential candidate of Kim Dae Jung's Millennium Democratic party, or MDP, for December's elections, has been on a roll this spring. A relative political unknown, he succeeded in toppling his party's front-runner for the nomination, Rhee In Je, while generating...

COMMENTARY / World

May 26, 2002

South Asia challenges U.N.

By Oddny Wiggen and Ramesh Thakur

India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are commemorating 50 years of diplomatic relations with Japan. How their respective circumstances have changed in that time! Today Japan is the biggest aid donor to South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), several of which are...

EDITORIALS

May 25, 2002

'Media bills' require changes

The Diet debate on media-related legislation has stirred controversy over freedom of expression. The main concern, expressed by legislators from both the ruling and opposition camps, is that it would put unreasonable restraints on the media. Even former members of the government panels that drafted the...

EDITORIALS

May 24, 2002

Make it a blessing in disguise

At long last, the Shenyang saga of the five North Korean asylum seekers came to an end on Wednesday when they were allowed to leave China for South Korea via the Philippines. On May 8, the defectors were seized by Chinese police guards as they rushed into the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, northeastern...

COMMENTARY / World

May 23, 2002

Don't sweat three warships

By Alfred Balitzer

During the Persian Gulf War, I wrote that "average Americans would think friendlier and more respectful thoughts about Japan if it were able to contribute soldiers -- standing side by side with Americans in the sands of Arabia -- than if it contributes a billion or more dollars." Now, Japanese sailors...

COMMENTARY

May 23, 2002

U.S. idiosyncrasies on Cuba, free trade

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Undoubtedly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's red-carpet reception in Cuba rubbed President George W. Bush the wrong way.

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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