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November 24, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Feb 12, 2000

The right kind of justice for East Timor

By Susan Lynne Tillou

The quest for justice in East Timor gathered momentum last week with the submission of reports from two separate investigations into the rampage that occurred last September after the province voted for independence. But the stir raises profound questions of how to deal with transitional justice, pitting...

EDITORIALS

Feb 11, 2000

NTT shirks its responsibilities

The Japanese and U.S. governments are at odds over access charges for NTT networks. The Japanese side is balking at a U.S. demand for a deep and prompt price cut, on the grounds that it will have a crippling effect on NTT operations. As things stand, it is unclear whether an agreement can be reached...

COMMENTARY

Feb 11, 2000

Diet imbroglio over at last

By Keizo Nabeshima

The Diet returned to normal Feb. 9, two weeks after the opposition forces started boycotting all proceedings to protest against the ruling bloc's handling of a controversial bill to reduce Diet seats. The turmoil started when the three-party governing coalition passed the bill for cutting Lower House...

EDITORIALS

Feb 10, 2000

The IRA must break the stalemate

The Northern Ireland peace process is in danger of breaking down. The Irish Republican Army's fierce resistance to surrendering any of its weapons has forced Protestant politicians to question the group's commitment to peace. In the absence of genuine good will between the parties to the conflict, gestures...

COMMENTARY

Feb 10, 2000

Democracy under attack

By Hugh Cortazzi

When I first read that the Japanese coalition government had decided to force through a bill to reduce the number of seats elected by proportional representation, my first thought was, since they had a majority of votes in both Houses for this measure and as democracy generally implies majority rules,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 10, 2000

Japan ill-served by its whitewash of wartime crimes

By Abraham Cooper and Alfred Balitzer

At the dawn of the new millennium, many nations continue to grapple with the historic and moral implications of World War II. In Berlin, the German government broke ground for a new Holocaust Memorial, and in Stockholm 40 heads of state joined with historians, educators and Jewish survivors of the Nazi...

EDITORIALS

Feb 9, 2000

Austria calls Europe's bluff

The formation of a coalition government in Austria that includes the rightwing Freedom Party headed by Mr. Joerg Haider is a potential nightmare for Europe. The prospect of an extremist party joining the Cabinet in Vienna has forced other members of the European Union to examine their own past. It has...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 9, 2000

No call for optimism on N. Korean move

By John Barry Kotch

Is North Korea really ready to take the plunge toward better relations with the United States and Japan, or is it a case of deja vu all over again, to quote the immortal New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra? Is the Berlin breakthrough agreeing "in principle" to a high-level North Korean visit to Washington...

EDITORIALS

Feb 8, 2000

Osaka sends a message to the coalition

Mrs. Fusae Ota, a former official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, won in Sunday's gubernatorial election of Osaka Prefecture, riding on the strength of the joint support of major political parties. The media have highlighted the fact that she is the nation's first female prefectural...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 8, 2000

Indonesia tempted by authoritarianism

By Nobuo Asai

Does the recent crisis in Indonesia indicate that democratizing a nation too rapidly will lead to disorder? The crux of the issue involves the effectiveness and limitations of authoritarian and military control that guarantee stability.

EDITORIALS

Feb 7, 2000

A voice of reason for cleaner air

A few days have passed since the Kobe District Court issued its landmark ruling that the central government and a local expressway corporation should reduce vehicle exhaust emissions on National Highway No. 43 in the city of Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture. Sufferers from pollution-related asthma and other...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 7, 2000

U.S. Taiwan policy adding fuel to the fire

By Doug Bandow and Ted Galen Carpenter

As Taiwan approaches the first presidential election that the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) might lose, tensions between Beijing and Taipei are likely to rise. U.S. policy has, unfortunately, made the situation more flammable.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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

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