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November 23, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Jun 11, 1999

Come clean on defense policy

By James Auer

In July last year I took issue with an article written by former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa ("Japan-U.S. Security Treaty: A kind of insurance policy" July 11, 1998). In his recent May 31 article "A de facto treaty revision," Hosokawa called for "a full dress debate on se curity issues, including...

EDITORIALS

Jun 10, 1999

Peace and priorities in Kosovo

With peace tantalizingly close in Kosovo, it is important to remember why NATO has waged its air war against Yugoslavia: Over 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars have been murdered or driven from their homes in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing. Yugoslav security forces were the instrument of oppression;...

EDITORIALS

Jun 10, 1999

Fear on the table

Europe is gripped by its worst food crisis since 1996. Then, scientists discovered that beef from Britain may have been infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease." Now, new fears have been triggered by the discovery in Belgium that fat contaminated with dioxin -- a lethal carcinogen...

EDITORIALS

Jun 9, 1999

Dangerous posturing in Kashmir

One month has passed since fighting broke out between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Despite reassurances from both governments that the fighting will be contained, the conflict has intensified. The risk of escalation is ever-present, but neither government seems to take the...

EDITORIALS

Jun 8, 1999

Help for battered wives is overdue

With a series of shootings apparently related to an underworld gang battle taking place in various parts of the Kanto area and a constantly rising volume of illegal stimulant drugs to deal with, Japan's police forces would seem to have a busy enough summer ahead of them. That may be why some observers...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 8, 1999

Recovery hinges on fast action

By Yukio Suzuki

Following U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's comments suggesting a change in U.S. monetary policy, the surging U.S. stock market has apparently entered an adjustment phase. To prevent the booming U.S. economy from overheating, it is necessary to fine-tune monetary policy.

EDITORIALS

Jun 5, 1999

A wakeup call for us all

About a year ago, biologists woke up to a startling phenomenon: Amphibians -- frogs, toads, salamanders and newts -- were vanishing. No one knows why, but the results are pretty uniform across the world. Many people will not spare much anguish for the amphibians, but the fate of the frog is worth pondering...

EDITORIALS

Jun 4, 1999

Ten years after Tiananmen

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the tragic climax of the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It has been a long decade. The world is much changed, as is China. Deng Xiaoping, "the Little Helmsman," the man who set China on the path to economic transformation, is dead. His legacy survives...

COMMENTARY

Jun 4, 1999

Obuchi set for one more term

By Minoru Tada

Following the Diet's enactment last week of a legislative package covering the updated guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation, the Lower House on Tuesday passed bills that will allow wiretapping in investigations into organized crime. The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has thus...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 4, 1999

Both sides to blame for Sino-U.S. troubles

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- As the United States debates the security implications of the Cox report on Chinese spying in the U.S., and as China continues to deny the spying and to denounce the NATO attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, it is easy to lose sight of a basic reality: There is a remarkable symmetry...

EDITORIALS

Jun 3, 1999

A new world for Japanese business

The latest earnings reports from Japanese corporations listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange provide a running commentary on their predicament. Reflecting a drawn-out recession, both sales and profits plunged in the year to March 1999 (fiscal 1998). On average, sales in all industries except financial services...

EDITORIALS

Jun 2, 1999

Cautious optimism on Pyongyang

U.S. presidential envoy William J. Perry returned from his visit to North Korea last week with the assessment that the North Koreans will "maintain and respect" their 1994 agreement not to develop nuclear weapons. The top government and military officials he met in Pyongyang reportedly pledged to continue...

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

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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