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November 26, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Nov 22, 2001

Protecting the public from the threats of terror and depression

By Michael L. Lahr and Hiroshi Ohta

In his Sept. 30 New York Times article, "The Fear Economy," MIT economist Paul Krugman warned that the American public should be prepared for a possible deflationary spiral comparable to the Great Depression of the 1930s and Japan's milder but chronic depression of the 1990s. A major depression could...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 22, 2001

Oil fears make attack on Iraq unlikely

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- "We hear that Iraq may be targeted," said Sheik Ahmed Zaki al-Yamani, oil minister of Saudi Arabia during the 1970s and '80s heyday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and now chairman of the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies. "Now, if that is a fact, the attacks...

EDITORIALS

Nov 21, 2001

An ambiguous SDF dispatch plan

The Cabinet's approval last Friday of a basic Self-Defense Forces deployment plan, designed to provide noncombat support for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, opened the way for the first "wartime" mobilization of SDF troops overseas. The government emphasizes that the plan is within the framework...

COMMENTARY

Nov 21, 2001

Recipe for economic change

By Brad Glosserman

WASHINGTON — In recent weeks, Taiwan has taken two steps to prepare for the transformation of its economy. Taipei's decision to lift many of the restrictions on investment in the mainland and the island's entry into the World Trade Organization will produce fundamental shifts in the way Taiwan conducts...

COMMENTARY

Nov 21, 2001

LDP strife must end before it's too late

By Kenzo Uchida

The entire world has undergone radical change since terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11. Having identified Osama bin Laden as the mastermind of the attacks, the United States, with military cooperation from Britain, launched bombing raids against Afghanistan's Taliban regime in October....

EDITORIALS

Nov 20, 2001

'Make no haste' makes way

Facing its worst economic crisis in the postwar era, Taiwan has opted for deeper engagement with the mainland. The government of President Chen Shui-bian has lifted limits on investment in China in an attempt to boost the island's faltering economy. The move was applauded by Taiwanese businesses eager...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 20, 2001

Criticism of Pakistan is off the mark

By Imtiaz Ahmafd

The Nov. 10 article by Brahma Chellaney, "Pakistan's uncertain future," gives a bleak picture of Pakistan that I am afraid does not exist in reality. Allow me to rectify this false image so that The Japan Times readers have a clear and balanced view of my country, which is so much in the news these days....

EDITORIALS

Nov 19, 2001

Argentina's last chance

Argentina is once again faced with the prospect of default. A series of quick fixes has only postponed the day of reckoning for Latin America's third-largest economy. Now, domestic political spats between the central government and the provinces look set to torpedo the "zero-deficit plan" that President...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 19, 2001

Turning victory into permanent success

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Four out of five: Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kabul and Jalalabad. All but one of Afghanistan's major cities have been lost by the Taliban and captured by the Northern Alliance in less than a week, and the last, Kandahar, is likely to fall at any time. Neither Washington nor anyone else expected...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 19, 2001

Pitfalls litter Koizumi reform path

By Yosuke Naito

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi needs to place a bit more emphasis on growth-oriented economic policy if he wants to maximize the effect of his structural reform measures, British economic journalists said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.

COMMENTARY

Nov 19, 2001

Prospects for post-Taliban Afghanistan

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Judging by the roaring business in barber shops across Afghanistan, the war-torn country is certainly feeling liberated. Women who were forced to venture outside clad only in a "burqa" now have the freedom to take off the long veil, while many Afghans are celebrating the freedom to play...

COMMENTARY

Nov 19, 2001

Japan needs a new foreign minister

By Keizo Nabeshima

In a recent speech before the United Nations General Assembly, former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa proposed that an international conference be held urgently to discuss ways of bringing peace to Afghanistan and rebuilding the war-torn country. Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, not the 82-year-old Miyazawa,...

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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