More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

November 26, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 1, 2001

Should English be forced on immigrants?

By Domenico Maceri

The looks on my uncle's and his customer's faces clearly suggested they were talking about me while I was standing next to them. I had no idea what they were saying. Nothing bad I am sure, but although I was 16, I felt powerless as a baby might feel as she tries to reach for an object and the hand does...

EDITORIALS

Apr 1, 2001

A crime for the times

Italy, a country we are celebrating this year in Japan, is at the cutting edge of all sorts of things: food, fashion, fast cars, films and some interesting criminal practices. Oh, and bizarre opera plots. Sometimes it seems as if those last two get a bit entangled.

EDITORIALS

Apr 1, 2001

Not-so-brilliant green tea

Green-tea drinkers have been a little blue this past month in the wake of bad news from a group of Tohoku University researchers: Green tea, according to the Japanese scientists' recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, may not be such a panacea after all. But consumers should not feel either...

COMMENTARY

Mar 31, 2001

Lack of leaders is destroying the LDP

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced that the date for electing the next president of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party would be moved up. This was tantamount to him expressing his intention to resign.

COMMENTARY

Mar 31, 2001

The power of the camera

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- For three years as Indian prime minister, the aging Atal Bihari Vajpayee was treated deferentially by the national media and intelligentsia. They portrayed him as a great leader, to whom there was no credible alternative. Even when his physical condition began to slip visibly, no questions...

EDITORIALS

Mar 31, 2001

'Not guilty' is not innocent

Earlier this week, the Tokyo District Court acquitted Dr. Takeshi Abe, the former Teikyo University vice president charged with professional negligence resulting in the death of a hemophiliac. The decision reveals the difficulty in passing legal judgment on medical acts by a doctor, in which effects...

COMMENTARY

Mar 30, 2001

Jockeying to replace Mori

By Minoru Tada

Executives of the governing Liberal Democratic Party have reportedly decided to hold the party's presidential election around April 20, although Prime Minister and LDP President Yoshiro Mori claims he has never expressed his intention to resign. Mori and the LDP are totally irresponsible.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2001

Young Asian forum already has impressive pedigree

By Phar Kim Beng

The recently concluded Boao Asian Forum on Hainan Island had all the appearance of a simple nongovernmental conference.

EDITORIALS

Mar 30, 2001

Chiba sends a signal to the parties

Vernacular papers report that the governing Liberal Democratic Party will elect its new party president on April 22. The winner of that vote will become prime minister and will then launch his or her Cabinet on the following day. These reports are attributed to multiple -- but all unidentified -- sources...

EDITORIALS

Mar 29, 2001

Success in Stockholm

European Union leaders held a peaceful two-day summit in Stockholm last weekend. After the bitter row in Nice last year, a show of unity was as important as any concrete results. The EU leaders got that, and a little more. But the bar must be raised if Europe is to play a larger role in global affairs....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 29, 2001

Reform out of reach for Kim Dae Jung

By Ronald Meinardus

SEOUL -- Some weeks ago, I attended an academic conference that attempted a critical evaluation of the performance of administration of South Korea President Kim Dae Jung three years after its inception. I sat on a panel with probably the most prominent liberal political scientist in South Korea today,...

COMMENTARY

Mar 29, 2001

Time to act is running out

By Tom Plate

The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of...

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports