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November 23, 2024

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COMMENTARY / World

Sep 22, 1999

Americans debate the whys and whens of intervention

By Edward Neilan

WASHINGTON -- When is military intervention justified? What is a just war? Are some wars mere whims? Americans have been debating these questions recently as the crisis in East Timor escalated.

EDITORIALS

Sep 21, 1999

When the whole world is watching

What can we do when faced with atrocities being committed on a monstrous scale? It is an old question, but it has taken on a renewed urgency with the advent of new communications technologies and mass media eager to exploit them in the competition for viewers. Being blind to distant injustices is a luxury...

EDITORIALS

Sep 20, 1999

Negotiating with North Korea

The United States and North Korea have struck yet another deal. This time, the two parties seem to have negotiated a framework for the relaxation of U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea in exchange for the suspension of Pyongyang's ballistic missile testing program. Some ask, why does the U.S....

EDITORIALS

Sep 19, 1999

Targeting the tobacco menace

While smoking rates have plunged throughout the rest of the industrialized world, Japan continues to have the highest percentages of adults who smoke: 55.2 percent of men and 13.3 percent of women in 1998. Both rates represent increases over the figures for 1997, which were 52.7 percent and 11.6 percent...

COMMENTARY

Sep 19, 1999

Smooth sailing ahead for Obuchi and LDP

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

It appears certain that Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will be re-elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party Sept. 21, which means he will remain at the helm of the government. Although his term as head of the ruling party does not run out until Sept. 20, 2001, whether he will serve out as prime...

EDITORIALS

Sep 17, 1999

Eyes on the ball at APEC

Ever since 1993, when U.S. President Bill Clinton turned the annual meeting of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum into a gathering for heads of state, critics have had a field day. Expectations have usually outpaced results, forcing participants to justify their attendance at what has been...

EDITORIALS

Sep 16, 1999

New skills, old skills

New communications technologies pose unique dilemmas for parents. While a substantial majority of adults believe that familiarity with the Internet is an essential skill for children in the 21st century, they also fear the hazards lurking in cyberspace. They worry that adventurous youngsters will be...

EDITORIALS

Sep 15, 1999

Cautious optimism on the economy

Japan's economy in the second quarter of this year, April through June, expanded slightly at an annualized rate of 0.9 percent. This is a far cry from the 8.1 percent surge in the first quarter. But two consecutive quarters of positive growth make it reasonably clear that the protracted economic slump...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 15, 1999

A true believer's perspective on the Pyongyang regime

By Niall O'keeffe

The Korean Central News Agency is the official English-language press agency of North Korea. When tensions escalate between the two Koreas, it is to this agency that the world press corps turns for comment.

COMMENTARY

Sep 15, 1999

A growing appetite for safety

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Genetic biologists -- especially those working for big U.S. companies such as Monsanto -- and U.S. trade negotiators are furious with Europeans because they are not prepared to accept that hormone-injected beef and gene-modified soybeans, rape-seed oil and other genetically modified crops are...

EDITORIALS

Sep 14, 1999

The price of police arrogance

Public trust in the integrity of the nation's police forces, the Kanagawa prefectural police in particular, was severely tested in recent weeks as revelations followed, in quick succession, of a series of major scandals embroiling its officers. The National Public Safety Commission and the National Police...

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 1999

Fashion and its victims

How does one get inside a girl's head? This rueful question must have occurred to many people recently on hearing reports of the death of a 25-year-old woman in Kanagawa Prefecture after she tripped and fell while wearing sandals with 10-cm-high cork soles. To observers of the elevated-shoe fad over...

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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