Keizo Nabeshima - The Japan Times

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Keizo Nabeshima

For Keizo Nabeshima's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Jun 2, 2003

U.S.-Japan global alliance

Last week's summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush ushered in a new era for the Japan-U.S. security alliance: The bilateral system is beginning to change into a global alliance.

COMMENTARY

May 19, 2003

Strengthen Japan's deterrent

The ruling coalition and the top opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, have agreed to amend a package of government-sponsored war contingency bills, marking a turning point in Japan's security policy.

COMMENTARY

May 5, 2003

Unity needed on nuclear issue

North Korea's statement that it already has nuclear weapons is most likely an exercise in diplomatic brinkmanship aimed at drawing the United States into direct dialogue. But if the statement is true, the security environment surrounding Japan and Northeast Asia will undergo fundamental change.

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2003

Peacemaker for Sri Lanka

Japan plans to play a leading role in rebuilding strife-torn Sri Lanka. Peace talks are under way to end more than 20 years of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese (Buddhist) majority and the Tamil (Hindu) minority. An international conference on Sri Lankan reconstruction and development is scheduled for June in Tokyo.

COMMENTARY

Apr 7, 2003

Diplomatic tests await Tokyo

Japanese diplomacy will face a real test over the question: How will the country participate in Iraq's postwar reconstruction?

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2003

Smashing the payoff triangle

The history of the Liberal Democratic Party includes a long list of money scandals. The recent arrest of Lower House lawmaker Takanori Sakai, charged with violating the Political Funds Control Law, is the latest reminder.

COMMENTARY

Mar 11, 2003

Japan's nation-building role

Amid escalating tension over the Iraqi situation, the international community, including Japan, has again pledged contributions toward reconstructing war-torn Afghanistan. The pledges came at the Tokyo Conference on Consolidation of Peace on Feb. 22, attended by officials from 34 countries, including interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and from 12 international organizations.

COMMENTARY

Feb 25, 2003

Build stronger ties with Seoul

The North Korean crisis has entered a new stage now that the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has referred the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons development to the U.N. Security Council. The isolated Stalinist state, which created a similar crisis a decade ago, has resumed its program to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

COMMENTARY

Feb 12, 2003

Koizumi shirking top duty

Over the past year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to have all but lost his enthusiasm for military contingency legislation. Protecting the lives and property of the Japanese people from armed attack is the most important duty of the prime minister as the supreme commander of the Self-Defense Forces.

COMMENTARY

Jan 28, 2003

Court sends LDP a message

Two recent moves by judiciary and law-enforcement authorities are a grave warning against the Liberal Democratic Party's pork-barrel politics. One is the Supreme Court rejection of an appeal by former Construction Minister Kishiro Nakamura against a Tokyo High Court ruling that found him guilty of taking a bribe from a construction company. He is to serve 18 months in jail and pay 10 million yen in fines. It is the first time that a Diet member has received a final conviction under a law that bans the taking of bribes through political mediation.

COMMENTARY

Jan 13, 2003

Dealing with multiple crises

The world faces a double threat posed by Iraqi and North Korean weapons of mass destruction and missiles, a peril no less serious than the terrorist scare following the 9/11 attacks. According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the sheep, a nonviolent animal, but past years of the sheep have been far from peaceful. In 1991, the Persian Gulf War broke out; in 1979, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan; and in 1967, the Middle East War broke out and China conducted its first hydrogen-bomb test.

COMMENTARY

Dec 30, 2002

Missiles challenge diplomac

Defense chief Shigeru Ishiba's rash remarks regarding a joint Japan-U.S. missile defense project deviate from Tokyo's official defense policy and could give the impression that Japan is advancing the bilateral initiative beyond research to the development stage.

COMMENTARY

Dec 16, 2002

Highways amid the shambles

In its final report submitted Dec. 6, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's advisory commission for privatizing four road-related public corporations called for a halt to runaway highway construction. The report warns against the "triangle of collusion" among "road tribe" legislators, related bureaucrats and public-works contractors, which has distorted Japan's political, economic and social structures and left a combined debt of 40 trillion yen on the books of the four toll-road operators.

COMMENTARY

Dec 3, 2002

Japan must do its part in war

The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield construction in Afghanistan.

COMMENTARY

Nov 19, 2002

Pyongyang's deadly gamble

North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs pose a serious security threat not only to Japan but also to all of East Asia, injecting a new element of instability into the international situation following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

COMMENTARY

Nov 4, 2002

Economy linked to security

The fight against terrorism emerged as the top issue at the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose original aim was to promote sustainable economic growth. This reflected awareness among participants at the summit -- held Oct. 26-27 in Los Cabos, Mexico -- that terrorism affects regional economic development.

COMMENTARY

Oct 21, 2002

Keeping faith with the U.S.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Mexico later this month. Koizumi sets great store on Japan-U.S. friendship. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in September, Koizumi said: "I have felt a strong affinity and trust with the president. I believe this friendship represents the larger friendship between our two countries."

COMMENTARY

Oct 7, 2002

Seize the chance for peace

At their historic Pyongyang summit Sept. 17, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il opened a new chapter in the history of Northeast Asia by agreeing to resume bilateral talks on diplomatic normalization this month. The agreement was announced in the Pyongyang declaration the two leaders signed to ease tensions in the region, which had continued for more than 50 years after the end of World War II.

COMMENTARY

Sep 25, 2002

Strengthen Sino-Japanese ties

Japan and China will soon observe the 30th anniversary of their normalization of relations, which took place Sept. 29, 1972. The bilateral relationship was placed on a solid foundation with the conclusion of a treaty of peace and friendship in 1978. Economic relations have since dramatically expanded.

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2002

Brave trip to settle the past

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea on Sept. 17 is likely to have a profound effect on the security situation in Northeast Asia. The two nations started normalization talks in 1991, but thus far no substantial progress has been made because of the alleged abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents, North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program, its test firings of Taepodong missiles and spy ship intrusions into Japanese waters.

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Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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