Richard Halloran - The Japan Times

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Richard Halloran

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 4, 2004

A case for keeping Taiwan's status as is

Gradually, with hardly anyone noticing, President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan has emerged as the most influential player in the volatile triangle of relations between China, the United States and his own island nation.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 16, 2004

U.S. troop pullouts: There's a political message, too

The implications of the forthcoming withdrawal of one-third of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea and two army divisions from Germany are as much political as military since both nations have been the site of vigorous anti-American eruptions in the last few years.

COMMENTARY / World

May 24, 2004

On the move after decades of pacifism

A quiet pride is evinced in the dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces troops for peacekeeping in Iraq even though the polls say a bare majority opposes the deployment. Says a business executive: "That's their profession; that's what they've been trained for."

COMMENTARY / World

May 2, 2004

Terrorists taken out inspire replacements

HONOLULU -- The good news is that the United States and its allies have captured or killed 3,500 to 4,000 terrorists since the hijacked airliner assaults on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. The bad news is that the terrorists are being replaced as fast as they are eliminated, especially in...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Apr 25, 2004

Frank Gibney's league of Japanese gentlemen

FIVE GENTLEMEN OF JAPAN: The Portrait of a Nation's Character, by Frank Gibney. D'Asia Vu Reprint Library, Eastbridge, 2002, 356 pp., $24.95 (paper). Fifty years ago, a young American writer named Frank Gibney, fresh out of the U.S. Navy where he had been a Japanese-speaking intelligence officer, published...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 7, 2004

'One China' principle is all but dead

HONOLULU -- No matter how the dispute over Taiwan's presidential election is resolved, it has become ever more clear that the "One China" principle is unraveling.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 29, 2004

U.S. forces prepare for surprises in Asia

HONOLULU -- They call it the "tyranny of distance," and it ranks up there in U.S. strategic thinking with conventional threats like that from North Korea and unconventional dangers posed by terrorists in Southeast Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2004

S. Korean democracy will survive crisis

HONOLULU -- The North Koreans have been gloating over the political chaos in South Korea caused by the impeachment of President Roh Moo Hyun. In the long run, however, the South Koreans will surely have the last word.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 6, 2004

A maritime nightmare in the making

HONOLULU -- A nightmare in the making is a potential lash-up between seagoing pirates and organized terrorists in Southeast Asia, and it has Asian and American security officials sweating.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 18, 2004

War erodes Bush support

HONOLULU -- After the victory of the U.S. over Iraq in 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush proclaimed: "The Vietnam syndrome is buried forever in the sands of the Arabian Peninsula."

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 7, 2004

Japan crosses the Rubicon

HONOLULU -- Japan has crossed the Rubicon, with surprisingly little opposition at home or abroad, by starting to dispatch armed soldiers to Iraq in their first deployment to a combat zone since World War II.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 3, 2004

U.S. plans consolidation of Pacific forces

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is planning a sweeping revision of the command apparatus through which American military forces are controlled in Asia in an effort to make them more responsive to contingencies from the Korean Peninsula to Australia.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 19, 2004

Foreign affairs top U.S. political debate

HONOLULU -- For the first time since the divisive Vietnam era, foreign policy and national security will most likely dominate the U.S. presidential election campaign this year, especially since the line between issues abroad and politics at home has become more blurred than ever.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 11, 2004

Comparison underscores stark contrasts

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likes to point to the American occupation of Japan after World War II to assert that America is moving faster to rebuild and reform Iraq than the Americans did in seven years of remaking Japan, starting in 1945. Therefore, he says, Americans and critics...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 22, 2003

Is Kim sweating over dictator's capture?

HONOLULU -- Intelligence agencies from Seoul to Singapore would pay dearly for the answer to perhaps the most intriguing question in Asia arising from the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: What does the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, who, like Hussein, is a charter member...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 14, 2003

Does Bush have any China policy at all?

WASHINGTON -- After nearly three years of careful strides toward strategic clarity on a China policy, U.S. President George W. Bush has slipped back into strategic ambiguity, a posture that is certain to raise diplomatic questions in Asia and to cause him political problems at home.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 1, 2003

Cross-strait tensions build as one-China principle fades

HONOLULU -- The "one-China" principle that has been the mainstay of relations between the United States and China for 30 years is steadily fading. Curiously, a critical chapter in the fate of the principle is being played out now on the tiny mid-Pacific nation of Kiribati.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 23, 2003

U.S. takes first step away from S. Korea

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's visit to South Korea this past week should be seen for what it really was, an early step in a long, gradual disengagement of U.S. land forces from South Korea and a greater reliance on sea power to maintain an American security posture in Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 5, 2003

Three mistakes on Iraq

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Party as a whole, and most of its presidential candidates, are making three consistent mistakes in their otherwise generally fair critiques of Bush administration policy in Iraq. These mistakes should be corrected; if they are not, Democrats will be less effective as constructive...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 3, 2003

North Korean no-war pact not in the cards

HONOLULU -- Behind all the diplomatic, and some not so diplomatic, rhetoric in the confrontation between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions are three basic reasons why U.S. President George W. Bush will not offer the North Koreans the nonaggression pact they demand.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

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