For Takeshi Sato's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Security issues concerning North Korea, including its nuclear arms program, will remain at the top of Japan's diplomatic agenda in 2004, with Tokyo hoping to see substantial progress following Libya's recent renunciation of weapons of mass destruction. Japan meanwhile hopes the United States, its key ...
Staff writer Tokyo hopes that expanding cooperation and friendly ties will top the agenda today when Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives on the first state visit by a Chinese head of state. But the agenda could be pushed aside by differences over how Japan should apologize ...
Staff writer Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi starts a historic trip to Moscow Wednesday, but substantial progress in resolving a long-standing bilateral territorial row may not be achieved because of President Boris Yeltsin's poor health and economic turmoil in his country. The main focus of Obuchi's three-day ...
Staff writer Bangladesh appreciates Japan's efforts to keep nuclear tests by India and Pakistan last May from triggering a bigger arms race, but it hopes more attention will be paid to alleviating poverty in the region, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad told The Japan ...
Staff writerJamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson urged Japan on Monday to make an early economic recovery because its weakness negatively impacts not only Jamaica but the international community as a whole."The problems which have occurred in the Japanese economy extend well beyond Japan itself. ...
Staff writerWhen South Korean President Kim Dae Jung makes his official visit this week, Japan is expected to apologize and express remorse for its past conduct toward Koreans. But complete reconciliation between the people of the two nations may not be possible until they ...
Staff writer North Korea's rocket launch over Japan on Aug. 31 was designed to demonstrate that the country has bargaining power in negotiations with the United States, and that it is modernizing its military capabilities, John Chipman, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, ...
Staff writer The Foreign Ministry generally welcomed the selection of Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi as president of the Liberal Democratic Party because Obuchi is familiar with Japan's foreign policies and is acquainted with foreign leaders, ministry officials said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sadaaki Numata said that it ...
Eighth in a series Staff writer The coming Upper House election is a good opportunity for the nation to discuss its first major overhaul since the war, according to Mari Yonehara, an essayist and noted Japanese-Russian translator and interpreter. This is especially true because the government is ...
Staff writer The tiny Caribbean country of St. Lucia is hoping some of the success of Jamaica in drawing Japanese tourists will rub off on it and neighboring island states. Japanese tourists would greatly enjoy visiting Caribbean islands like St. Lucia, with which they are less ...
