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COMMENTARY

Jul 4, 2005

Denial of a philosophical root

By Takamitsu Sawa

Unlike their Western counterparts, many Japanese economists seem to have a mistaken notion that theories are everything in economics. Rather than disregard them, Japanese almost seem unaware of the philosophies that underlie theories. Western economists make policy proposals based on economics only after...

COMMENTARY

Jul 4, 2005

America's blase approach to doomsday

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- The policy of the United States, at the moment the world's only superpower, lacks an overall sense of urgency about the spread and possible use of nuclear weapons. In all probability, this lapse will someday lead to immense tragedy.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 4, 2005

Security and human health

By Ramesh Thakur

Human security remains a contested concept among scholars. Yet it is attractive to policymakers because it provides a template for practical action. On public health, for example, human security implies policies for correcting state shortcomings in protecting people against the most commonly prevalent...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jul 3, 2005

Detractors have a whale of a time as Japan flounders on

By Roger Pulvers

The American historian Brooks Adams (1848-1927) defined history as "just one goddamn thing after another." Though it is a century old, Adams' aphorism is a spot-on characterization of the most recent events surrounding Japan.

COMMENTARY

Jul 2, 2005

A clash of European visions

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- The latest EU crisis could be one of the worst the European Union has known, and nobody can say if, when and how it will be overcome.

COMMENTARY

Jul 2, 2005

What about the billions given?

By David Howell

LONDON — The popular pressure being mobilized and brought to bear on the Group of Eight countries, including both Britain and Japan, to increase aid substantially to Africa and cancel poorer countries' debt, is certainly having an impact. But it is not quite the one at which the campaigners were aiming....

COMMENTARY

Jun 30, 2005

Blaming Pakistan won't help

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- The latest diplomatic rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan speaks volumes about the underlying frictions among both countries and the United States in the so-called war on terror.

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2005

India: U.S. ally or independent power?

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- The courtship between the world's most powerful and most populous democracies is in full swing, with a new international poll showing that at a time when anti-Americanism has spread across the globe more people in India have a positive view of the United States than in any other nation surveyed....

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2005

A tidal wave of optimism

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Talk about an ocean of optimism! Here's a positive current for you if there ever was one: A close friend -- whom I dub The Very Successful Korean-American Businessman (VSKAB), who doesn't want his name to be used (but whose last name is Kim like several million other Korean-Americans),...

COMMENTARY

Jun 28, 2005

Pitching a Japan that can

By Keizo Nabeshima

A clash of interests among major U.N. member states is clouding the prospects for reform of the Security Council. While Japan, Brazil, Germany and India, known as the Group of Four (G4), seek permanent membership on the council, the Uniting for Consensus coalition, including Italy, South Korea and Pakistan,...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 27, 2005

Shining a light on Turkish-Japanese ties

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Selcuk Esenbel was in town. For many years now a professor of history at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Selcuk was, when I met her more than 30 years ago, studying Japanese history at Columbia University. The fruit of that study is her 1998 tome, which she gave me during her previous visit...

COMMENTARY

Jun 27, 2005

Perceptions that defy amity

By Kiroku Hanai

On a recent Korea Air flight from Narita to Inchon, South Korea, I was surprised when they showed images of air routes on the in-flight video system. The Tok-do islets in the Sea of Japan, the source of a Japan-South Korea territorial dispute, were shown as prominently as Tokyo and Seoul. The islets,...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.

What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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