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September 11, 2025

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COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Apr 12, 2001

Environment takes back seat to U.S. economic recovery

By Bob Keefe

U.S. President George W. Bush continued his personal campaign to change previous U.S. policy two weeks ago by renouncing the nation's commitment to limit industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. He did it shortly after Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman had given the...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 12, 2001

A 'cold war' in the making

By Mineo Nakajima

The collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea reflects an emerging pattern of confrontation between the United States and China -- a development I noted in this column even prior to that incident.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 12, 2001

Will Pyongyang split U.S., South Korea?

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- The recent shakeup in Seoul's foreign policy and security team in the aftermath of the Washington summit represents a double effort to patch up relations with the United States, while persuading North Korea to come back to the bargaining table. Both tasks require supreme diplomatic skill.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 11, 2001

The Bank of Japan's new policy is sound

By Isao Kubota

On March 19, the Bank of Japan decided that it would focus more on money supply than on interest rates and that the new policy would be continued until it was confident that the consumer price index, which has been declining continuously for over two years, was rising.

COMMENTARY

Apr 11, 2001

The hazards of reform -- British-style

By David Howell

LONDON -- Forget sagging stock markets and omens of world recession. Forget global warming and U.S. President George W. Bush's rejection of the Kyoto treaty on carbon emissions. Forget, even, the foot-and-mouth disease that is currently paralyzing Britain's farming and tourist industries and has caused...

COMMENTARY

Apr 11, 2001

A turning point for the LDP

By Keizo Nabeshima

The result of the election to choose a new president of the Liberal Democratic Party will be announced today. This will end a domestic political vacuum that has persisted since Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori revealed his intention of stepping down, over a month ago.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 10, 2001

Spy-plane incident bolsters PLA position

By Calum Macleod

BEIJING -- America may translate as the "beautiful country" in Chinese, but it is also known as the arrogant superpower heir to the European invaders who carved up parts of China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The spy-plane incident is rapidly inflating the hate element of China's love-hate relationship...

COMMENTARY

Apr 10, 2001

Reasons to thank Mr. Mori

By Takamitsu Sawa

Since he took office a year ago, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has seen his popularity nosedive as a result of a series of gaffes he committed. Now that he is set to resign in late April, let me review the role the Mori administration has played.

COMMENTARY

Apr 8, 2001

Panic commands a high price

By Sarah Benton

LONDON — The foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain is not devastating British farm production. It is devastating farming's relationship with the rest of Britain. Less than 2 percent of Britain's livestock have been slaughtered either because they have the disease or because, though healthy, they might...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Apr 7, 2001

The U-2 affair all over again

By Constantine Pleshakov

Spy-plane pilot is one of the few professions we should strongly discourage our sons from developing an interest in. Rich in experience, critically important and thrillingly challenging, it is, nevertheless, a career charged with personal and collective disaster. Along with the ongoing anxieties of parents...

COMMENTARY

Apr 7, 2001

Animal rights, terrorist tactics

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Some animal-rights activists in Britain have committed violent crimes against people and companies they dislike. In so doing, they have shown not only that they have lost a sense of proportion, but that they have no rational ethical code. Animal-rights terrorists need to be confronted as firmly...

COMMENTARY

Apr 6, 2001

Few worthy leaders in LDP

By Kenzo Uchida

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to step down sometime this month, a year after he took office. Widely criticized for his alleged incompetence and lack of qualification for national leadership, Mori is sometimes called Japan's worst postwar prime minister. Even though Mori expressed his apparent...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.

The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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