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July 23, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2003
Force restructuring anxiety
By Ralph Cossa
SINGAPORE -- There was a time when the Pentagon saw "relieving regional anxiety" as one of its primary alliance maintenance tasks in East Asia. Today, it seems more adept at creating this anxiety, rather than providing the reassurance that lies at the heart of sustaining America's critical alliances...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2003
Breakwalls against U.S. tide
By Eric Teo Chu Cheow
SINGAPORE — Big-power rapprochement was high on the agenda in both St. Petersburg, Russia, and Evian, France, this past week a month after U.S. President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. But how does this rapprochement mesh with perceived American unilateralism?...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2003
For Russian Far Easterners, future lies in Northeast Asia
By Brad Glosserman
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia -- The Russian Far East is a vast territory of 6.2 million square kilometers. Although it is about one-third the size of the United States, it has less than 3 percent of the U.S. population. Largely neglected by Moscow, some 10 percent of the population has left in search of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2003
Congo's riches continue to bring only death and misery
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK -- Since achieving independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been ravaged by internecine ethnic strife that has claimed millions of lives. In spite of that, the conflict has been largely neglected by the world's industrialized governments. The United Nations Security Council's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2003
It's time to build a biotechnology culture
By M. Taeb and K. Chamundeeswari
Developments in biotechnology during the past two decades have provided us with a greater understanding of the genetic makeup of living organisms. Although the full potential of biotechnology has yet to be realized, it is now possible to isolate and move genes across different species. The main driving...
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2003
Visions clash over EU future
By Sarah Benton
LONDON -- It could be the most momentous change in Britain's history or it could be a big yawn -- something that reaches only the most nerdlike minds of constitutional lawyers. Yes, it's the European Union Constitution, worked on for months by a 13-member presidium and a convention of 105 ministers and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2003
Myanmar's regime must embrace change
By Nyunt Shwe
"We are confident that change will come -- not as quickly as most of us would wish it to come -- but it will come. And I think the more we all try to make change come instead of wondering when change will come, the quicker it will come."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2003
Enough with the France-bashing, please
By Michael O'Hanlon
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and some of his Pentagon associates appear to be on a private vendetta against France. The Pentagon has not denied, and may even have planted, false rumors that France helped some members of Saddam Hussein's government escape Iraq during the recent...
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2003
U.S.-Japan global alliance
By Keizo Nabeshima
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 / World
Jun 1, 2003
Contradictory U.S. triumph
By Ramesh Thakur
An unusual, and thus intriguing, feature of the Iraq war is how both proponents and opponents feel passionately vindicated by what happened. The switch in justification -- from finding and destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the war to the humanitarian liberation of Iraqis from a murderous...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2003
Roh's summit of deferral
By John Barry Kotch
SEOUL -- Plying the Aegean like Ulysses of yore in Greek mythology -- full of self-doubt as to what awaited him at the end of his voyage if, in fact, he reached his final destination -- South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun returned from his maiden voyage to the United States on his feet, but just barely....
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2003
No place for N. Korea in postwar order?
By Ronald Meinardus
MANILA -- Peaceful conflict resolution has ceased to be a dominant paradigm of international relations. On the contrary, with the sole remaining superpower declaring preemptive strikes to be a strategic prerogative, and Washington's military supremacy virtually unopposed, political modesty has disappeared...
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Hitomi Obara, 2012 Olympic champion in wrestling, dies at 44
Hitomi Obara competes at the London Olympics in August 2012.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.
In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food
You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.
Touring the Silk Road — without leaving Tokyo
One of the entrances to Pao Compound, a nine-story Silk Road-inspired complex in Tokyo's Higashinakano neighborhood

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
By Alex K.T. Martin

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