More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 11, 2002

Populist politics behind Argentine crisis

By Christopher Lingle

Those who would blame Argentina's economic woes on free-market policies or pegging the peso to the U.S. dollar choose to be willfully blind to reality. Although the most evident and most disastrous results are economic in nature, the bases of the problems are political.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2002

Arab nations leaving Palestinians to face Israel alone

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- There has always been a vital Arab dimension to the Palestinian struggle. For a long period, in fact, the Arabs bore the brunt of the struggle, waging four, mainly disastrous, wars, in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, with little or no Palestinian participation in them.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2002

Japan's rights and wrongs in the 'fishing boat' incident

By Mark J. Valencia

HONOLULU -- Japan's violent pursuit of a suspected North Korean boat in the East China Sea has prompted both domestic and international controversy. Domestic opposition critics are questioning Japan's right to use force on the "high seas" and are using this incident to argue against expanding Japan's...

COMMENTARY

Jan 10, 2002

Nuclear deployment danger

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- The handshake between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Nepal last Saturday caused an international sigh of relief as the two nuclear powers took a tentative step back from the brink of war. Tensions will remain high on the Indian subcontinent,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 9, 2002

Argentina: A nation too few believe in

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Five presidents in 12 days; riots and looting that have left 32 dead; the biggest default on sovereign debt in history; and the prospect of a return to military government or a toned-down, spruced-up version of fascism lurking around the corner. What is wrong with Argentina?

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 8, 2002

Behind the scenes with Phnom Penh's 'orange girls'

By Sarah Rooney

PHNOM PENH -- In central Phnom Penh, at one end of a semiderelict building, is a tiny lean-to shack. Its walls are made of scavenged wood planks and its roof of corrugated iron. The ground around it is a swamp of sewage and mud due to the daily monsoon rains. To get to the shack, you have to hop along...

COMMENTARY

Jan 8, 2002

India set to keep full press on Pakistan

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- The biggest question now is whether war will break out between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Although no right-minded citizen in either country wants war, many forget that Pakistan has thrust an undeclared war on India for years, bleeding India noticeably. Thus the aim is not...

COMMENTARY

Jan 7, 2002

Fine-tuning needed for globalization

By Yukio Suzuki

In the new year, the world will have to grapple with daunting political and economic challenges that surfaced toward the end of the 20th century. The terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11 -- which The Economist called the "the day the world changed" -- complicated the problems.

COMMENTARY

Jan 7, 2002

Assuaging threats to peace

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The Taliban has been routed and, with the arrival of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Kabul, the prospects for Afghanistan are better than they have been for many years. But Osama bin Laden and his senior henchmen have not been accounted for. The search will have to continue, and terrorist havens,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 7, 2002

One step up, two steps sideways in Nago

By Robert D. Eldridge

WASHINGTON -- On Dec. 27, Japanese central government officials and leaders from Okinawa Prefecture announced agreement on a basic plan for the proposed construction of a joint civil-military use airport on the reef off eastern Nago City. The announcement by the Futenma Relocation Committee ("Daitai...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 7, 2002

More troubling than another spy boat

By Brent Choi

SEOUL -- Pyongyang surely can be said to have stepped over the line once it is confirmed that the suspected spy boat that played tag with the Japanese Coast Guard last month was indeed from North Korea. The incident has led Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his administration to perform an...

COMMENTARY

Jan 6, 2002

Pakistan needs trade, not aid

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- The United States has assembled a dubious collection of allies over the years. Washington long has had to emphasize the vices of its adversaries rather than the virtues of its friends. Instead of tying itself to morally putrefying regimes through aid programs and military alliances, the...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports