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COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2001

Riding roughshod over planet and people

By Rick Mercier

While many of us were celebrating Earth Day on Sunday, environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera spent another day in a Mexican jail. Soldiers arrested the pair in May 1999 and, says Amnesty International, tortured them until they confessed to guerrilla ties. Amnesty rejects this, saying...

COMMENTARY

Apr 24, 2001

Economy keeps Blair on top

By David Howell

LONDON -- All being well, there will be a general election in Britain on June 7. It is not yet official but it seems almost certain.

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2001

Diplomatic tests await Japan

By Keizo Nabeshima

In just the past six weeks, with Japan plunged into a political vacuum following the virtual declaration of resignation by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, several incidents have occurred that have shaken the world: the simultaneous fall of stock prices in Japan, the United States and Europe; the withdrawal...

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2001

Textbook serves Japan poorly

By Kiroku Hanai

A junior high-school history textbook edited under the direction of a nationalist group, the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform, continues to stir controversy both here and abroad. The textbook recently received the green light from the Education and Science Ministry after the editors accepted all...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Apr 23, 2001

Moscow exiles a mogul with good taste

By Constantine Pleshakov

The Kremlin wins one: President Vladimir Putin's bitter critic, Media-Most media empire, is dead. Its assets have been transferred to pro-Kremlin stockholders, its journalists have been fired or silenced and its owner, Vladimir Gusinsky, is hiding abroad.

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2001

Signs of political upheaval on the horizon

By Kenzo Uchida

A preliminary election tomorrow for the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party will decide how a total of 141 votes cast by representatives of the party's local blocs will be shared among the four candidates. Final results will be determined by the election in which 246 LDP Diet members will cast...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 23, 2001

Musharraf sets his sights on illegal guns

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Stemming the flow of thousands of illegal weapons throughout Pakistan is not an easy task, but the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf has promised this month to do just that with its launch of an aggressive cleanup campaign.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 23, 2001

Bush may not be wrong to reject Kyoto

By Christopher Lingle

U.S. President George W. Bush has announced his opposition to an international global-warming treaty, citing the harm it could do the U.S. economy and the costs it would impose upon its workers. Predictably, this decision not to pursue approval of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change generated a firestorm...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 22, 2001

Europe seeks a greater role in Korea

By Ronald Meinardus

SEOUL -- Whatever their personal opinions about U.S. President George W. Bush may be, supporters and foes must agree that his foreign policy has not received good grades in European capitals.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 22, 2001

Should the U.S. help China to get rich?

By Robyn Lim

How long will the United States continue to believe that it should help China to get rich by keeping American markets open? That's the key question now that the 24 servicemen and -women from the downed U.S. surveillance aircraft have been allowed to return home. Never before has America allowed a potentially...

COMMENTARY

Apr 22, 2001

LDP must reform for the nation's good

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

For the past decade, the Japanese political scene has remained extremely unstable. Things have gone from bad to worse since the Liberal Democratic Party formed a coalition government. The root cause of the instability was the LDP's loss of majority status in both Houses of the Diet.

COMMENTARY

Apr 22, 2001

Overlooking the real victims of foot-and-mouth disease

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Americans and Japanese have been shunning Britain because of the stories and images of burning animals in the foot-and-mouth-disease scare. One Japanese, I hope in jest, asked if we had enough to eat. We responded that we did not need food parcels just yet! Another group to whom I had promised...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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