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COMMENTARY / World

Jan 1, 2008

Japan stumbles its way toward a two-party system

By Jiro Yamaguchi

2007 was a politically significant year. It is stirring to see how much the political terrain has changed from the beginning of the year to now.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 1, 2008

Political inertia, public indifference

By Yasuhiro Nakasone

Japanese politics and politicians continue to face an overriding question: What kind of nation should Japan become? The question needs to be discussed among all political parties in ways that inspire the public. Unfortunately, that is not about to happen. Preoccupied with short-term responses to immediate...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 1, 2008

Inflammatory actions at sea

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY — "The whale war" is what irate Australians are calling a fierce row over Japan's whaling operations in the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica. Even normally pro-Japan Aussies are saddened at the way whale hunting is lowering respect here for Australia's most favored nation in Asia.

COMMENTARY

Dec 31, 2007

China's public diplomacy

By Kazuo Ogoura

China's public, or soft-power, diplomacy has traditionally consisted of "people's diplomacy," meaning the cultivation of people friendly to China within other countries. Under this method, China would nurture people sympathetic to its ideas within a country and use these figures to exert influence on...

COMMENTARY

Dec 31, 2007

Killing cycle claimed Bhutto

By Ramesh Thakur

WATERLOO, Canada — Born amid the mass killings of partition in 1947, Pakistan has never escaped the cycle of violence, volatility and bloodshed. Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) is the latest casualty of that murderous cycle.

COMMENTARY

Dec 31, 2007

Censorship serves to flag our own limits

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — It appears that many mainland Chinese moviegoers are traipsing over to Hong Kong in droves to view the uncensored version of Ang Lee's latest blockbuster, "Lust, Caution." With their feet, in effect, they are voting for lust — and as if wishing for official Beijing caution to be gone...

COMMENTARY

Dec 30, 2007

Living with war and a warmer planet

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — 2007 was the year in which global warming finally began to be taken seriously. Climate-change deniers were in full retreat, and the realization that we face a long and grave crisis was finally dawning on the general public. However, it remains to be seen whether the world will agree on effective...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2007

Barack Obama's American revolution

By Dominique Moisi

WARSAW — For eight years, U.S. President George W. Bush has managed to incarnate and reinforce all the prejudices and negative stereotypes the world has of the United States. He has antagonized the world more than any other American president before him, seriously damaging America's "soft" power by...

COMMENTARY

Dec 28, 2007

World leader for president

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG — The 187 countries meeting to discuss climate change in Bali, Indonesia, this month narrowly averted a total breakdown by agreeing to set 2009 as the deadline for a new treaty to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. For that deadline to be met, China and the United States will both need to agree...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2007

The 'browning' of African technology

By G. Pascal Zachary

PRAGUE — Forget MIT. Hello, Tsing Hua University. For Clothilde Tingiri, a hot young programmer at Rwanda's top software company, dreams of Beijing, not Cambridge, animate her ambitions. Desperate for more education, this fall she plans to attend graduate school for computer science — in China, not...

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2007

A man of principles in desperate times

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — There are times when — from a moral standpoint — men and women simply should not remain silent. In such times, seemingly fine lines need to be turned into unequivocal hard lines. This is when the men and women of conscience stand out.

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2007

China puts muscle to policy

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI — Rising economic and military power is emboldening Beijing to pursue a more muscular foreign policy. Having earlier preached the gospel of its "peaceful rise," China is now beginning to take the gloves off, confident of the muscle it has acquired.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

By Hanako Lowry

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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

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