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COMMENTARY

Jul 28, 2006

North Korea's waning respect for China

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Strange as it may seem, there was an unofficial American group in Pyongyang on July 5, when North Korea conducted a series of missile tests. Stranger still is that a key North Korean official spoke to them quite frankly about what he thought of China, ostensibly Pyongyang's ally.

COMMENTARY

Jul 27, 2006

Pols undermining Britain's civil service

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The British civil service has prided itself on being politically neutral in providing unbiased advice to ministers. It has also largely avoided being corrupted by political cronyism. Sadly these traditions are being undermined by British politicians.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 26, 2006

Adolescent suicide: a serious problem in every country

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- It happens every day, and with alarming frequency. Adolescent suicide is a serious problem in every country, and Japan is no exception. An estimated 30,000 Japanese of all ages kill themselves each year.

COMMENTARY

Jul 25, 2006

Fitting memorial for war dead

By Kiroku Hanai

With the governing Liberal Democratic Party set to elect its new leader in September -- when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi step downs as LDP president (and hence as prime minister) some LDP lawmakers are proposing ways to solve the ongoing row over Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Visits...

COMMENTARY

Jul 24, 2006

Pyongyang opts for isolation

By Keizo Nabeshima

Never had security over the Korean Peninsula attracted so much international attention until the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously July 15 for a resolution denouncing North Korea's ballistic-missile tests. Two days later, the Group of Eight summit held in St. Petersburg, Russia, issued...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 24, 2006

Tories need to do more than pick on EU

By Glyn Ford

BRUSSELS -- All the focus groups in Britain demonstrate that people do not care about Europe. Or at least they certainly don't treat it as a priority. The economy, health and education, as well as quality of life and security issues, con- sistently rate higher. Yet David Cameron's Tories are still falling...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 24, 2006

Containing chemical weapons

By Ramesh Thakur

Recent events from the Middle East to Northeast Asia have once again highlighted the unsatisfactory state of affairs with respect to the tool kit available to the international community for responding to the challenge of weapons of mass destruction. This makes it all the more curious as to why more...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 24, 2006

Iran's attempt to score a preemptive strike

By Edward N. Luttwak

WASHINGTON -- Iran's quarreling and competing leaders have decided, by their acts, to reject the offer by Europe and the United States of a nuclear reactor, aircraft spare parts, economic cooperation and more in exchange for giving up uranium enrichment.

COMMENTARY

Jul 23, 2006

Downhill path from fear to proliferation

By Robyn Lim

Why have some of Japan's leaders been talking about the need to acquire the ability to attack North Korean missiles on the launchpads? It's because they know that the United States, despite its overwhelming air and maritime power, cannot credibly threaten North Korea. That is because North Korea holds...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jul 23, 2006

Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness

By Roger Pulvers

Who are the Jews? What do Jewish writers have in common with each other? What, strictly speaking, is a "Jewish" writer . . . and, for that matter, what is meant by "strictly speaking"?

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 22, 2006

Putting Lebanon back together again

By Shlomo Avineri

LONDON -- Today's crisis in Lebanon is a crisis of the Lebanese state. It is this structural crisis that must be addressed if the violence is to stop.

COMMENTARY

Jul 22, 2006

UNSC passes the test, so far

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- Hat's off to Pyongyang! It has helped to accomplish in 10 days what American officials had failed to accomplish in almost four years of diplomacy: a unanimous United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that not only condemns its July 5 (Fourth of July in the United States) missile...

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

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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