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COMMENTARY

Oct 4, 2003

Angst builds over next round with North

By Kenzo Uchida

Japanese diplomacy appears to be in a lull with the situation in Asia centered on the problem with North Korea. Immediately after the six-nation talks were held in the first half of September, reports from Moscow suggested that the next round of six-nation talks would take place in Beijing in early November....

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 4, 2003

Only recourse is to negotiate

By Nyunt Shwe

Will Myanmar (also known as Burma) be banned from the summit meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations next week? That's not likely, but Myanmar's new prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt, could utterly lose face unless the regime frees prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi before the...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 3, 2003

Israeli debate over soldiers' duty deepens

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- The recent refusal by 27 high-ranking Israeli Air Force officers to follow superiors' orders that would involve attacking Palestinian civilians signifies a rebuke of the Israeli government's policy of "targeted liquidations." What makes the pilots' decision particularly important is that...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 2, 2003

Few know but many fear where the U.S. 'road map' leads

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- By the summer of 2002, U.S. President George Bush had firmly set his new course: "regime change" and reform in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and, where necessary, American military intervention to achieve it.

COMMENTARY

Oct 2, 2003

Book fight turns up a Beijing weak spot

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Love her or loathe her, Hillary Clinton is something else. In 1995, for instance, the then-first lady stood on a Beijing dais and delivered a tough speech that denounced violations of women's rights worldwide. With steely passion she said: "Human rights are women's rights."

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 1, 2003

U.S. mission remains on track in Iraq

By Michael O'Hanlon

WASHINGTON -- How can we really determine if the Iraq mission is going well? Pessimists worry about recent truck bombings and political assassinations, ongoing serious crime problems, sustained attacks against U.S. forces, and high unemployment together with slow progress at improving the Iraqi standard...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 1, 2003

Currency interventions prove to be both fruitless and costly

By Christopher Lingle

GUATEMALA CITY -- The weakening of the U.S. dollar accelerated after finance ministers from the Group of Seven issued a communique calling for market-oriented international exchange rates. Soon afterward, the Japanese yen set a two-year high against the American currency.

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2003

Cooperative Ukraine left out in the cold

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration continues to press for assistance from other nations in Iraq, but without notable success. Both Germany and Russia now indicate a willingness to help, but not with troops. Said Russian President Vladimir Putin in advance of his summit with his American counterpart...

COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM

Sep 29, 2003

Re-elected Koizumi expected to deliver

By Yuki Tatsumi

On Sept. 22, the third Koizumi Cabinet was established. On the same day, the Liberal Democratic Party witnessed the birth of a new party leadership. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, re-elected to head the LDP for the second term with a handsome majority, is now well positioned to face a general election...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Sep 29, 2003

Debate on Emperor's role in war lives on

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Will the nearly 60-year-old debate on the Showa Emperor's role in World War II ever end?

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 29, 2003

Poor options for Korea talks

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- As the United States, Japan and South Korea prepare for a second round of negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, the options for resolving this dispute seem to have sorted themselves into five -- one unlikely, another unacceptable, a third unproductive, the fourth unrealistic...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Sep 28, 2003

Welcome to 'Mother Sofa'

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Moscow seems to have the biggest concentration of furniture stores per square kilometer in the world. Downtown is a cramped place, with barely enough space for designer clothing and jewelry boutiques. Yet, in the peripheral neighborhoods, furniture stores thrive.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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