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COMMENTARY / World

Jul 1, 2002

Arrangement keeps Hong Kong on track

By Alex Fong

Since assuming the post of principal representative for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo a little more than a month ago, I have found tremendous interest here in what has been happening to Hong Kong following its reunification with China on July 1, 1997. About five years before reunification,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 1, 2002

ATM-phobia marks banking leap in Laos

By Tom Morgan

VIENTIANE -- It is only an ATM, but it might as well be an alien spacecraft that crash-landed in central Vientiane. People still do not know what to make of the country's first ATM, despite the fact that it was installed three months ago.

COMMENTARY

Jul 1, 2002

Carbon tax is long past due

By Morihiro Hosokawa

The global environment is deteriorating. I saw this firsthand on my trip to China several years ago. The plane arrived a few hours behind schedule because of blowing dust. As I disembarked, I noticed the jetliner was covered with black particles of "yellow sand."

COMMENTARY

Jul 1, 2002

Tough talk is no key to success

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- An article in the June 10 Nikkei Weekly by a deputy editor of political news at the Nihon Keizai Shimbun had the headline "Foreign Ministry diplomacy failing nation on all fronts." The Foreign Ministry was criticized for not being tough enough in support of national interests. And praise was...

COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA

Jul 1, 2002

Scapegoat seekers fuel nation's decline

By Jean-pierre Lehmann

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- It is natural when one has domestic problems to look for foreign scapegoats. The United States' paranoia over Japan's trade surplus and foreign-investment binge in the 1980s is a good example. While most nations reflect this general syndrome up to a point, the Japanese seem to...

COMMENTARY

Jun 30, 2002

Tollgate mentality in Japan

By Gregory Clark

Straddling the Keiyo Expressway linking Tokyo and Chiba is the Funabashi tollgate. A long row of booths collects a 200 yen toll from most drivers. Perennial jams at the tollgate have long caused frustration to me and others heading toward Chiba. People late for planes at Narita suffer even more.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 30, 2002

Tricky laws cap emotional powder keg

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- After so much controversy surrounding two recent asylum incidents in Beijing, a change of focus may be in order -- from the emotional to the legal dimension. We should begin with the reminder that asylum and inviolability issues, in general, are extremely complicated and can never...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 29, 2002

Soccer teams show the power of reform

By Ahn Byung Joon

The drama of the World Cup has implications for politics in Japan and South Korea. To be sure, soccer and politics are two different games, one a competition for skill and physical stamina and the other a struggle for power and interests. Nevertheless, we can draw lessons from the performances of the...

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2002

The challenge that awaits Afghanistan

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, is clearly eager to claim that his newly installed government rests on a stable foundation.

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2002

A dangerous new doctrine

By David Howell

LONDON -- "I will not wait on events while dangers gather." Thus speaks U.S. President George W. Bush -- and in doing so appears to state, in plain and simple language, a revolutionary new doctrine that upends five decades of thinking about global security.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 28, 2002

Flawed peace plan reflects U.S. illusions

By Michael Dahan and Sam Bahour

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Monday's long-awaited speech by U.S. President George W. Bush was to set the pace for the Palestinians and Israelis to step back from the vicious and bloody cycle of violence that has gripped them for nearly two years. Instead, Bush and his administration have publicly adopted...

COMMENTARY

Jun 27, 2002

Teetering on the edge of real democracy

By Doug Bandow

ANKARA -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim...

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

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