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COMMENTARY

Apr 26, 2003

A Pyrrhic victory in Iraq

By Kenzo Uchida

When the war in Iraq began March 19, speculation was rife about its likely duration. Predictions ranged from very short (less than 10 days) to fairly long (over a month) to very long (a protracted Vietnam-type war). As it turned out, the fighting effectively ended in a little over three weeks. But it's...

COMMENTARY

Apr 25, 2003

North Korea policy hijacked

By Gregory Clark

Tokyo's never-ending capacity for emotional overreaction, irrational group-think and back-to-front foreign policies has reached new heights over North Korea. Somehow Pyongyang's remarkable willingness to admit and apologize for former abductions of Japanese citizens has been turned around 180 degrees...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2003

SARS may lift Japan's leadership role

By Phar Kim Beng

MEDFORD, Massachusetts -- At the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, two stories surrounded the role of China. One attested to China's positive role as a stabilizer; the other pointed to China's unsavory economic practice. According to the latter, China had intentionally devalued its currency...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 24, 2003

Responding to provocations

By Victor D. Cha

SINGAPORE -- In late February and early March, North Korea launched two antiship cruise missiles in the direction of Japan. Japan tried its best to downplay the events. In the first instance, it said the 90-km test did not technically violate the North's moratorium on ballistic-missile tests. After the...

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2003

A bigger Europe may not be any better

By David Howell

LONDON -- A few days ago in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, EU leaders approved a major expansion of the European Union that will embrace 10 new members and 73 million more European citizens.

COMMENTARY

Apr 23, 2003

Which side blinked, and why?

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- The announcement that United States and North Korea had agreed to multilateral talks with China in Beijing on Wednesday was most welcome after six months of escalating tensions. Conventional wisdom is that America's success in Iraq was the primary factor in bringing Pyongyang to the bargaining...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 22, 2003

Regulation remains a problem

By Mamoru Ishida

In his policy speech to the Diet earlier this year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced that the government would double foreign direct investment in Japan in five years to increase employment.

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2003

Why war in Korea is less probable now

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Many fretful observers, on both sides of the Pacific, are convinced that U.S. military action against North Korea is inevitable. But this gloomy doomsday scenario, it seems to me, becomes increasingly improbable as time goes on.

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2003

Peacemaker for Sri Lanka

By Keizo Nabeshima

Japan plans to play a leading role in rebuilding strife-torn Sri Lanka. Peace talks are under way to end more than 20 years of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese (Buddhist) majority and the Tamil (Hindu) minority. An international conference on Sri Lankan reconstruction and development is scheduled...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 21, 2003

EU troubles will also expand

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- The symbolism could hardly have been better. Against a background of the columns of ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, 25 government leaders signed documents that will bring into the European Union countries that spent much of their postwar existence under communist dictatorship....

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Apr 20, 2003

Nice work so far but can U.S. pay up?

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- By now there is very little doubt that the armed forces of the United States are quite phenomenal. The display of technology, tactics, teamwork, discipline and control in the four-week campaign that has taken control of Iraq has been quite a show, a demonstration of military power that...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 19, 2003

Stop demolitions of Palestinian homes

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Systematic home demolitions, severe travel restrictions, curfews and town blockades are cruel occupation policies aimed at intimidating Palestinians and making them leave their lands. Since the start of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands in 1967, more than 10,000 homes have been demolished,...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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