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COMMENTARY

Dec 31, 2002

Koizumi losing ability to lead

By Kenzo Uchida

The most striking impression about 2002 is that the world has become increasingly insecure. When two jetliners hijacked by suicide terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, old-fashioned big-power games ended and a new struggle between civilized society and international...

COMMENTARY

Dec 30, 2002

Missiles challenge diplomac

By Keizo Nabeshima

Defense chief Shigeru Ishiba's rash remarks regarding a joint Japan-U.S. missile defense project deviate from Tokyo's official defense policy and could give the impression that Japan is advancing the bilateral initiative beyond research to the development stage.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Dec 30, 2002

Pomp, ceremony and the U.S. presidency

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- A new book by Christopher Anderson is called "George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage." Andersen, who also wrote "Jack and Jackie" and "Bill and Hillary," may not always be "respectful," to quote a reviewer, toward America's First Couples, but the appearance of his latest book...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2002

S. Korean-U.S. relations at a crossroad

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- Riding atop a tsunami wave of popular protest against perceived inequities in the Status of Forces Agreement governing U.S forces in South Korea and a general restiveness over the American military presence, South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, promises to bring a new focus to South...

COMMENTARY

Dec 29, 2002

Resist the potions of the past

By David Howell

LONDON -- "Capitulation bottom" is the ugly and inelegant phrase used by financial analysts in London to indicate the low point in the cycle of investor optimism and pessimism -- the point where investors give up in despair, sell their shrunken shareholdings, if they can find a buyer, and start putting...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2002

'Russian spirit' headed down the hatch

By Nonna Chernyakova

MOSCOW -- With the winter holidays upon us, Russians are looking forward to the longest drinking binge of the year. It started with "Western" Christmas, which Russians began celebrating after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then come New Year's Eve, Russian Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7 and the old...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2002

Modernization model for Islamic nations

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- With all due respect to his office, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia got it wrong when he suggested in Tokyo in mid-December that the Japanese help Americans and Europeans to understand Islam.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2002

Saber-rattling leaves Asia cold

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I was in Beijing last week for a conference and research visits that focused on regional cooperation in Northeast Asia. While I was there, Chinese newspapers reported on Japan's dispatch of the Aegis missile detection system-equipped warship, Kirishimi, to the Indian Ocean.

COMMENTARY

Dec 28, 2002

Keep a close eye on prisons

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The basic objectives of a judicial sentence of imprisonment are deterrence, rehabilitation and punishment. To deter criminals, it is first necessary to arrest them and ensure that those who are guilty are convicted. The criminal must then recognize that imprisonment, which means in the first...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2002

BJP hardliners besiege Indian secularism

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- Indian secularism is in danger. Last spring the western state of Gujarat, perhaps the most economically prosperous region in the country, was the site of the nation's worst communal carnage since the days of partition in 1947 when the British divided the subcontinent into India and Pakistan....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2002

ASEM painfully short on substance

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- ASEM, the Asia-Europe meeting process, was born in a climate of general euphoria in 1996 in Bangkok. The idea to bring together the combined potentials of the European Union and of several important Asian players looked promising and, fundamentally, it is still valid today.

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2002

Marketing matters in foreign policy

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- Call me a cynic, but I've long believed that one of the greatest foreign-policy advantages the United States has enjoyed is the ineptness of the governments it has confronted. It's always good to have right on your side, but sometimes that isn't enough. Nor is might the answer: The reality...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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