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COMMENTARY

Oct 5, 2002

Japan ill-served by outrage

By Gregory Clark

Japan's powerful rightwing seems determined to use the abduction and other problems with North Korea to wreck Tokyo's stunning breakthrough in relations with that once-secretive nation. Even moderates here have let themselves get involved in the attempted demolition.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 5, 2002

AIDS: a medical and social epidemic

By Cesar Chelala

The rapidly increasing number of AIDS orphans worldwide is one of the most serious consequences of the AIDS epidemic today. It is estimated that more than 13 million children currently under 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, the rapid spread of the infection...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 4, 2002

Let science sow seeds of peace

By Norman E. Borlaug

While there has been a marked decrease in the rate of global population growth since the early 1990s, it is still rising rapidly, especially in developing countries. Medium-term projections for world population are approximately 8.3 billion by 2030 and 9.3 billion by 2050, before hopefully stabilizing...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 3, 2002

Tibet: a bridge between India and China

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- The issue of Tibet has plagued relations between India and China for well over four decades. When China annexed the small Himalayan nation in the 1950s, New Delhi found itself in a difficult position, given its special ties with the Tibetan people: India had an open border with Tibet,...

COMMENTARY

Oct 3, 2002

Iraq, yes -- but why now?

By David Howell

LONDON -- Everyone seems agreed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a very nasty piece of work, a brutal tyrant with homicidal tendencies who cannot be trusted one inch.

COMMENTARY

Oct 2, 2002

Once-cool Britannia begins to boil

By Sarah Benton

WASHINGTON -- Britain split along three rift lines last week and it's hard to see where they might meet again. Perhaps only an Anglo-American attack on Iraq could unite the nation against such mind-boggling folly and terrifying, costly megalomania.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 2, 2002

Saving the banking system

By Pascal Nguyen

The Bank of Japan announcement that it would purchase part of the stakes that banks hold in listed companies has raised question marks among investors.

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

China keeps its cool, and its national focus

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- When U.S. President George W. Bush won the last election, Beijing warmly congratulated the winner. This was remarkable, given his harsh campaign rhetoric, which was anti-China and pro-Taiwan. Yet, China avoided losing its cool and, as we have seen since, pretty much remained focused on...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Sep 30, 2002

Great Tokyo Air Raid was a war crime

By Hiroaki Sato

On Dec. 7, 1964, the Japanese government conferred the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun upon Gen. Curtis LeMay -- yes, the same general who, less than 20 years earlier, had incinerated "well over half a million Japanese civilians, perhaps nearly a million."

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 30, 2002

Give democracy a chance in postwar Iraq

By Russell Working

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- In recent months, the Iraqi debate has played in the news like a tennis match, with observers awarding points to U.S. President George W. Bush for his U.N. speech, then to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his shrewd move to admit inspectors "without conditions" -- subject, of course,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

Japan as a 'banana republic'?

By Hugh Cortazzi

The announcement that the governor of the Bank of Japan was considering the purchase of company shares held by Japanese banks at market prices has done nothing to reassure opinion in Britain about the state of the Japanese economy. The general view remains, to quote the Financial Times, "that price deflation...

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

A theory that doesn't work

By Takamitsu Sawa

For the market economy to function effectively, equal opportunity must be guaranteed in all sectors of society. In today's Japan, however, there is no such guarantee. For example, the opportunity for a Japanese person to become a Diet member is far from equal, because many retiring Diet members have...

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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