More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

November 05, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 16, 2000

Will G8 swelter in sartorial splendor?

By Edward Neilan

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley was the first to predict that the forthcoming G8 summit on Okinawa might have to be held with the participants wearing sport or aloha shirts instead of formal or business attire.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 16, 2000

Whalers come out on top in IWC meeting

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Once again Japanese whale-meat eaters have outwitted the world's whale lovers. Though those diners need not raise too many self-congratulatory cups of sake. Within a year or two the Tokyo whale restaurant tables could be overturned.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jul 15, 2000

President Putin's 100 days

By Constantine Pleshakov

It is hard to say what counts as the beginning of Vladimir Putin's presidency. When Boris Yeltsin stepped down Dec. 31 and Putin assumed his regency over Russia? The presidential election in March, when he won a landslide victory? May, when he was inaugurated? It is probably best to pick some date in...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 15, 2000

China and Pakistan forge stronger links

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- In recent days, new evidence has surfaced that China and Pakistan have stepped up their clandestine nuclear and missile collaboration as part of their joint rivalry with India. It is clear that the Sino-Pakistani nexus is getting stronger, putting India's security under increased pressure....

COMMENTARY

Jul 15, 2000

U.S. bases: Shut down the Cold War relic

By Doug Bandow

Being a superpower once meant never having to say you're sorry. No more, however. The U.S. presence in Japan's Okinawa island is drawing renewed protests that even the humblest apology will do little to arrest.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 14, 2000

Growing Islamic tide in region heightens Singapore's vulnerability

By David Chew

SINGAPORE -- A red dot in a sea of green. That was how former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, talking to a Singapore minister who was paying a courtesy call, once described Singapore's position among its bigger neighbors in Southeast Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 14, 2000

A yen for stability in a new age

By Tran Van Tho

Along with increasing liberalization of trade and investment, economic globalization has been making rapid progress in Asia. Goods, capital, technology, and management resources are moving briskly across national borders. At the same time, the domestic markets of individual Asian nations have been increasingly...

COMMENTARY

Jul 14, 2000

Rough start for Mori Cabinet

By Kenzo Uchida

On July 4, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori launched his new coalition Cabinet consisting of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party. The event, following the June 25 general election, would have been an occasion for celebration and hope under ordinary circumstances but was...

COMMENTARY

Jul 13, 2000

Japan's new Cabinet avoids hard choices

By Hugh Cortazzi

Foreign reaction to the election results and the formation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's new government can be summed up in one word: "disappointing." Once again it seemed that Japan was missing an opportunity to move forward on the reforms so urgently needed in government and the economy.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2000

Will Arafat follow Sadat?

By David Hirst

BEIRUT -- It will be something less than a miracle if U.S. President Bill Clinton does achieve the high purpose he has set himself in summoning Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Camp David: an end to conflict between Arab and Jew in Palestine. After all, it won't...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 12, 2000

Remedies for globalization's side effects

By John Langmore

GENEVA -- After intense negotiations on social remedies for poverty and other destructive side effects of globalization, the United Nations has hammered out an international policy pact that can make the world economy less turbulent, less cruel and much more fair.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 11, 2000

Fathers must do their duties

By Shintaro Ishihara

The brutal crimes committed by teenagers here recently have shocked the nation. In discussing the issue of juvenile violence, however, we seem to be making a basic mistake: that only those who have the right to vote are "adults." Considering various aspects of human physiology, it is unrealistic to say...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.

The second life of Japan's net cafes

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports