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EDITORIALS

Oct 14, 1999

The limits in Pakistan

The coup that deposed Pakistan's prime minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was a long time coming. It had many causes, the most immediate of which was the animosity between Mr. Sharif and the military. But by almost every measure, Mr. Sharif's term in office has been a disaster. That does not excuse the military's...

EDITORIALS

Oct 10, 1999

Dishonored by the honors system

Twice a year, the government confers orders and honors on eminent citizens in recognition of their service to the nation or their local communities. This decoration system, which has been in place since the Meiji Era, has been drawing flak from part of the business world. Some business leaders are calling...

EDITORIALS

Oct 9, 1999

A resounding win for Mr. Vajpayee

Political stability has been a rare commodity in India of late. In the last three years, the country has had five governments and three general elections. The cycle seems to have been broken in the national elections held five weeks ago, however. As the final results come in, it looks as if Mr. Atal...

EDITORIALS

Oct 7, 1999

From a cakewalk to a campaign

It might be a race after all. The signs from the hustings are that the 2000 U.S. presidential nominations, once thought to have been sewn up by Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush (as Democrat and Republican, respectively), might not be guaranteed. Mr. Gore's position looks more precarious...

EDITORIALS

Oct 6, 1999

Familiar features of a new Cabinet

The reshuffled Cabinet of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will literally have to lead Japan into a new millennium fraught with uncertainties. Its immediate task is to solidify the nascent recovery of the long-foundering Japanese economy and put it on the path of sustained growth. To meet this demand, Mr....

EDITORIALS

Oct 2, 1999

Celebrations and sublimations

China this week celebrates the 50 years of the People's Republic. Of course, it is not celebrating all of those years: The Great Leap Forward, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese, and the Great Cultural Revolution, the decade of terror that turned the country upside down, will...

EDITORIALS

Oct 2, 1999

A last chance for Indonesia

Nearly four months after the first free and fair elections in four decades, Indonesia's new Parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly, convened Friday. The opening session marked a new era in the nation's politics. The MPR, as the Parliament is known, is being seated at a difficult time. Indonesia...

EDITORIALS

Sep 30, 1999

The violence in East Timor

Intimidation failed in East Timor. Despite threats and violence, a stunning 98.6 percent of registered voters turned in ballots in Monday's referendum on the territory's future. Sadly, the peace on voting day was only a lull; violence resumed when the polls closed. Worse, it has become clear that the...

EDITORIALS

Sep 30, 1999

Russia's Chechen scapegoat

A wave of terrorist bombings in Moscow is pushing Russia once again toward war. No government can permit its citizens to be terrorized, and the scale of the recent attacks suggests that a formidable enemy is at work. Still, Moscow's response to the bombings seems ill-planned and desperate. Just as troubling...

EDITORIALS

Sep 29, 1999

Japan's binding promise to the G7

At the G7 conference of finance ministers and central bank chiefs that was held in Washington over the weekend, the delegates from other member nations agreed to adopt a read-between-the-lines statement in which the world's top financial managers shared their worry over the recent sharp rise of the yen....

EDITORIALS

Sep 28, 1999

Indonesia's armed forces strike back

Indonesia's powerful military is not giving up. After humiliating the country with its mishandling of East Timor, the armed forces have rammed legislation through the Parliament that gives the government new powers in the event of an emergency. Opponents fear that the groundwork is being laid for a coup,...

EDITORIALS

Sep 25, 1999

Cold War leftovers

"There's no such thing as retirement, really," John le Carre's secret pilgrim muses in the 1991 spy novel of that name. A few old spies in Britain and the United States have been sharply reminded of the truth of that aphorism this month following sensational revelations that the Cold War espionage web...

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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