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EDITORIALS

May 19, 1999

Now, a different Israel

Israel is a divided country. There are long-standing differences between Arabs and Jews, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, and Labor and Likud supporters -- the last a split that has roughly mirrored the divide between hawks and doves. In recent years, those divisions seem to have intensified. Worse, new...

EDITORIALS

May 18, 1999

Keep trade reform alive

An open international trade system is the backbone of the global economy. Vigorous trade has been the instrument of international prosperity in the past half-century. The secret of the trading order's success has been its continual expansion in terms of members (the number of nations) and reach (such...

EDITORIALS

May 16, 1999

'Star Wars' in their eyes

The lines started forming outside theaters in Hollywood in early April. By last week they had sprouted all over America, despite the fact that with just a few days to go fans can now get advance tickets online or by phone. Tickets for what? What event could possibly be worth waiting in line for six weeks...

EDITORIALS

May 15, 1999

More legal help for Japanese citizens

Critics have charged for years that government policies deliberately aimed at discouraging the public from resorting to the courts to resolve disputes have also worked to artificially limit the number of lawyers and judges in this country. Now, in a welcome if belated step aimed at increasing the number...

EDITORIALS

May 14, 1999

Mr. Rubin moves on

Mr. Robert Rubin, the U.S. secretary of the Treasury, will step down from his post this summer. The move was expected. Mr. Rubin had talked to confidants about his desire to return to Wall Street. Still, the announcement surprised markets. The dollar, bond prices and the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

EDITORIALS

May 14, 1999

Playing the Jerusalem card

As Israel heads toward national elections next week, Prime Minis ter Benjamin Netanyahu trails Labor party leader Ehud Barak in the opinion polls. Mr. Netanyahu's campaign has grown increasingly disorganized. He has pleaded with former Likud Party loyalists to come back, shifted themes in mid-course...

EDITORIALS

May 13, 1999

President Kim takes up the challenge

Among Asia's crisis-hit economies struggling for recovery and reform, South Korea may well claim it leads on both counts. Interest rates, the currency and equity prices have markedly improved from the depths of a year and half ago. A return of market confidence is also in evidence as foreign capital...

EDITORIALS

May 12, 1999

A sudden reversal in Kosovo

Last week, it looked as if the West had the upper hand in the ongoing military and diplomatic campaigns against Yugoslavia. Meetings with Russian officials had yielded agreement on terms for an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate Albanian Kosovar leader, had been...

EDITORIALS

May 11, 1999

First breach in the government wall

After two decades of on-and-off arguments, the Diet finally passed a freedom of information bill into law last Friday. For the first time in Japan's history, a law stipulates that the government "has the duty to explain to the nation" the way government ministries and agencies run their affairs. To be...

EDITORIALS

May 8, 1999

Blair gambles on federalism and wins

The United Kingdom remains united. In a historic vote earlier this week, the Scots and the Welsh held elections to select representatives for their own newly created Parliaments. Preliminary results indicate that the Labor Party will hold the most seats in the new legislature sitting in Edinburgh, but...

EDITORIALS

May 7, 1999

A brush with history

Mallory, Hillary.... The airwaves have been buzzing this week with two of the best-known names in mountain-climbing history. Some people even reportedly got confused, thinking the body found near the summit of Mount Everest May 1 was that of Sir Edmund Hillary (who is very much alive in New Zealand)...

EDITORIALS

May 5, 1999

Yugoslavia's real hostages

Yugoslavia has released the three U.S. soldiers captured in the first days of the NATO military campaign. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is to be thanked for winning the freedom of the three servicemen, another success for the charismatic civil-rights leader. The release of the three men is welcome, but it does...

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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