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EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 1999

Speaking without thinking

Barely two weeks after he was named parliamentary vice minister for defense, Mr. Shingo Nishimura of the Liberal Party was forced to resign Wednesday over outrageous views made public in a Japanese weekly magazine. In a two-hour interview, Mr. Nishimura suggested that the Diet consider discussing whether...

EDITORIALS

Oct 20, 1999

'Nissan is in bad shape'

That blunt comment says it all. At a press conference Monday, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan's chief operating officer, ticked off the company's failings: mismanagement, inefficient production, lack of vision, unappealing products. Their impact has been plain: Nissan, Japan's second largest carmaker, has lost...

EDITORIALS

Oct 19, 1999

Now it is up to Pyongyang

There were hopes, a few years ago, that North Korea might just quietly implode, as the Soviet Union did, then be absorbed by its neighbor to the south. The hermetic state was on the brink of mass starvation, created by economic mismanagement and compounded by nature's caprice. The government in Pyongyang...

EDITORIALS

Oct 18, 1999

First bigger, then better

Another Japanese megabank is in the making. Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank have just agreed to merge by April 2002, which will create the world's second-largest banking group, with assets of about 99 trillion yen. Earlier this year, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan announced...

EDITORIALS

Oct 15, 1999

The shortsighted U.S. Senate

The United States Senate this week voted down the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This is the first time since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that the Senate has rejected a major international agreement. We can only hope that the results of this shortsighted move will not be as great. Still, the vote...

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...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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