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August 28, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Sep 17, 2006

Long inevitable goodbye of Tony Blair

By Christopher Hitchens

LONDON -- In early 1999, Paddy Ashdown, then the leader of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party (and since then, as Lord Ashdown, Europe's envoy in Bosnia), was found with a woman not his wife and forced to resign his post.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

By Roger Pulvers

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...

EDITORIALS

Sep 17, 2006

Have a nice 'sol'

It's that time again. Every so often, life on our planet just seems so bleak there's nowhere to look but out. That was certainly the case this past week. Not only did the usual whack-a-mole wars keep flaring and simmering, even good things had their dark sides. Here in Japan, the welcome birth of a prince...

EDITORIALS

Sep 16, 2006

ASEM, a mere addendum?

The Europe-Asian Meeting, better known as ASEM, has the potential to be an important international forum. Its 38 members -- 25 from the European Union and 13 from Asia -- represent 40 percent of the world's population, 50 percent of global GDP and 60 percent of world trade. Their respect and preference...

EDITORIALS

Sep 15, 2006

Mr. Ozawa on the offensive

Just as the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election campaign is making headlines, Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, formally announces his candidacy in the No. 1 opposition party's leadership race and discloses his platform. By emphasizing the need to rectify what some...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 15, 2006

Japan loath to discuss incestuous abuse

By Tomo Shibata

Although incestuous abuse of a female child by her own father takes place frequently in Japan, the Japanese media refuse to critically discuss it, regarding it mostly as a plain taboo. Meanwhile, the Japanese legislature and the judiciary collusively dismiss this crime against humanity, thereby encouraging...

EDITORIALS

Sep 14, 2006

Beware the dangers of drunk driving

The recent deaths of three young children in Fukuoka in a car accident caused by a drunk driver has highlighted Japanese society's misplaced tolerance toward driving under the influence of alcohol and the lack of awareness among drivers that it is illegal to drive after ingesting alcohol. Even worse,...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 14, 2006

TB and HIV: a combination made in hell

By Jamillah Mwanjisi and Olayide Akanni

PRAGUE -- Fatima, who lives in western Tanzania near Lake Tanganyika, has been suffering for more than a month from a dry, hacking cough. She trembles to think that it might mean she has tuberculosis. Fatima knows that she can find out and, if necessary, receive treatment at the nearest health clinic,...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 14, 2006

Twins wreak havoc in Poland

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- "I am afraid that with Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister, Poland will become more extreme, more anti-European and a more xenophobic country," warned Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of the opposition Civic Platform party, when the second Kaczynski twin was made prime minister by his brother,...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 14, 2006

Emerging from the nuclear shadow

By Daisaku Ikeda

"At any given moment in history, precious few voices are heard crying out for justice. But, now more than ever, those voices must rise above the din of violence and hatred."

COMMENTARY

Sep 14, 2006

Let's avoid a U.N. row with South Korea

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- I do not much mind being misquoted, especially in a good cause. That cause is the worthy candidacy of South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, who is fighting for the job of U.N. secretary general. The incumbent, Kofi Annan, is finishing out his second term and must vacate later this...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 13, 2006

If 9/11 hadn't happened, where would the world be?

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Five years since 9/11, and we are still being told that the world has changed forever. But the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, was a low-probability event that could just as easily not have happened. The often careless and sometimes incompetent hijackers might have been caught...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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