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COMMENTARY

Sep 20, 2009

Divining Japan's new leadership amid the expectations of change

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON — On a recent visit to France, I was frequently asked about the results of the Japanese election. Did the results mean that Japan was really changing? Would the new Japanese government increase Japan's influence in the world?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 20, 2009

Now suicide has become a political issue, how will Japan address it?

By Roger Pulvers

Without a doubt the grimmest statistic coming out of Japan today concerns the number of suicides, which have exceeded 30,000 annually for 11 years in a row — engendering indescribable tragedies for so many families.

EDITORIALS

Sep 19, 2009

Mystery of the missing freighter

It still isn't clear exactly what happened to the Russian-crewed freighter Arctic Sea, which mysteriously disappeared in European waters last month. Inconsistencies and the implausibility of the official story — it was a hijacking — have prompted considerable speculation.

COMMENTARY

Sep 19, 2009

Colombo risks squandering Sri Lanka's hard-won peace

By Brahma Chellaney

If Sri Lanka is to become a tropical paradise again, it must build enduring peace. This will only occur through genuine interethnic equality, and a transition from being a unitary state to being a federation that grants provincial and local autonomy.

EDITORIALS

Sep 18, 2009

Pardon Mr. Chen to help Taiwan

The conviction and sentencing of former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian is a troubling development. The life sentence handed down to Mr. Chen is certain to deepen the fissures in an already deeply divided and volatile society. He has appealed the sentence.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 18, 2009

Japan's harmonious drift

By Guy Sorman

PARIS — Forget what you have heard about the hardworking Japanese salaryman: Since the early 1990s, the Japanese have slackened their work habits.

COMMENTARY

Sep 18, 2009

Competing northern passages

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — Early next week two German-owned container ships will arrive in Rotterdam from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, having taken only one month to make the voyage. That's much faster than usual — but then they didn't take the usual route down through the South China Sea, past Singapore,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 18, 2009

Beijing's 'internal affairs'

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG — Ever since the 1950s, China has subscribed to the principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries, which was first written into a treaty that it signed with India in 1954. China has loudly upheld this principle and criticized those who, in Beijing's view, interfere...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 18, 2009

Economists banked too much on rationality

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The widespread failure of economists to forecast the financial crisis that erupted in 2008 has much to do with faulty models, which meant that economic policymakers and central bankers got no warning of what was to come.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 17, 2009

With Chen behind bars, Taiwan set to heal

By Sin-ming Shaw

BANGKOK — Last week, a Taiwanese court sentenced Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's president from 2000 until 2008, to life in prison for corruption. Chen had embezzled millions of dollars of public funds. He did not act alone. His wife, children and other relatives all helped to hide the stolen loot in overseas...

EDITORIALS

Sep 17, 2009

New government out of the blocks

Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama became Japan's new prime minister Wednesday as the Diet voted him in to the post, ending the long rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power almost continously since late 1955. In an interesting historical twist, the new prime minister's...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 17, 2009

Foreign policy and the democratic paradox

By Dominique Moisi

PARIS — Elections stolen in Iran, disputed in Afghanistan and caricatured in Gabon: Recent ballots in these and many other countries do not so much mark the global advance of democracy as demonstrate the absence of the rule of law.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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