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August 29, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Feb 1, 2007

Toward a Palestinian civil war

By Ramzy Baroud

LONDON -- The recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, which left many people dead, confirms that the internal strife plaguing the occupied territories since Hamas took power in January 2006 was not entirely the outcome of outside meddling in Palestinian affairs. It is also a violent expression of the already...

EDITORIALS

Jan 31, 2007

Preparing for a pandemic

Three recent outbreaks of avian influenza -- the first two in Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu and the third in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture -- serve as a warning about a possible outbreak of an influenza pandemic that could cause millions of deaths worldwide. Virus samples taken from dead chickens in...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 31, 2007

Uneven growth presents a challenge for Europe

By Melvyn Krauss

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A year ago, the euro zone's most important challenge was anemic economic growth. But 2006 turned out to be a good year for growth in Europe, as surprising strength in exports sparked unexpected increases in domestic demand. Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, had a particularly...

EDITORIALS

Jan 30, 2007

Will a murder help Turkey?

The assassination of Turkish journalist Hrant Dink has forced Turks to face their past. Mr. Dink was killed because he had called the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century a genocide. While his rhetoric angered many Turks, his death appears to have prompted many more of them to think twice...

EDITORIALS

Jan 29, 2007

Inconveniences of truth

This January, whether golfing in the snow country of Niigata, butterfly-watching in the Alps or skating over the ice in Texas, the weather is obviously stranger than ever before. The observation of the senses, or at least the quick read of a few news articles, should be enough evidence of global warming...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jan 29, 2007

Same hot buttons a hundred years later

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- What was the world like 100 years ago? That was not the question I had in mind when I idly wondered if I could find exactly how French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) had described British playwright/novelist Oscar Wilde on one special occasion. As this is the age of the Internet, I quickly...

EDITORIALS

Jan 28, 2007

Mr. Abe's pitch to the Diet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a policy speech in his first regular Diet session as prime minister, pitched his top political goal -- changing Japan's postwar regime and revising the Constitution. But just what kind of nation he wants to build through such endeavors is not necessarily clear. In the short...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jan 28, 2007

More than money was found wanting in 'the lost decade'

By Roger Pulvers

Last week in this column, in an attempt to trace the roots of the nationalism now becoming a mainstream political force in Japan, I discussed the currents that characterized this country in the 1980s. This week I will look at the 1990s, to see how the social euphoria of the '80s led to what has come...

EDITORIALS

Jan 27, 2007

State of the Union? Divided

President George W. Bush's State of the Union speeches will be seen as critical moments in his presidency. In 2002, he identified an "axis of evil" that threatened the United States and the world. A year later, he used 16 words alleged to be proof of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's efforts to...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 27, 2007

Europe's distant mirror?

By Dominique Moisi and Jarrett Renshaw

PRAGUE -- It is tempting for Europeans to project their own history onto Asia and to view current developments there as a mere repetition, if not an imitation, of what occurred in Europe. In fact, Asians encourage this temptation, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) openly aiming...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 26, 2007

Treatment of Roma in schools on trial

By Robert Badinter

PARIS -- What good are Europe's treaties aimed at ensuring the legal equality of all citizens when entire groups face systematic discrimination?

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 26, 2007

Empathizing with an enemy

By C.L. Max Nikias

LOS ANGELES -- In a resonant scene from film director Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," soldiers find a letter on the person of a just-deceased enemy. Upon learning that the letter is from his mother, sharing her hopes and fears and wisdom, they are haunted by their shared humanity with this...

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

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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