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August 28, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Sep 13, 2006

Bush creating a more dangerous world

By David Howell

LONDON -- Directly after the horror of 9/11 there was a moment when America held the good will of almost the entire world in the palm of its hand.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 12, 2006

Donor pledges to Gaza not good enough

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Although several governments have recently pledged $500 million to help the Palestinian people, the response is late, incomplete and likely to be ineffective unless the aid is accompanied by political measures to alleviate a situation in which Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, have become...

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2006

Reform book needs review

By Takamitsu Sawa

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the overwhelming favorite to replace Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister later this month, lists education reform as one of his policy priorities.

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2006

War on terror side effects

Five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the global war on terror initiated by the world's only superpower is still in a dark tunnel, and no ray of hope has yet appeared. In October that year, the U.S. started war in Afghanistan to put down Taliban Islamic fundamentalists....

COMMENTARY

Sep 10, 2006

Irwin never met a critter he didn't like

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- I have long been in awe of the late Steve Irwin, perhaps in part because I never personally met him.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 10, 2006

War's heroes and villains: Two sides of the same coin

By Roger Pulvers

For two days, on Aug. 18 and 19, 1966, Australian soldiers fought a battle at the village of Long Tan in South Vietnam. Though vastly outnumbered, they held their ground. Subsequently, they were given medals for bravery by the then-government of South Vietnam; and in May 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson...

EDITORIALS

Sep 10, 2006

Tears for the Crocodile Hunter

The curious phrase "crocodile tears" might need redefining in the wake of the death of Australia's famed "Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin. Shakespeare coined the term, an allusion to the Romans' belief that crocodiles weep as they eat their prey, to describe an insincere display of grief, false tears....

EDITORIALS

Sep 9, 2006

Mr. Horie gets his day in court

Mr. Takafumi Horie, once the high-flying president of the Internet service firm Livedoor Co., who was known for his T-shirt-and-slacks attire, appeared in public this week in a suit and tie. This time he was in Tokyo District Court charged with violating the securities law. Reflecting not only public...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 9, 2006

Sisyphean war against a virtual enemy

PRAGUE -- Five years have passed since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 2001, yet it seems that policymakers have learned little about how terrorist cells operate, and what their weaknesses are. The Bush administration still uses the phrase "war on terror" and behaves as...

EDITORIALS

Sep 9, 2006

Maintain fiscal discipline

With the passing of the deadline for budgetary requests from government ministries and agencies, work to compile the fiscal 2007 budget is now in full swing. The new budget is important because it will be the first under the government's program calling for spending cuts of 11.4 trillion yen to 14.3...

EDITORIALS

Sep 8, 2006

Japan joins the Great Game

Acentury ago, Russia and Britain contested for influence in Central Asia in a competition known as the Great Game. One hundred years later, Central Asia remains a vitally important region, and the governments fighting for influence have increased, and now include Japan.

COMMENTARY

Sep 8, 2006

Recovery from failed policy

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Some U.S. and British politicians argue that to tackle terrorism effectively human rights must be subject to increasing limitations. In wartime Britain (1939-45), human rights were curtailed and some innocent people were locked up. The British accepted this at the time as necessary to combat...

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

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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