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August 28, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Jul 22, 2006

UNSC passes the test, so far

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- Hat's off to Pyongyang! It has helped to accomplish in 10 days what American officials had failed to accomplish in almost four years of diplomacy: a unanimous United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that not only condemns its July 5 (Fourth of July in the United States) missile...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 21, 2006

Magic touch in East Timor

By Jeff Kingston

Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, 56, is the $14 billion man. During 2005, while serving as foreign minister, he is credited with playing a crucial behind-the-scenes role in rescuing Timor Sea resource negotiations between Australia and East Timor. Talks had hit an impasse, partly owing to the abrasive style of...

EDITORIALS

Jul 21, 2006

Summit of Mr. Putin's success

The annual summit meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations is often dismissed as a photo opportunity for world leaders rather than a place where real policies are agreed upon. This year's meeting, held earlier this week in St. Petersburg, Russia, was no exception. The summit declaration...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 21, 2006

Double trouble for Poles used to benefits

By Waldemar Kuczynski

WARSAW -- Much of the world seems fascinated by the fact that Poland is now governed by identical twins who first became famous as child movie actors: President Lech Kaczynski, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whom Lech appointed to the post of prime minister earlier this month. They are indeed intriguing, but...

EDITORIALS

Jul 20, 2006

Warning North Korea

The United Nations Security Council resolution condemning North Korea's July 5 multiple missile test-firings may lack strong teeth, but it serves as a stern warning from the international community to the reclusive country. While the contents of the resolution fell short of what Japan originally wanted...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 20, 2006

Happiness, money and giving it away

By Peter Singer

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- Would you be happier if you were richer? Many people believe that they would be. But research conducted over many years suggests that greater wealth implies greater happiness only at quite low levels of income. People in the United States, for example, are, on average, richer...

COMMENTARY

Jul 20, 2006

Good people, poor leaders

By David Howell

NEW YORK -- So bad has been recent publicity for the United States and its foreign policies that the visitor arriving in the U.S. nowadays has come to expect a grim reception and a nation of inward-turning people who care nothing for the world beyond America's shores.

COMMENTARY

Jul 20, 2006

Japan's anti-North Korea complex

By Gregory Clark

Japan's fevered reaction to North Korea's recent missile tests should not surprise. It is yet another example of the emotional way that an otherwise admirable nation finds it hard to separate causes from effects.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 19, 2006

Bombings demonstrate what Bombay is made of

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- A day after maximum terror struck India's financial capital, Bombay, the city of 17 million people was back on its feet. Even London took four days after last July's explosions to get over the shock and trauma.

EDITORIALS

Jul 19, 2006

Hope of the marketplace

The Bank of Japan's lifting of its zero-interest rate policy last week represents an end to an extraordinary policy that continued for five years and four months. With its decision, which marks a step toward normalization of the nation's monetary policy, the central bank has signaled that the Japanese...

COMMENTARY

Jul 19, 2006

Cultural diplomacy in the Middle East

By Kazuo Ogoura

Political and economic stability in the Middle East is vital to ensure Japan's energy security and to reduce risks in the global economic system. In the interests of this region's mid- and long-term political stability, it is clearly desirable for "democratization" in the region to take root deeply and...

EDITORIALS

Jul 18, 2006

Our very own preemptive option

After North Korea test-fired seven missiles July 5, arguments suddenly began flying within the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that Japan should consider developing the capability to strike a foreign missile base if there is an imminent threat of an attack on Japan.

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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