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August 26, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2005

Consolidating against conflict, disaster

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Despite some initial difficulties, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations preserved its cohesion as a credible regional organization to end a weeklong series of annual meetings on a good note late last month in Vientiane:

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2005

Natural gas pipeline may energize peace

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- It is being called the Peace Pipe. The natural gas pipeline running from Iran to India through Pakistan may be a reality in early 2006. Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Iyer made this announcement during his recent visit to Islamabad.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2005

Revisiting capital punishment

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- Recent statements on capital punishment by John Paul Stevens, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, to the American Bar Association could reignite the debate on this important issue. His statements followed several exonerations of death-row inmates through scientific evidence. He said these exonerations...

EDITORIALS

Aug 20, 2005

First step of the peace process

Israel has begun its unilateral withdrawal of troops and evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. This is the first time that settlements have been dismantled from land that Israel occupied in the third Middle East War (1967). There have been reports of small-scale clashes between settlers...

EDITORIALS

Aug 19, 2005

Statements befitting future conduct

On Monday, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a statement apologizing for Japan's past colonialism and aggression. He also decided that day not to visit Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of Japan's militarism in the 1930s and '40s. Instead, he visited and...

COMMENTARY

Aug 19, 2005

Tolerance can't be coerced

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- For some, the Iraq constitution-writing process has called to mind the founding of America or other democracies. But whether the Iraqi doc ument -- for which the original Aug. 15 deadline has been extended a week -- will deliver liberty remains tragically uncertain.

EDITORIALS

Aug 18, 2005

ATM card theft rescue

A sharp rise in thefts and forgeries of cash cards, or ATM cards, and the resultant loss of cash from deposits has become a serious problem. Last year there were 3,448 ATM card thefts and forgeries, causing losses worth some 2.4 billion, yen according to the National Police Agency.

COMMENTARY

Aug 18, 2005

Double standards don't help

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Sixty years ago this month Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by the first nuclear bombs. The effects of these bombs on the civilian populations of these cities are a horrific reminder of why all governments need to redouble their efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and to achieve...

EDITORIALS

Aug 17, 2005

An uneven economic recovery

It appears that Japan's economy has emerged from a "soft patch" and entered a new period of moderate growth. In April through June, the nation's gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.1 percent, the Cabinet Office announced last week. That marked the third consecutive quarter of positive...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 17, 2005

Viewing the United States from an Asian perspective

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- During a gathering of Asians and Americans in Honolulu, the Asians seemed ambivalent about the role of the United States in their region. As one put it, "We want the Americans to be on tap but not on top."

EDITORIALS

Aug 16, 2005

The other nuclear crisis resumes

Iran appears to be headed -- once again -- toward conflict with the rest of the world over its nuclear programs. Tehran has rejected a European proposal that was designed to end concerns over its determination to develop facilities that would allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon -- an objective the Iranian...

EDITORIALS

Aug 15, 2005

Soul-searching for peace in Asia

As the nation marks the 60th anniversary of its surrender to Allied Powers in World War II, the Japanese face the unfinished task of squarely looking at Japan's colonialism and modern war and seriously considering a nonmilitary path that Japan must take to contribute to world peace and stability.

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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