More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

August 23, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Jul 27, 2004

Rumor, fear and innuendo fuel tensions

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Anyone who knows anything about China knows that it's not just its current government but its people, too, who are ultraprotective and ultra-sensitive about the Taiwan issue.

EDITORIALS

Jul 27, 2004

Worrisome muscle flexing

Relations across the Taiwan Strait continue to deteriorate. The re-election of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has alarmed the mainland government, which is convinced Mr. Chen seeks Taiwan's independence. China has been sending signals that it is prepared to take military action if Taipei takes that...

EDITORIALS

Jul 26, 2004

Toward stronger Tokyo-Seoul ties

At the Japan-South Korea summit meeting last week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun agreed that the two countries should work together more closely to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. The agreement will help provide an impetus to the coming six-nation talks...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 26, 2004

Providing the social tools to cut poverty

By Steen Jorgensen

Today we live in a world of sharp contrasts. There has been great progress in human and economic development as well as great opportunities for reducing poverty in the globalizing economy. Information flows more freely than ever before. Yet deep-seated imbalances threaten socio-political sustainability....

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jul 26, 2004

Separate but equal acts of reconciliation

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- In "My Life" (Knopf, 2004), former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes: "Elizabeth Eckford, who at 15 was deeply seared emotionally by vicious harassment as she walked alone through an angry mob, was reconciled with Hazel Massery, one of the girls who had taunted her 40 years earlier."

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 26, 2004

Flawed homeland security

By Ronald A. Morse

LAS VEGAS -- The dispute between Washington and Tokyo over the fate of Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins, whom the United States accuses of defecting to North Korea some 40 years ago, is more than a case of American legalism vs. Japanese ad hoc policy and humanitarian instincts. The issue goes much deeper into...

COMMENTARY

Jul 26, 2004

Beijing entering Hong Kong cul-de-sac

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- On July 1, Hong Kong, figuratively speaking, stuck to its democratic guns. It was just as well since China, naturally, has stuck to its antidemocratic guns.

COMMENTARY

Jul 26, 2004

Lifting women's job status

By Kiroku Hanai

Women's status in male-dominated Japan remains alarmingly low, according to a recent international survey. A U.N. Development Program survey showed that Japan ranked 38th among countries of the world in the gender empowerment index, which measures women's participation in political and economic decision-making....

COMMENTARY

Jul 25, 2004

Gender imbalance exacting social costs

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- A quarter of a century ago, China decided to focus on economic development rather than Maoist class struggle. As part of that drive, it adopted a policy of limiting population growth with couples allowed to have only one child in the cities. Chinese officials say that as a result, 300 million...

EDITORIALS

Jul 25, 2004

The governor and the 'girlie men'

Say this much for California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger: He is never boring. The "Governator" proved that again recently when he said that opposition lawmakers campaigning against his budget proposals were "girlie men." The remark caused a furor among U.S. Democrats. It also reignited a more general...

EDITORIALS

Jul 24, 2004

Use and abuse of intelligence

Two official reports come to disturbing conclusions about intelligence failures in the United States and Great Britain. Both identify systemic flaws in the collection and analysis of critical intelligence that resulted in the invasion of Iraq. There is much to learn from these episodes, but the most...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 24, 2004

Labor threatens golden FTA

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Ah, such dilemmas in power politics. At last, after years of both sides giving concessions, Australia has gotten America to agree to a free trade agreement. And what does the Australian Labor Party do? Threaten to kill it before birth.

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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