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COMMENTARY / World

Jul 14, 2001

Turning talk of free trade into policy

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON — Japan's trade sanctions joust with China is small beer in world terms — or even in the context of the overall commerce between the two nations. But it sounds a warning bell — all the more so since it is just one of a series of challenges to free and open trade that could throw into doubt...

COMMENTARY

Jul 14, 2001

Now it's North Korea's turn

By Ralph Cossa

It was with some trepidation that Koreans on both sides of the demilitarized zone watched the Bush administration come to power, given the more "hardline" position many Congressional Republicans had taken over the years regarding North Korea. However, the outcome of the administration's finally completed...

EDITORIALS

Jul 14, 2001

The U.N. fails to get smart

The United Nations Security Council failed last week in its attempt to impose "smart sanctions" against Iraq. Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members agreed on a new scheme to monitor imports to Iraq. Unfortunately, the holdout was Russia, and Moscow used its threat of a veto to torpedo the new program....

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2001

Indonesian human-rights law wide open to manipulation by military and its allies

By Stephanie Coop

When a law clearing the way for ad hoc courts to try human-rights violations was passed in Indonesia last November, some saw it as a sign that high-ranking military officers would finally be punished for the many abuses committed by the nation's armed forces.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2001

Injustice across borders?

By Ramesh Thakur

The arrest and transfer of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the international tribunal at The Hague is but the latest of several dramatic twists and turns in the last few years in the search for universal justice. Just as the indictment issued against him during the NATO war in Kosovo was...

EDITORIALS

Jul 13, 2001

A bandwagon election begins

Japanese voters will pass a verdict on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reforms in the July 29 Upper House election, campaigning for which officially started on Thursday. The poll comes at a critical moment for Japan's beleaguered economy, which is still struggling to recover from a decade-long...

EDITORIALS

Jul 12, 2001

Evaluating Japan's defense needs

This year's defense white paper, released last week, specifically calls for both quantitative and qualitative improvement in SDF capabilities, including weapons replacement and modernization under the midterm defense-buildup program. More significantly, it points to a need to enact contingency legislation...

COMMENTARY

Jul 12, 2001

Facing up to the harsh truth

By David Howell

LONDON -- The long shadow of recession is now stretching from America over Europe, bringing disappointment and unease to Europe's policymakers and business communities.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 12, 2001

Is the world prepared to deal with the global economic downturn?

By Kumiharu Shigehara

Economic policymakers must stand ready to take timely and decisive actions when incoming information suggests that the economy is most likely to significantly deviate from the targeted course for a sustained period. And in the uncertain world in which we live, they have to deal with both upside and downside...

EDITORIALS

Jul 11, 2001

Japan's sincerity put to test

Japanese junior high-school history textbooks, particularly one compiled by a group of nationalist historians, continue to draw angry reactions from South Korea and China. On Monday, the Education Ministry formally rejected almost all of the revision requests from Seoul and Beijing, which claim that...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 11, 2001

India and Pakistan once again eye peace

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- India and Pakistan will try yet again to come a step closer to peaceful coexistence this weekend when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf travels to India to meet with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

COMMENTARY

Jul 11, 2001

Do as I say, not as I do

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Americans claim to be upset about high energy prices, but you wouldn't know after watching Congress vote to ban drilling off the Gulf of Mexico and in the Great Lakes. Legislators seem equally opposed to oil exploration in the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), even though environmental...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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