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EDITORIALS

Oct 22, 1999

Speaking without thinking

Barely two weeks after he was named parliamentary vice minister for defense, Mr. Shingo Nishimura of the Liberal Party was forced to resign Wednesday over outrageous views made public in a Japanese weekly magazine. In a two-hour interview, Mr. Nishimura suggested that the Diet consider discussing whether...

COMMENTARY

Oct 22, 1999

Voters send LDP a message

By Kenzo Uchida

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi won re-election in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election held Sept. 21. Four days later, Yukio Hatoyama was elected chief of the top opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan. On Oct. 5, Obuchi launched his new three-party coalition government after New...

EDITORIALS

Oct 20, 1999

'Nissan is in bad shape'

That blunt comment says it all. At a press conference Monday, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan's chief operating officer, ticked off the company's failings: mismanagement, inefficient production, lack of vision, unappealing products. Their impact has been plain: Nissan, Japan's second largest carmaker, has lost...

EDITORIALS

Oct 19, 1999

Now it is up to Pyongyang

There were hopes, a few years ago, that North Korea might just quietly implode, as the Soviet Union did, then be absorbed by its neighbor to the south. The hermetic state was on the brink of mass starvation, created by economic mismanagement and compounded by nature's caprice. The government in Pyongyang...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 19, 1999

Aum fills a spiritual need

By Michiya Murata

Special to The Japan Times It has been more than four years since key members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect carried out sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system. With its principal facilities closed and its guru and his cohorts arrested, the cult has received a crushing blow. Reports say, however,...

EDITORIALS

Oct 18, 1999

First bigger, then better

Another Japanese megabank is in the making. Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank have just agreed to merge by April 2002, which will create the world's second-largest banking group, with assets of about 99 trillion yen. Earlier this year, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan announced...

EDITORIALS

Oct 15, 1999

The shortsighted U.S. Senate

The United States Senate this week voted down the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This is the first time since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that the Senate has rejected a major international agreement. We can only hope that the results of this shortsighted move will not be as great. Still, the vote...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 14, 1999

Megawati has lost her way

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- Indonesia faces a more profound immediate national crisis than India or Japan -- but all three face the same basic political problem: They badly need an effective ruling coalition. In New Delhi and Tokyo, a coalition government is in place. In Jakarta, it isn't.

EDITORIALS

Oct 14, 1999

The limits in Pakistan

The coup that deposed Pakistan's prime minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was a long time coming. It had many causes, the most immediate of which was the animosity between Mr. Sharif and the military. But by almost every measure, Mr. Sharif's term in office has been a disaster. That does not excuse the military's...

EDITORIALS

Oct 10, 1999

Dishonored by the honors system

Twice a year, the government confers orders and honors on eminent citizens in recognition of their service to the nation or their local communities. This decoration system, which has been in place since the Meiji Era, has been drawing flak from part of the business world. Some business leaders are calling...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 10, 1999

Breaking the Pakistani link to terrorism

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Suspicsions of a link between a spate of recent terrorist bombings across Russia and Osama bin Laden, the Afghanistan-based Saudi dissident, promise to again draw Pakistan into the issue of global terrorism.

COMMENTARY

Oct 10, 1999

Munich and Pat Buchanan

By Gregory Clark

For decades now, the mere mention of the word Munich has invoked an image of craven appeasement. In the name of preventing more "Munichs," the postwar Western world has seen fit to intervene in a variety of conflicts, from Indochina to Kosovo.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

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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