More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

August 15, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Nov 28, 2005

Ishihara fails to measure up to his image

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Earlier this month Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara gave a speech in New York City, and I went to hear him. That's one thing you do in this city: go hear or see some of the more famous visitors from your home country.

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2005

Yasukuni impasse cracking

By Kiroku Hanai

Since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001, Japan has faced diplomatic spats with China and South Korea over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine. On Oct. 17, Koizumi made his fifth Yasukuni visit as prime minister, as Japan's relations with the two neighbors soured.

EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2005

Thanks for a thankless job

Most of the time, let's face it, journalists just do not get good press. The very word "reporter" is often used or interpreted as a smear. Newspaper readers and television viewers alike regularly complain to news organizations about their employees' bias, incompetence and bad grammar. And for all their...

COMMENTARY

Nov 27, 2005

Seoul not the ally that Washington deserves

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- During his Asian trip, U.S. President George W. Bush met with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun to highlight the two nations' alliance. The next day Roh's government announced that it was withdrawing a third of its soldiers from Iraq. Never mind.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 27, 2005

Democracy's foes are both within and without

By Roger Pulvers

When I was traveling around the Soviet Union way back in the summer of 1964, people were talking about a mummy that had been found in a cave in Dagestan, in the northeast of the Caucasus. It wasn't long before scholars were debating how old it was, with two opinions coming to the fore: either it was...

EDITORIALS

Nov 26, 2005

Health ministry's number-juggling act

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's initiative to give local governments more fiscal autonomy -- part of his structural reform agenda -- is meeting stiff resistance from the central bureaucracy. The plan calls for seven ministries to cut a total of 630 billion yen in subsidies provided by the state. The...

EDITORIALS

Nov 25, 2005

Press on with territories issue

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tokyo this week for the first time in five years for a summit meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. They and their ministers signed 12 documents, ranging from joint efforts to counter international terrorism to economic cooperation, including a Russian...

EDITORIALS

Nov 24, 2005

A frustrating trip for Mr. Bush

Heads of state travel either to get a respite from domestic problems or to get photo opportunities that make them look like leaders. By those standards, U.S. President George W. Bush must be frustrated by his recently concluded eight-day Asia tour. He neither escaped increasingly contentious and bitter...

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 2005

Time for U.S. to leave Korea

By Robyn Lim

When U.S. President George W. Bush was in Pusan last weekend for the APEC summit, he and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun agreed upon a "strategic dialogue" at ministerial level on security issues.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 24, 2005

Desertification on the march

By Ramesh Thakur and Zafar Adeel

To the average person, "desertification" likely conjures up images of sandstorms sweeping across the Sahara. While this is one manifestation, desertification is a global process that persistently reduces the benefits people get from nature -- collectively termed "ecosystem services." This happens as...

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 2005

Myanmar ranks high on Bush's radar

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- One significant though insufficiently noticed aspect of U.S. President George W. Bush's weeklong visit to Asia was his consistent effort to focus attention on Myanmar, and to pressure Asian allies, notably Japan, to be more forthright in their criticisms of the military junta's shortcomings....

EDITORIALS

Nov 23, 2005

Tackling juvenile crime

In 2004, adults committed 3.42 million criminal offenses, a decline for the second year in a row from the postwar record set in 2002. Still, the number of criminal incidents remains disturbingly high. The situation is similar for juvenile delinquency, as shown by the National Police Agency's white paper...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person

By Naoko Abe

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports