More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

August 05, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Aug 1, 2004

Priorities at Camp Cropper

Somewhere near Baghdad International Airport is a U.S.-run prison with the stern designation "High Value Detention Site" and the jaunty name of Camp Cropper. It was in the news last week following reports of a visit by Iraq's new minister for human rights, Bakhtiar Amin, to the prison's most highly valued...

COMMENTARY

Aug 1, 2004

Mideast role challenges EU

By Andre Fontaine

PARIS -- France and Germany no longer make the law in Brussels. In spite of a long fight, they failed to get their Belgian candidate elected to head the European Commission and could only accept the appointment of Jose Durao Barroso, who, as prime minister of Portugal, backed U.S. intervention in Iraq....

EDITORIALS

Jul 31, 2004

Winning battles, losing wars

The war against terror has forced governments to rethink national security. Protecting against invisible, anonymous threats requires extraordinary vigilance and exceptional measures. Ultimately, victory in this battle will rest on a broad consensus on what we are fighting for; only then can governments...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 31, 2004

Nepal's political woes have India worried

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- There is growing concern about the state of political affairs in Nepal, where a Maoist insurgency is festering. Earlier this month, incidents in the royal household affirmed that not all was well between King Gyanendra and his son, Crown Prince Paras. Paras has been a headache for Gyanendra...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 31, 2004

Fistful of troubles for Chirac

By Jonathan Fenby

PARIS — Ever since French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry into the European Common Market and took his country out of the integrated military structure of the NATO alliance, France has had a reputation as a country that knows how to say "no" — a reputation greatly bolstered by...

EDITORIALS / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jul 30, 2004

Taking care of business

The extraordinary Diet session that opens Friday should be an occasion to review the outcome of the July 11 Upper House election. This is true especially for the Liberal Democratic Party, which failed to win its targeted number of seats. Yet neither the LDP nor the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro...

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 2004

Drawing the line with China

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- India and China have held regular border-related negotiations since 1981 in the longest such process between two nations since the end of World War II. Yet, after 23 years of negotiations, the two Asian giants have not achieved the bare minimum -- a mutually defined line of control separating...

EDITORIALS

Jul 29, 2004

The sustainable whaling option

I t has been just 100 years since Norway began hunting whales in the Antarctic seas, but celebration seems hardly warranted. The International Whaling Commission is effectively paralyzed because its 57 members, split almost equally between prowhaling and antiwhaling nations, are unable to assemble a...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jul 29, 2004

The Morlocks are coming!

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- The most common word used by foreigners to describe Soviet Russia was "gray." Be it the cityscape, clothes or official culture, everything looked evenly unpleasant, unexciting, drab. Nowadays, the maddening communist evenness is gone, but Russia has become home to something equally disturbing...

EDITORIALS

Jul 28, 2004

Making the farm sector competitive

The government's economic and fiscal report for 2004, which was released last week, has a subtitle that sounds only too familiar: "No growth without reform." Yet the report deserves attention for two reasons. First, it focuses on the regional economy, a subject that has been more or less overlooked in...

COMMENTARY

Jul 27, 2004

DPJ's fortunes are rising

By Keizo Nabeshima

In the July 11 Upper House election, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan made dramatic gains, winning more seats than the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (50-49). The DPJ also surpassed the LDP in the proportional representation bloc of November's general election. With the two parties dominating...

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.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.

With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear

By Jason Coskrey

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports