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EDITORIALS

Mar 19, 2002

Nation-building vs. military goals

Half a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush's war on terrorism appears to be entering a more complex and difficult phase. U.S. troops have mounted a major ground offensive in Afghanistan, while a special forces team is helping fight Muslim militants...

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2002

Class struggle joins Marx in the dustbin

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Last Wednesday, a top official declared that, as a result of the market economy, "people's jobs and status keep changing" in China today, and there are "differences and contradictions between communities, between industries and between regions." These remarks by Li Ruihuan, China's fourth-ranking...

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2002

Tough times await Musharraf

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- In reaching out to Japan last week in his maiden visit there, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf created the impression that he is genuinely trying to turn his country around. And during his recent visit to the United States, U.S. President George W. Bush hailed him as a visionary...

EDITORIALS

Mar 18, 2002

Steeling for a fight

During the Vietnam War, a peculiar strand of U.S. logic was revealed when an official argued that a village had to be destroyed to save it from the North Vietnamese. A version of that tortured thinking has been resurrected recently as U.S. officials have struggled to justify President George W. Bush's...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2002

Free trade carries a price

By Michael R. Czinkota

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to impose tariffs on steel imports into the United States has been decried as a politically motivated and economically ruinous move that marks the end of free trade and initiates a battle in the World Trade Organization.

COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA

Mar 18, 2002

'Gerontocrat' academicians with myopia

By Jean-pierre Lehmann

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After Harvard Professor Ezra Vogel's famous book "Japan as Number One" appeared in 1979, the West experienced a "learning from Japan" boom. I fully participated in this movement in both of its manifestations: publications, seminars etc., and the establishment of university Japanese...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2002

Ban pol-bureaucrat contacts

By Takeshi Sasaki

The alleged meddling in Foreign Ministry affairs by Liberal Democratic lawmaker Muneo Suzuki has stirred debate on rules governing relations between politicians and bureaucrats. The problem of "excessive interference" has been widely reported as highly abnormal, but I doubt whether that's so. In present-day...

EDITORIALS

Mar 17, 2002

Strategies for saving precious lives

The United Nations is not loved by everyone, nor does it always do everything right. Even when it is not being controversial, it often appears ineffectual or, worse yet, boring. There are only so many conferences, forums, summits, accords, agreements, understandings, commitments, resolutions and declarations...

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2002

U.S. embargo helps keep Castro in power

By Doug Bandow

HAVANA -- Roberto Alarcon, well-dressed but of unexceptional appearance, is thought to be the No. 3 man in Cuba, after only Fidel and Raul Castro. He lazily sprawled in his chair before eight American journalists, fondling his cigar.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2002

L.A. schools reject the trilingual challenge

By Domenico Maceri

SANTA MARIA, California -- Should a Spanish-speaking teenager living in the United States study English or Japanese? At first glance, that looks like a no-brainer. Learning Japanese would be interesting, perhaps even useful, but knowing English is essential.

EDITORIALS

Mar 16, 2002

How to cooperate with Pakistan

In his meeting with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged continued economic assistance to that country. That promise carries greater significance than ever before, given Pakistan's strategic position as a forward base in the war on terrorism....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2002

Roles of the main Asia-Pacific groups

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- It may be presumptuous to review Asia-Pacific regional organizations in a single column, but there seems to be so much confusion about them that certain points need to be clarified and properly addressed. The main groups are the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC),...

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

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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