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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 26, 2001

Bush's crash course in global diplomacy

By Brad Glosserman

U.S. President George W. Bush has just concluded a crash course in Northeast Asian politics. In the past three weeks, he has hosted South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Now Bush has to make sense of those visits, digest the various messages...

COMMENTARY

Mar 26, 2001

Too little too late for reform?

By Yukio Suzuki

In a dramatic policy reversal, the Bank of Japan has shifted its priority from cutting interest rates to expanding the money supply. The shift involves changing the key target for monetary adjustment from uncollateralized call-money rates to private banks' demand-deposit balances in the central bank....

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2001

Ghosts on the loose

You may have thought that the big story out of Hong Kong last week was the slumping Hang Seng Index or continuing pressure from Beijing to crack down on the Falun Gong. But no, something much more fascinating was going on, and it was going on right inside one of the places that break, but don't usually...

COMMENTARY

Mar 25, 2001

Campaign-finance reforms stifle free speech

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- In opening the U.S. Senate debate on campaign-finance reform, Republican John McCain asked his colleagues to "take a risk for our country." But his proposals would stifle, not expand, political debate in America. Congress should instead relax election controls, thereby encouraging more...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 25, 2001

East Pakistan's bloody death, 30 years on

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- Tonight marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most traumatic Asian events in recent times: the blood-soaked birth of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi voices will be raised to remind the world of what was an enormous crime against humanity. But they may not tell the full story....

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2001

Direct elections are not the cure

The view that the prime minister should be elected by popular vote is gaining ground. Ironically, it is Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori himself -- one of the most unpopular prime ministers in memory -- that is contributing to this groundswell of opinion. It is not just ordinary citizens, academics and business...

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2001

Let the deal-making begin

By Kenzo Uchida

Japanese politics is in a bizarre state of limbo. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on March 10 expressed his apparent intention to resign, when he said the governing Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election should be advanced from September, when they are originally scheduled. No date so far has been...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 24, 2001

NATO's weakness threatens Macedonia

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Ethnic peace has withstood an entire week of shooting around the Macedonian city of Tetovo, despite the efforts of ethnic Albanian guerrillas based in neighboring Kosovo to topple the small Balkan republic into civil war. Another week of fighting would probably do the trick, however -- so it...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 24, 2001

Detours on Pakistan's road to democracy

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- Leaders of some of Pakistan's opposition parties took no time in boycotting a live broadcast on national television this week upon news of a crackdown on prodemocracy activists.

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2001

The long view on the Kurils

By Gregory Clark

Can Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stage a political comeback via his March 25 talks in Irkutsk with Russian President Vladimir Putin? Aides have hinted that he favors the "two-island" compromise solution to Japan's long-festering dispute with Russia over ownership of the so-called Northern Territories....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2001

Indian politicians bought for a few good lakhs

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- Time was when India's politicians never tired of bragging about their country's Internet revolution. But what happened the other week must have stopped them in their tracks and got them wondering whether such development was good for their political games and intrigues.

COMMENTARY

Mar 23, 2001

Challenges for Japan-U.S. ties

By Keizo Nabeshima

The joint statement issued in Washington Monday by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and U.S. President George W. Bush is the first political declaration issued by Japan and a Republican administration in the United States in eight years. It marked a starting point for redefining terms of the Japan-U.S. security...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

By Hanako Lowry

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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