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COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2001

Two old allies, two visions

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Remember how the senior George Bush, when he was president, admitted to having trouble with "the vision thing." Has that deficiency been passed on to his son?

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2001

Taliban fanaticism is not typical of Islam

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- The problem is that the world is actually a very provincial place. Most people in the non-Muslim parts of the world have never been in any Muslim country, so if Muslims anywhere in the world do something really stupid, they will readily believe that those actions are typical of Islam -- and...

COMMENTARY

Mar 16, 2001

Pointless summits as Mori clings to power

By Minoru Tada

I have worked as a political journalist for over half a century. I started out covering Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's Cabinet for a Japanese newspaper. As a rookie reporter, I befriended the late Shintaro Abe, who shared the same beat with me. Later he turned to politics when he became secretary to...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2001

Has cycle of peace begun?

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- Sri Lanka's 18-year-old bloody ethnic crisis between Tamils demanding an independent homeland and the government has always been marked by hope. Even during some of the darkest days of the strife a little over a decade ago, there was always a glimmer of light. Then, New Delhi interfered...

EDITORIALS

Mar 16, 2001

'The enemy of my enemy . . .'

That seems to be the principle guiding foreign policy in Moscow and Tehran. Those two governments have much to be dissatisfied with in international politics, and have decided that together they have a better chance of getting the rest of the world to pay attention to them. It is an alliance of convenience...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2001

Failed experiment haunts Jakarta

By David Chew

SINGAPORE -- As Indonesia assesses the carnage from the recent ethnic violence in its province of Kalimantan, a poignant legacy of the failure of its transmigration policy slowly but surely emerges.

EDITORIALS

Mar 15, 2001

Making sense of the slide

The blood-letting in international stock markets continues. The U.S. Nasdaq index plunged below the 2,000 level for the first time in 27 months. The S&P 500 lopped 20 percent of its peak, officially becoming a "bear market." The U.S. free fall triggered a domino effect, pushing Asian and European markets...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2001

The choice is North Korea's

By Robert A. Manning

WASHINGTON -- The curtain has come down on the first act of the Bush administration's Asia policy, and there are far more questions than answers about U.S. policy after President Kim Dae Jung's visit to Washington. The media feasted on the mixed messages from a skeptical President George W. Bush and...

EDITORIALS

Mar 14, 2001

No more secret funds

The criminal complaint filed in January by the Foreign Ministry against the former official in charge of logistics for VIP trips overseas has led to his arrest on a charge of fraud. An internal investigation has revealed that Mr. Katsutoshi Matsuo, who was fired in January for embezzlement, had swindled...

COMMENTARY

Mar 14, 2001

Agriculture policies gone wild

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain has caused a panic among farmers here and in the rest of Europe. Farms have been isolated and large numbers of animals, slaughtered on suspicion of harboring the disease, have been incinerated on the spot. Parks, where deer may be found, have...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 14, 2001

The anti-Buddhist fury in Afghanistan

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Indignation at the ongoing destructive fury of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has been unanimous, with protests coming from the Muslim as well as the non-Muslim world. In fact, the recent destruction of the unique Buddhist monuments in Bamiyan prompts reflection on the huge...

EDITORIALS

Mar 13, 2001

China's misplaced priorities

China's new defense budget, released last week, provides penetrating insight into the mind-set and priorities of the Beijing leadership at the dawn of the 21st century. It is not a particularly encouraging picture. The double-digit increases in defense spending indicate that the Chinese government sees...

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

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

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

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