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September 18, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 11, 2008

The North's smaller missiles

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — The U.S. military intelligence community is worried that North Korea is developing the skills and techniques needed to fit a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile.

EDITORIALS

Mar 11, 2008

A frozen Garden of Eden

They call it the "doomsday vault," but it is intended to save humankind, not menace it. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which opened Feb. 26 in Norway, will serve as a repository for billions of seeds. It is designed to protect biodiversity and the people and cultures that depend on it. It is one of...

COMMENTARY

Mar 10, 2008

Redundant royal honors provoke wonder

By Tom Plate

HONOLULU — Not every monarch is alike. It's true that many are mean and greedy and full of themselves — selfish squirrels who sock their ill-gotten gains beneath everyone's eyes overseas while they stick their political opponents into dark dank prisons — or graves. But some are comparatively mild,...

COMMENTARY

Mar 10, 2008

Get set for emissions trading

By Takamitsu Sawa and David Sainsbury

The year 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol; the 20th anniversary of the release of the report "Our Common Future" by the World Commission on Environment and Development, headed by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland (the expression "sustainable development"...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 10, 2008

Freedom and music go hand in hand

By Ian Buruma

NEW YORK — North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is one of the world's most oppressive, closed and vicious dictatorships. It is perhaps the last living example of pure totalitarianism — control of the state over every aspect of human life. Is such a place the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 10, 2008

The global economic party has ended

By Hans-Werner Sinn

MUNICH — With the United States teetering into recession, the global economic boom has ended. The boom was unusually long and persistent, with four years of roughly 5 percent growth — a period of sustained economic dynamism not seen since around 1970.

EDITORIALS

Mar 10, 2008

Accelerate antismoking measures

The World Health Organization in early February released a report stating that the global tobacco epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats of modern times. It said that in the 20th century the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 9, 2008

Opposite poles of protest 40 years ago

By Jan Skorzynski

WARSAW — In Paris, West Berlin, London and Rome, the spring of 1968 was marked by student protests against the Vietnam War.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 9, 2008

Surely it's time for Japanese to stop being so parochial

By Roger Pulvers

Second of two parts

EDITORIALS

Mar 9, 2008

A contest for new leadership

The Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama competition has gripped the attention of the world. And for good reason. The result is likely to affect the future course of global politics. A clear victor is not yet decided, but whoever ultimately wins, the shift in consciousness both candidates embody is important...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 8, 2008

European or Putin expansion?

By Krzysztof Bobinski

WARSAW — The merit of the Berlin Wall was that it made obvious where Europe ended. But now the question of Europe's borders has become a staple of debate in the European Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent threat to aim missiles at Ukraine highlights what is at stake in that debate's outcome....

EDITORIALS

Mar 8, 2008

Wanted: more volunteer firefighters

Community-based fire brigades called "shobodan," composed of ordinary citizens, play an important role in firefighting and fire prevention. But the number of shobodan members has been declining. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency in January started a three-month campaign to encourage citizens to...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.

Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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