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September 17, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2007

The 'browning' of African technology

By G. Pascal Zachary

PRAGUE — Forget MIT. Hello, Tsing Hua University. For Clothilde Tingiri, a hot young programmer at Rwanda's top software company, dreams of Beijing, not Cambridge, animate her ambitions. Desperate for more education, this fall she plans to attend graduate school for computer science — in China, not...

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2007

A man of principles in desperate times

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES — There are times when — from a moral standpoint — men and women simply should not remain silent. In such times, seemingly fine lines need to be turned into unequivocal hard lines. This is when the men and women of conscience stand out.

COMMENTARY

Dec 26, 2007

China puts muscle to policy

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI — Rising economic and military power is emboldening Beijing to pursue a more muscular foreign policy. Having earlier preached the gospel of its "peaceful rise," China is now beginning to take the gloves off, confident of the muscle it has acquired.

EDITORIALS

Dec 26, 2007

Bloc development in the works

The planning section of the National Land Development Council has penned a 10-year national land formation plan that the Cabinet will approve by the end of March after receiving it from the council. The plan is expected to gain public support. The central and local governments must work out ways to implement...

EDITORIALS

Dec 26, 2007

Step forward for hepatitis C victims

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has decided to have the Diet enact a law to pay "uniform" compensation to everyone infected with hepatitis C from tainted blood products. His decision represents an effort to "achieve a breakthrough" in stalled negotiations over a court-mediated settlement of damage suits...

EDITORIALS

Dec 25, 2007

U.S. lightens Japan's burden

The United States has agreed to Japan slightly reducing its burden-sharing costs for maintaining U.S. military facilities in the country over three years starting in April — after the current two-year accord expires in March. In the talks, Japan sought a substantial cut due to its massive national...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 25, 2007

Nuclear facilities as targets

By Bennett Ramberg

LOS ANGELES — The drumbeat appears to be growing louder: Western leaders repeatedly declare that no option is off the table to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions. And, in mid-November, London's Sunday Times reported that Israel put defenses around its Dimona nuclear reactor on "red alert" 30 times, as worries...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 25, 2007

Global economy due for hard landing

By Nouriel Roubini

NEW YORK — In recent weeks, the global liquidity and credit crunch that started last August has become more severe. This is easy to show: In the United States, the euro zone and Britain, spreads between LIBOR interest rates (at which banks lend to each other) and central bank interest rates — as...

EDITORIALS

Dec 25, 2007

Rewarding hospital doctors

The government and the ruling parties have decided to raise the medical fees paid to medical institutions for doctors' services by 0.38 percent from fiscal 2008. The upward fee revision is the first since fiscal 2000, but the margin of the raise is too small to stem the collapse of medical services,...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 24, 2007

Why not engage Iranian pragmatists?

By Volker Perthes

BERLIN — The recent comprehensive assessment by America's spy agencies about Iran's nuclear program and ambitions — the "National Intelligence Estimate" — has opened the door to fresh strategic discussions among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. Such...

COMMENTARY

Dec 24, 2007

U.S., Australia 'still mates'

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU — "Australia's Path Bends Away from the U.S.''

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 24, 2007

Christmas letter to Pope Benedict XVI

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — Until three years ago, you had a well-earned reputation as the fierce watchdog of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. You were nicknamed "God's Rottweiler."

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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