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September 12, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

May 17, 2004

Sugar dispute sours Australian politics

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Who could have guessed that sugar would sour Australian politics? That's just what is happening as the Howard government gears up for its toughest national election yet.

COMMENTARY

May 17, 2004

China's influence soars in Asia

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- A battle for the hearts and minds of Asians has begun. While there has been considerable attention on "the rise of China," we're only slowly beginning to appreciate the meaning of that overused phrase. China's economic influence is well apparent. It has become Southeast Asia's leading trade...

COMMENTARY

May 17, 2004

Get pension reform on track

By Keizo Nabeshima

A leading Cabinet member and the top opposition leader have been forced to resign for failing to make compulsory premium payments, at one time or another, into the national pension program.

EDITORIALS

May 16, 2004

Women, heritage and holy places

Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar...

COMMENTARY / World

May 16, 2004

Iraq has thrown off Bush's game plan

By John Barry Kotch

LONDON -- When the legendary New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel left the dugout for the pitcher's mound, there was only one question. Would he stick with his pitcher or signal to the bullpen for a reliever? Sometimes there was a brief discussion and Casey would walk back to the dugout. Often, however,...

COMMENTARY

May 16, 2004

U.S. drug laws threaten public health

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- The current and previous presidents of the United States used marijuana. So has presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted to drug use. Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who once beat the drums for jailing white junkies,...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

May 16, 2004

EU stretching the envelope

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Nobody truly knows where Europe ends. Geographically, it is supposed to run all the way east to the Ural Mountains, but few would argue that this definition should be taken seriously. What matters is culture and politics and the allegiances resulting from both. With the recent expansion of...

EDITORIALS

May 15, 2004

A reprieve on interest rates

As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board last week decided to keep short-term interest rates at a 46-year low. Concerns about the fragility of the U.S. economic recovery prevailed over fears of a new bout of inflation. But the Fed signaled its readiness to raise interest rates soon if prices appear...

COMMENTARY / World

May 15, 2004

China's proliferation serves to rouse Japan

By Robyn Lim

China's support for North Korea has backfired. What would China prefer to see -- a Japan armed with nuclear weapons, or Japan's alliance with the United States strengthened by its participation in missile defense? In Beijing, neither option has much appeal. But in relation to Japan, China has been hoisted...

COMMENTARY

May 15, 2004

Has President Chen learned his lesson?

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who narrowly won a disputed election in March, is without doubt the Bush administration's least favorite democratically elected leader.

COMMENTARY / World

May 15, 2004

New jailers, same prison?

By Ramesh Thakur

The stage-managed toppling of ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue will not, after all, be the image defining the Iraq war. Like the famous photo of the young girl on fire running naked to escape the horror of napalm in the Vietnam War, the photographs emerging from Abu Ghraib prison will be the...

EDITORIALS

May 14, 2004

More than just making ends meet

There is something fuzzy about Tuesday's Lower House vote on the pension reform bills. The package was supported by the ruling parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. But the opposition Democratic Party of Japan approved only a proviso that calls for the integration of the complex pension...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.

The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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