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September 13, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Oct 19, 2004

Prioritizing aid for Iraq

Last week's Iraqi donor conference in Tokyo provided an "opportunity to reaffirm solidarity between the international community and the Iraqi people," as the chairman declared in his concluding statement. In practical terms, however, the meeting produced few results. With violence still prevalent in...

EDITORIALS

Oct 18, 2004

Two years after the bombings

Last week marked the second anniversary of the terrorist bombings that killed hundreds of tourists and Indonesians in the vacation paradise of Bali. That tragedy was a wakeup call to Southeast Asia about the dangers lurking within the region, a call to which governments have only slowly responded.

COMMENTARY

Oct 18, 2004

Japan will pay if ODA slides

By Keizo Nabeshima

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Japan's official development assistance. Since October 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan and provided technical assistance, ODA has been an important element of Japan's diplomacy. According to the Foreign Ministry's white paper on ODA, Japan...

COMMENTARY

Oct 18, 2004

Balancing work with other ways of life

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Alan Milburn, the British secretary of state for health, resigned last year to "spend more time with his family." This excuse has often been used to cover some misdemeanor or a falling out with colleagues, but in this case it seems to have been genuine.

COMMENTARY

Oct 18, 2004

Afghanistan: the world's opium market

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan's presidential elections came off with little violence but some damaging controversy. President Hamid Karzai's 15 opponents charged vote fraud.

EDITORIALS

Oct 17, 2004

Two paths to death

The past week brought news, as always, of the deaths of many strangers. But amid the usual numbing crush of reports of fatalities from wars, epidemics, accidents and murders, two stood out. Last Sunday in New York, the American actor and medical-research activist Christopher Reeve died of an infection-induced...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 17, 2004

Did Kosovo illuminate Iraq?

By Ramesh Thakur

One of the curious features of the Iraq war last year was the serious split across the Atlantic. And what seemed to puzzle as much as infuriate Americans was why the major European powers, having signed on to war without U.N. authorization in 1999 against Slobodan Milosevic, "the butcher of Belgrade,"...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 17, 2004

Election at all costs may cost democracy

By John Barry Kotch

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Elections set a new nation or a broken one on a course of renewal. Therefore, the conditions under which they are conducted -- the presence of security and the absence of intimidation, the degree of public participation (or apathy), including the openness to all segments of the...

EDITORIALS

Oct 16, 2004

Battle for fair competition

Yamato Transport Co., Japan's leading parcel-delivery service, and Japan Post, the provider of "Yu-pack" service, are locked in a legal battle. Yamato claims that JP is setting prices at an unfairly low level while enjoying tax-exempt status and other privileges. It is ironic that some of the basic problems,...

COMMENTARY

Oct 16, 2004

Of course, U.S. should global-test policy

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- On the controversial issue of a so-called global test for prudent foreign policy, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has been skillfully put on the defensive by the Republican re-election machine. This is brilliant campaign politics but a potentially fatal foreign-policy direction....

COMMENTARY

Oct 16, 2004

Preventing a new dark age

By David Howell

The entire geopolitical system is now enmeshed with Middle East issues. Mideast stability is the absolute key to peaceful global progress, both economic and social, as well as to the future of many world leaders and their policies.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 16, 2004

Americans don't want, but need, illegals

By Domenico Maceri

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "We're giving our country away," said my friend with serious concern. She was talking about illegal immigration to Italy and how the new arrivals have no respect for the law and have no intention to integrate and will ultimately destroy the fabric of Italian society.

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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