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September 13, 2025

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EDITORIALS

Sep 16, 2004

UNSC quest raises questions

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, will express Japan's desire to become a permanent member of the Security Council. There is almost unanimous agreement that Japan should play a larger international role. This does not necessarily mean,...

COMMENTARY

Sep 16, 2004

Pyongyang deal still possible

By Ralph Cossa

SEOUL -- "The odds of any progress regarding the North Korean nuclear issue appear slim to nonexistent between now and the U.S. November presidential elections." This is the conventional wisdom, as publicly proclaimed by South Korean officials. I have also heard this view echoed in Washington and Beijing...

EDITORIALS

Sep 15, 2004

Division casts shadow over DPJ

The Democratic Party of Japan has formed a new executive team and a new shadow Cabinet, but one man of great influence is conspicuously absent: Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the former acting president. His refusal to take up any post, apparently reflecting an ongoing dispute with the party president, Mr. Katsuya...

COMMENTARY

Sep 15, 2004

The Tiananmen Square massacre myth

By Gregory Clark

China's recent ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of former leader Deng Xiaoping have given the Tiananmen massacre myth yet another lease of life. Most media commentators, the BBC especially, have rehashed the standard condemnation of Deng as a hardliner who instigated a massacre of...

EDITORIALS

Sep 14, 2004

Breaking the cycle of terrorism

Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the world is not safer and the war on terrorism appears to be getting harder to win, no matter what U.S. President George W. Bush says. The proliferation of terrorist attacks is a fact of life no one can disregard. It is time for the international community to...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 14, 2004

Indonesians' choice: change or status quo

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- Indonesians go to the polls Sept. 20 in the second round of balloting to choose between Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (affectionally known as SBY) as president for the next five years.

EDITORIALS

Sep 12, 2004

At arms over a sea of trouble

If ever there was a tiff in a toddlers' pool, this is it. In the latest twist in the convoluted dispute between Japan and South Korea over what to call the body of water that separates them, the government announced last week that it would send experts to the U.S. Library of Congress to re-examine antique...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 12, 2004

Reviving an idea for Asian community

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Thailand recently hosted an important regional meeting whose main theme was how to begin realizing the vision of an East Asian community. Academics and other opinion leaders from several Asian countries gathered in Bangkok under the framework of the Network of East Asian Think...

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2004

New EU gears could grind

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Jose Durao Barroso, the next president of the European Commission, faces many difficult challenges. He will need all the support he can get from the governments of the enlarged community of 25 states.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 11, 2004

China takes no chances in Hong Kong poll

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG -- It is now clear that China is quietly tearing up the fine promises it made in 1984 that Hong Kong would be permitted a high degree of autonomy when China resumed sovereignty over the city after 150 years of British colonial rule. Beijing is going to great lengths to ensure that prodemocracy...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 11, 2004

India continues to shine for only a few

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- One important cause for the debacle of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition in the recent Indian general elections was their slogan, "India Shining." Some analysts feel that it alienated the country's millions of poor people.

EDITORIALS

Sep 11, 2004

Impact of higher oil prices

Oil prices have been turning upward, slowly but steadily, throughout the world. So far, the blow to the economy seems to have been limited. However, oil supplies are becoming increasingly unstable. With oil exports from Iraq partially suspended, prices have climbed to the $50-per-barrel level. This situation...

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

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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