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September 12, 2025

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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Mar 20, 2004

Back to the future in Russia

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- The outcome of Russia's presidential elections was known long before the polls opened March 14. President Vladimir Putin had successfully marginalized the opposition by placing mass media under state control and exiling tycoons who were supplying opposition groups with donations.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2004

S. Korean democracy will survive crisis

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- The North Koreans have been gloating over the political chaos in South Korea caused by the impeachment of President Roh Moo Hyun. In the long run, however, the South Koreans will surely have the last word.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2004

Bombs and the ballot box

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- The defeat of the government in Spain that backed the war in Iraq is being widely seen in Europe as one of the most crucial events since the 9/11 attacks in New York set off the current war on terror. But the result of the election on March 14, which followed the bombings in Madrid that killed...

EDITORIALS

Mar 20, 2004

Time to readjust foreign policy

A year after the United States went to war against Iraq, Japanese people are asking themselves what it really meant to Japan. All questions begin with a central fact that underscores Japanese foreign policy: Japan and the U.S. are bound closely together under a bilateral security treaty. Yet many are...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2004

Future of Taiwan at stake in elections

By Alexander K. Young

NEW YORK -- No less than the future of Taiwan is at stake in the presidential election Saturday. If President Chen Shui-bian is re-elected, Taiwan's move toward becoming an independent state will accelerate and the Taiwan-China impasse will harden. If the Lien Chan/James Soong ticket wins, China will...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2004

Roh's fate hangs on political pulse

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- The always contentious South Korean political scene was shattered last week with the impeachment of the sitting president, Roh Moo Hyun, with both Korea watchers and Koreans themselves who take their young democracy very seriously caught off guard.

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2004

Phantom fears of inflation

By David Howell

LONDON -- Could inflation return as the curse of global economic progress? After years of relative price stability -- and in some countries, such as Japan, price decline and deflation -- could the old threat rise, like Dracula, from the grave where most people assumed it was safely interred, and drain...

EDITORIALS

Mar 19, 2004

A victory for terrorists in Spain

Terrorists won an important victory last week in Spain. A series of bombs exploded in trains and rail stations in Madrid, killing some 200 people and injuring nearly 1,500 others. Al-Qaeda has taken credit for the savage attacks, saying Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's support for the war against terror...

EDITORIALS

Mar 18, 2004

Burden of the Kanebo bailout

Following weeks of tortuous bailout talks that put the notion of corporate governance to shame, the government's Industrial Revitalization Corp., or IRC, last week unveiled a huge rescue package for Kanebo Ltd., the troubled cosmetics firm that has looked like a rudderless ship all the while. What lies...

COMMENTARY

Mar 18, 2004

China adds protections to Constitution

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- The 2004 session of China's National People's Congress closed Sunday with the passage of several constitutional amendments. Attention focused on those relating to human rights and the protection of private property.

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2004

A wise China would offer an olive branch

By Ralph Cossa

KYOTO -- The outcome of the March 20 presidential election in Taiwan will have a profound impact on cross-strait relations. Much will depend, of course, on who wins. But equally important will be how Beijing responds. Will Beijing let the next Taiwan leader -- be it incumbent President Chen Shui-bian...

EDITORIALS

Mar 17, 2004

Stability under a strongman

As expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected by a landslide in Sunday's presidential election. His leadership now seems almost unchallenged. Opposition parties are weak. Parliament is obedient. Key government posts are held by Putin loyalists. Mr. Putin's tightened grip on power may bolster...

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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