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COMMENTARY / World

Dec 6, 2005

Bush should do the right thing, and quit

By TED RALL

NEW YORK -- By August 2003, California Gov. Gray Davis' approval rating had plunged to 22 percent. Two months later, he lost a special recall election.

EDITORIALS

Dec 5, 2005

The depths of fabrication

Not a few residents in Tokyo and surrounding areas have reacted with fear and anger after being told that they live in condominiums constructed according to designs that included falsified earthquake-resistance data. Since Japan is a quake-prone country, this crisis should worry the whole nation.

COMMENTARY

Dec 5, 2005

Japan's education disability

By Takamitsu Sawa

Many economists say the Japanese economy is at a "standstill" ahead of the start of a full recovery. For some time I have used a similar expression -- but in a different context -- to describe Japan's economic condition following the "Heisei recession," which lasted from February 1991 to October 1993....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 5, 2005

Soft power matters in Asia

By Joseph S. Nye

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- U.S. President George W. Bush recently returned from Asia after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit, but he should continue to pay attention to another Asian summit to which he was not invited. In December, Malaysia will host an East Asian Summit that...

COMMENTARY

Dec 5, 2005

Koizumi's success hinges on transparency

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- The Japanese are trying to sell their Asian neighbors a plan to rearm militarily -- and become more like a "normal" nation and less like a thoroughly defeated World War II aggressor. In their view, this shouldn't make anyone nervous.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 5, 2005

China's environmental health challenges

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- The recent environmental crises in China underscore the need to improve the mechanisms for preventing environmental disasters and responding more effectively to environmental emergencies. For the past few decades, China has maintained significant economic expansion while greatly improving...

EDITORIALS

Dec 4, 2005

On Iraq, another war of words

Not for the first time, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has become an object of media derision over a language question. The word-loving secretary is always a tempting target, but this time -- as in the past -- journalists might have done better to hold the jokes. Words are the media's stock in...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 4, 2005

HIV prevention programs need to grow

By Bindu N. Lohani and Prasada Rao

BANGKOK/MANILA -- In a region that is home to two-thirds of the world's population, an HIV prevalence rate of 0.4 percent -- significantly lower than sub-Sahara Africa -- translates into more than 8 million adults and children living with HIV. More than 1 million people were newly infected with HIV in...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 4, 2005

Read at your peril: Blair blasts Bush's al Jazeera 'joke'

By Roger Pulvers

On November 22, the Daily Mirror newspaper in Britain published an exclusive article headlined "Bush Plot to Bomb his Ally." A subsidiary headline said: "President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a 'Top Secret' No. 10 memo reveals."

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 4, 2005

Folly of vying to rule rather than serve

By Christopher Lingle

KATMANDU -- The struggle over Nepal's political future seems to be unsolvable. Just as one group gains the upper hand and consolidates support for their cause, the opportunity slips away in a haze of bullets or boycotts.

EDITORIALS

Dec 3, 2005

Cut spending before raising taxes

With Japan's economic recovery gaining momentum, the government appears set to increase taxes across a broad spectrum. The Tax Commission last week proposed a series of tax-code changes for fiscal 2006, including an abolition in 2007 of the flat-rate tax cuts for individual income taxes that had been...

EDITORIALS

Dec 2, 2005

A door opens to Gaza

The Palestinian people's efforts to take command of their own destiny took a huge step forward last weekend when Palestinians took charge of their first border crossing point. The opening of the border with Egypt is both a psychological step forward -- a form of liberation as residents must no longer...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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