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COMMENTARY

Nov 16, 2005

No wonder anti-free traders are angry

By Gregory Clark

If you want to understand why anti-free-trade demonstrators in Argentina were so angry nearly two weeks ago, visit a small metal-working factory in a humdrum Japanese village near where I spend weekends. Outside it looks nondescript. But inside it is a technological wonder -- CAD/CAM-operated machine...

EDITORIALS

Nov 15, 2005

Braking illicit drug use

Police statistics show that the number of people taken into police custody on narcotics-related charges is on the decrease. Still, optimism about drug use in Japan is not warranted, as recent arrests or indictments have involved a former lawmaker and members of the Self-Defense Forces.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 15, 2005

Aussies preparing for worst

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Tough new antiterrorist laws will soon give troops shoot-to-kill authority when patrolling Australian streets in anticipation of a terrorist attack. But the change will come only after the Australian public has agonized over a claimed loss of civil liberties.

EDITORIALS

Nov 14, 2005

France in flames

Two weeks of rioting have raised serious questions for France. The escalating violence has forced the French to acknowledge the widening gap between their image of French society and the reality of the lives of many of its newest citizens. The temptation to dismiss the violence as a superficial phenomenon...

COMMENTARY

Nov 14, 2005

Beijing appears more apt to seek flu help

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- China's appeal to the World Health Organization for help to determine whether three cases of "pneumonia caused by unknown factors" in Hunan province could have been the result of the H5N1 virus indicates that Beijing is taking the threat of bird flu seriously.

COMMENTARY

Nov 14, 2005

Enhanced order of security

By Keizo Nabeshima

Japan and the United States on Oct. 29 issued an interim report agreeing to expand military cooperation in connection with the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. The agreement is intended to adapt the bilateral alliance to better deal with changes in the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region....

EDITORIALS

Nov 13, 2005

The pop-word culture

The dictionary frowns on words it snootily labels "informal." Teachers and newspaper copy editors carry a grudge against slang. Nearly everyone recoils from jargon. But according to a new book irresistibly titled "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 13, 2005

Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche

By Roger Pulvers

Awarding this year's Nobel Prize in literature to British playwright Harold Pinter is giving the recipient an opportunity to mount a stage of enormous proportions, and his acceptance speech in Stockholm next month may be the most provocative, fiery and influential address ever given on this august occasion....

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 13, 2005

Let business trump quest for dominance

By James A. Dorn

WASHINGTON -- The task for U.S. policymakers is to engage China while treating it as a rising great power that could be a legitimate threat. In particular, America needs to continue a policy of engagement and avoid destructive protectionism. Forging a constructive U.S.-China partnership will be the major...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Nov 12, 2005

Downsized Russian holiday

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Wouldn't you feel confused if your government moved Christmas Day to Dec. 21 and named it the Day of Fraternal Oscillation?

EDITORIALS

Nov 12, 2005

For a more efficient criminal trial

A new criminal-trial system started in Japan on Nov. 1 when the revised Criminal Procedure Law went into effect. The key point of revision is the introduction of a "pretrial clarification procedure," whereby prosecutors and attorneys outline their respective evidence and arguments before trial begins....

EDITORIALS

Nov 11, 2005

High hopes for Mr. Mitarai

Mr. Fujio Mitarai, president of Canon Inc., has been picked to succeed Mr. Hiroshi Okuda as head of Nippon Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation). He will start leading the organization dubbed as the "commanding headquarters" of Japan's business community in May 2006.

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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