More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

Sep 20, 2004

Curb spread of WMD in U.S.

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- The failure of Congress to renew a 10-year ban on the sale of assault rifles and other dangerous weapons may seem to politicians a simple price to pay to win the support of the National Rifle Association in the forthcoming presidential election.

COMMENTARY

Sep 20, 2004

Japan's diplomatic might

By Keizo Nabeshima

In late August, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi visited four Central Asian states to build a new framework of regional dialogue. The creation of the "Central Asia Plus Japan" forum means that Japan is pushing strategic diplomacy in the geopolitically important Silk Road region, surrounded by Russia,...

EDITORIALS

Sep 19, 2004

Please mute that sunflower

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American transcendentalist philosopher, once said that the rose speaks all languages. Little did he know it could sing, as well -- or at least that 168 years after he uttered his profoundly metaphoric remark a literal-minded Japanese corporation would invent a way for roses and...

COMMENTARY

Sep 19, 2004

Indo-Pakistani relations: the next phase

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- The upcoming meeting between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marks another important phase in the nine-month-old peace process between South Asia's two nuclear-armed neighbors.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 19, 2004

Chechen-Arab connection goes far back

By Nonna Chernyakova

CHICAGO -- As gunmen seized a school full of hostages in southern Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin had held a meeting that might have seemed to some like a distraction.

COMMENTARY

Sep 19, 2004

Removing the thorn from Japan-China ties

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Last month, when Japanese and Chinese teams faced each other in the Asian Games soccer final in Beijing, Chinese fans booed so loudly that they drowned out the strains of the Japanese national anthem. And when Japan won, the spectators pelted the Japanese players' bus with soda bottles and...

EDITORIALS

Sep 18, 2004

Strengthen monitoring in Sudan

The dispute that is continuing in the western part of Sudan is threatening the stability of the surrounding region. Peace negotiations mediated by the African Union have run into difficulties and there are no signs of an imminent settlement. The United Nations is reportedly considering imposing economic...

EDITORIALS

Sep 17, 2004

Mr. Putin's power grab

I t should come as no surprise that Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the horrific terrorist attack in Beslan in southern Russia to justify the consolidation of power in his own hands. Plainly, the Russian government has not been able to counter the threat posed by Chechen separatists. The problem...

COMMENTARY

Sep 17, 2004

An oil shock on the horizon?

By David Howell

LONDON -- The world is now drinking 84 million barrels of oil each day. The figure may be meaningless to most people but to energy planners, security strategists and environmentalists it spells growing disappointment and danger. Why so? Because only a short while ago the figure was 72 million barrels,...

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...

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

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports