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COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 2000

Tide turning against coalition

By Minoru Tada

Only three weeks ago, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's tripartite coalition was in a celebratory mood after the opposition forces ended their boycott of the Diet and all proceedings returned to normal.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 3, 2000

Razaleigh floats trial balloon to see if he could be an heir to power

By David Chew

SINGAPORE -- A former archrival of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is testing the waters to gauge popular support for a possible bid for the presidency or deputy presidency of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the country's leading political party.

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 2000

Gone, but not forgotten

Mr. Joerg Haider, the controversial leader of Austria's Freedom Party, has resigned as head of the party. The move is intended to quiet the firestorm of international criticism that followed the decision to include Freedom in the new coalition government in Vienna. In fact, it changes very little. Although...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2000

Japan needs a new, better Constitution

By Ryuichiro Hosokawa

At long last, deliberations on the Constitution have started at both Houses of the Diet. It is not clear, however, what kind of conclusion will be reached and when. Indications are that the participants in those deliberations want to draw up a conclusion by 2003 at the latest. But this is by no means...

COMMENTARY

Mar 2, 2000

How not to liberalize trade

By David Howell

LONDON -- Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once famously described -- or is alleged to have described -- the Japanese language as an unfair obstacle to trade. How, she is said to have demanded, could foreign suppliers possibly penetrate the rich Japanese market when it was protected by an impenetrable...

EDITORIALS

Mar 1, 2000

Who is policing the police?

Two high-ranking police officials resigned Tuesday as an expression of responsibility for their misconduct amid a public outcry that they deserved even heavier punishment. In fact, such was the degree of public disgust that the resignations of the disgraced officials, Mr. Yoshiyuki Nakada, head of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 1, 2000

Handling the bugaboo of post-POW stress

By Edward Neilan

It is well-known that U.S. presidential aspirant John McCain, a former U.S. Navy pilot, was struck by North Vietnamese fire over Hanoi during the Vietnam War and subsequently spent five and a half years in various prisoner-of-war camps. He still bears physical scars from the experience, notably the fact...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 1, 2000

Tough new laws stir outrage in Australia

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Johnno, a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy, steals a few pencils and some paint. The magistrate has no option but to send him to prison for four weeks. After three weeks behind bars, Johnno hangs himself.

EDITORIALS

Feb 29, 2000

First principles in Kosovo

One simple question has always hung over the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo: What is the goal? Is it peace at all costs or is it the restoration of the multiethnic communities that existed in Yugoslavia before the country shattered in violence? If the former, then partition may be the solution to Yugoslavia's...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 29, 2000

Afghanistan drags Pakistan down with it

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- More than 20 years after Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan in support of the last communist coup, the central Asian country's turmoil is unending. Descriptions such as "extreme impoverishment," "a lost generation" and "the ultimate pariah state" are just some of the ways that Afghanistan...

COMMENTARY

Feb 29, 2000

No backtracking allowed

By Keizo Nabeshima

The peace-treaty talks between Japan and Russia are off to a fresh start because Boris Yeltsin suddenly resigned as Russian president at the end of last year. Yeltsin had agreed at a Russo-Japanese summit meeting in 1997 that the two nations should "strive" to sign a long-pending peace pact by the end...

EDITORIALS

Feb 28, 2000

HIV case judgment is a warning

The Osaka District Court on Thursday marked a historic and welcome first for this country. Three former presidents of the defunct Osaka-based pharmaceutical company Green Cross Corp. were found guilty of professional negligence and sentenced to prison in the case of a hospital patient who died of AIDS-related...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.

What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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