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August 15, 2025

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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Mar 27, 2006

Ishibashi's 'alternative reality' for Japan

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- A reader of my Jan. 30 column ("Another side to Japanese-Korean history") wrote to comment and, in the course of subsequent correspondence, wondered about an "alternative reality" or a "what if" in Japan's history before World War II. He had in mind, in particular, "Secretary (Cordell) Hull's...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2006

Hamas sets out to put first things first

By Daoud Kuttab

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- As it struggles to form a government for the Palestinian territories, Hamas seems to be clutching the biblical verses of Ecclesiastes rather than the desires of the Quartet (United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations), which is charged with trying to bridge...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2006

Building a better safety net for workers

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- A lot of public attention and worry nowadays surrounds the new risks that globalization and information technology create for our wages and livelihoods. But there has been far less constructive discussion of new ideas about how to confront these risks. In fact, we might be losing...

COMMENTARY

Mar 27, 2006

No more tax money to U.S.

By Kiroku Hanai

The administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has played down Japanese public sentiment against the U.S. military presence, believing that most people approve of it in general but object when their own community is affected.

EDITORIALS

Mar 26, 2006

A fair ruling in Britain

In most legal rulings, even a casual observer can see reasonable arguments on both sides. This is not surprising. If both sides didn't have reasonable arguments, there wouldn't be a dispute to begin with, or any need for a ruling. But a decision handed down by Britain's Law Lords last week backing a...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 26, 2006

One nation's icon carries a torch of conscience for all

By Roger Pulvers

On March 6, the Polish film and theater director Andrzej Wajda celebrated his 80th birthday. In fact, all of Poland celebrated it with him. I was in the country that week, and I have never before seen such total media interest in a cultural figure. Wajda is certainly Poland's "living national treasure."...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 25, 2006

Ukraine's watershed election

By Yuliya Tymoshenko

KIEV -- Ukraine's politics are not those of the steppe. Our voters cannot stroll in one direction during one poll, and in the opposite direction the next time they vote, without worrying about falling over the edge. Ukrainians are people of the watershed: We live on either one side or the other of a...

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2006

Shifting fortunes of 'shunto'

Since 2002, major Japanese labor unions have refrained from demanding wage increases during their annual spring labor offensive (shunto). Instead, they have concentrated on securing union members' jobs amid a persistently stagnant economy. But after a long "winter," a ray of hope appears to have emerged...

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2006

Glory days for Japanese baseball

I n recent years, circumstances surrounding Japanese baseball suggested that its popularity was in decline and that soccer was drawing away many fans. However, Team Japan's 10-6 victory over Cuba this week to win the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) is certainly enough to lift the fortunes...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2006

Responding to new trends in Japanese studies abroad

By Kazuo Ogoura

The world is changing rapidly under the influence of globalization. At the same time, the political, economic and even academic environment surrounding Japanese studies outside Japan has changed a great deal. Traditional motives for studying Japan, such as curiosity in the exotic, the perception of Japan...

EDITORIALS

Mar 23, 2006

Trilateral breakthrough Down Under

Japan, the United States and Australia last weekend held historic trilateral talks in Sydney to discuss their views of the region and the world. The three countries have a range of shared interests and concerns. Only by working together can they ensure that their strengths and diplomatic tools are used...

EDITORIALS

Mar 22, 2006

Addressing China's challenges

The world has watched China's rise with awe and trepidation. Yet, the focus on how China will use its new power and influence has obscured the many problems the country faces as it continues to develop. Good Marxists that they are, Chinese leaders have long fretted over the contradictions within their...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person

By Naoko Abe

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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