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August 13, 2025

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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Apr 17, 2005

Behold John Paul II, a marvelous actor

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Sixty years ago when friends of a young Pole, Karol Wojtyla, grieved that the talented actor was abandoning the stage for a Catholic seminary, their concerns were in vain. Actually, though, the young man never quit acting. As Pope John Paul II, he became the greatest artistic star in the world....

EDITORIALS

Apr 17, 2005

A sermon is a sometimes thing

Sign of the times: Cookie Monster, of the globally beloved U.S. children's television show "Sesame Street," is going to have to start watching what he eats. According to the American show's producers, the shaggy blue carbohydrate-cruncher will no longer be allowed to gobble chocolate chip cookies by...

EDITORIALS

Apr 16, 2005

Mr. Wen courts India

Ties between China and India continue to strengthen. While some worry about a "new axis" between Beijing and Delhi, it is only natural that two of the world's largest countries -- neighbors, no less -- have strong and cooperative relations. Asia needs them to have a positive, forward-looking partnership....

COMMENTARY

Apr 16, 2005

Is Asia moving forward or backward?

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Settling old scores is the characteristic of small minds; moving forward is the stuff of vision and leadership. Despite the growing trade among China, Japan and South Korea, much political activity appears to focus on the settlement of grudges.

EDITORIALS

Apr 15, 2005

Road to corporate turnaround

The Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan (IRCJ), a body created in 2003 to turn around failing corporations, completed part of its mission at the end of March after buying the loans owed by selected businesses. The remaining part of the mission of the semigovernmental agency, due to disband three...

COMMENTARY

Apr 15, 2005

Shedding imposed war guilt

By Gregory Clark

Tokyo is right to blame the Chinese authorities for failing to prevent damage to Japanese diplomatic and other properties during recent anti-Japanese demonstrations. But the Chinese authorities probably had their reasons. Demonstrations in China can easily turn into ugly antigovernment riots when confronted...

EDITORIALS

Apr 14, 2005

A victory for human rights

The decision by the United Nations Security Council to send war-crimes suspects from the Darfur region of Sudan to the new International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important victory for human rights. Even the United States, which has been implacable in its opposition to the ICC, agreed to the final resolution....

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 14, 2005

Righting past humiliations

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- China, South Korea and Indonesia have seen a rise of nationalism commensurate with their increasing economic confidence. The rise in national- ism can also be traced to historical humiliations suffered by China and South Korea a century or more ago, and to Indonesia's ordeal in the Asian...

COMMENTARY

Apr 13, 2005

China's cultural soul being sacrificed on altar of growth

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- As the Chinese economy continues to power ahead, everyone in the country is pleased with the visible improvement in standards of living, but very few people are counting the cost in terms of the loss of China's historical legacy, the growing sense of alienation and the loss of the cohesiveness...

EDITORIALS

Apr 13, 2005

Troubling events in China

The recent wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China raises questions about Beijing's will to stabilize the situation. At the beginning of this month, demonstrators went on a rampage in Sichuan and Shenzhen in southern China, smashing windows of a Japanese supermarket and committing other acts of...

COMMENTARY

Apr 12, 2005

Lee should avoid Yasukuni

By Robyn Lim

With tensions rising again across the Taiwan Strait, some in Japan seem to think that it might be timely for former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to visit controversial Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial in Tokyo to Japan's war dead.

EDITORIALS

Apr 12, 2005

Progress in Baghdad

After what seemed like interminable delay, Iraqi politicians have agreed on the country's top leaders. The posts have been filled by representatives from all of Iraq's main religious and ethnic groups, creating as inclusive a national leadership as possible. The agreement hints that deals have also been...

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

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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