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August 13, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Mar 26, 2005

Alliance lets Japan, Britain influence America to change

By David Howell

NAGOYA/LONDON -- The UK-Japan 21st Century Group, set up two decades ago by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, has been mulling over the foreign-policy dilemmas of the two countries at their annual get-together.

EDITORIALS

Mar 25, 2005

Begin the postal-reform debate

With the passage of the 2005 government budget Wednesday, the Diet effectively ended the first half of its 150-day regular session. The biggest issue in the second half is the proposed privatization of postal services -- the main pillar of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform initiative. To succeed,...

EDITORIALS

Mar 24, 2005

Nuclear shadow follows Ms. Rice

Ms. Condoleezza Rice has just completed her first tour of Asia as U.S. secretary of state. The trip took her to the major capitals of the region -- Delhi, Islamabad, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing -- as well as to Afghanistan, briefly. At each stop, she confirmed U.S. commitment to the region and pledged to...

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2005

Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy

By Gregory Clark

Japan is now in serious territorial disputes with all of its neighbors -- Taiwan, China, South Korea and Russia. True, this could prove there is something wrong with all of Japan's neighbors. But it could also prove that there is something wrong in the way Japan handles territorial problems with its...

EDITORIALS

Mar 22, 2005

Iraq's Parliament convenes

Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and two and a half months after that country's historic elections, Iraq's Parliament held its inaugural session last week. Although the legislative session was more symbolic than substantive, the symbolism was important nonetheless. The convening of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 22, 2005

Special court can right Haitian wrongs

By Cesar Chelala

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Known as the "Perle des Antilles" at the time of its independence in 1804, Haiti has gone through several periods of upheaval and terror that have stymied a once promising future. Human rights violations are widespread, and justice is nonexistent in the country today.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 22, 2005

The U.N.'s 'underachievers'

By Ramesh Thakur

Carol Bellamy, the outgoing head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), has bemoaned the lack of women in top U.N. posts. The organization that preaches gender equality to national governments needs some "affirmative action" to put women in senior positions, she said, adding that other organizations such...

EDITORIALS

Mar 21, 2005

Decade after Aum's crimes

For many Japanese, the March 20, 1995, sarin attack on Tokyo's subways -- which killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000 -- is still fresh in their memory. The passage of 10 years seems hardly enough to heal the sorrow of the families of the deceased and the suffering of the surviving victims.

COMMENTARY

Mar 21, 2005

Antisecession law may have opposite effect

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- The impact of the adoption by China of the antisecession law, widely criticized in Taiwan and in the West even before it was unveiled last Monday, may well be the opposite of what the drafters of the controversial legislation intended.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 21, 2005

Three leadership styles, three challenges

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- The different leadership styles of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in organizing relief and reconstruction after the Dec. 26 tsunami hold important lessons for managing peace, politics and...

COMMENTARY

Mar 21, 2005

A cow walk toward a crisis

By Keizo Nabeshima

The Japan-U.S. row over beef imports looms as a grave problem that could develop into serious bilateral friction. Until recently the two countries had enjoyed what many experts regarded as the best relations yet in the postwar years. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi supported U.S. President George W....

COMMENTARY

Mar 21, 2005

Getting education on track

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- British and Japanese governments face major challenges in funding and organizing education, which is key to a nation's cultural and economic well-being.

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

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

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

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