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August 11, 2025

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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 3, 2005

Australia's rising Iraqi stake

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Is Australia's decision to send troops to guard Japanese reconstruction workers in Iraq reasonable? Not if you believe Australians who are still fighting World War II or are angry at our armed presence in Iraq.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 2, 2005

Abuse taking a growing toll on children worldwide

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- It is a sad paradox that one of the most famous entertainers in the world today should be charged with abusing a child. If Michael Jackson, accused of abusing a boy at his Neverland ranch in California, is found guilty, the verdict will be a tremendous blow to his career.

EDITORIALS

Mar 2, 2005

Putting a lid on proliferation

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to discuss plans for the international management of the gateways to nuclear-weapons development -- activities related to uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing. The debate follows a report submitted by a committee of experts to the board of governors,...

EDITORIALS

Mar 1, 2005

Slow response to AIDS

One of the world's worst disasters is under way in Africa. AIDS is devastating sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa has been especially hard hit. The government in Pretoria, however, has played down the scale of the crisis and, consequently, has been slow to respond to it.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Mar 1, 2005

Waltzing around the issues

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- Summits have gone to the dogs. Gone are the days when a meeting of two presidents could change the world overnight, redrafting borders, changing governments and ensuring peace or war.

EDITORIALS

Feb 28, 2005

Look for VAT hike on the agenda

It appears that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is pushing the consumption-tax issue onto the political agenda. During a Lower House plenary session earlier this month, he said, in effect, that the value-added tax should be increased as part of overall social security reform. Until recently, Koizumi...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 28, 2005

Nepal's king under pressure inside and out

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

MADRAS, India -- Recently Nepal's King Gyanendra dismissed his democratically elected prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and took over the Hindu kingdom's administration. This was a dictatorial and primitive move.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Feb 28, 2005

Tracking Mishima's footsteps in Florida

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Earlier this month, when our friends Lenore and Robert invited us to visit them in Naples, Florida, where they recently acquired a new apartment, I decided to accept their offer. Naples is where Yukio Mishima (1925-70) spent a few days during his first visit to this country in January 1952,...

COMMENTARY

Feb 28, 2005

Police have let trust escape

By Kiroku Hanai

The Japanese police system was once regarded as one of the best in the world, but that is no longer true. In a spate of scandals, some officers are said to have created slush funds with public money while others have falsified internal reports to improve their performance records.

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2005

Let trade cement Indo-Pakistani peace

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- After more than 57 years, an agreement by India and Pakistan to allow people within the divided state of Kashmir to cross the border by bus, beginning in April, is the most important confidence-building measure yet achieved in the two countries' yearlong peace process.

EDITORIALS

Feb 27, 2005

The British navy's pink carpet

'R um, sodomy and the lash" are the words Winston Churchill is popularly credited with using to sum up the traditions of Britain's Royal Navy. (A former assistant has said that Churchill never uttered the famous phrase but wished he had.) Either way, the idea that Her Majesty's naval forces have always...

EDITORIALS

Feb 26, 2005

Moment of reckoning for the alliance

When U.S. President George W. Bush began his second term, he said fixing relations with Europe would top his diplomatic agenda. A fence-mending trip to Europe has revealed how hard that will be. Both the United States and Europe must decide the purpose of their relationship and whether the trans-Atlantic...

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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