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COMMENTARY / World

Jun 18, 2003

U.S. occupation of Iraq recalls failure in Korea

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- The spectacle of political confusion in Iraq today provides a window into the past. Rather than emulating the successful occupation of Germany or Japan as originally envisaged by U.S. policy planners, it is increasingly a carbon copy of the occupation that failed in Korea. And as Yale historian...

EDITORIALS

Jun 18, 2003

The pension system in peril

Japan's protracted economic slump, combined with the accelerated aging of the population, is putting increasing strains on the public pension system. The government-managed corporate-sector pension program, which now has 30 million subscribers, registered a large deficit in fiscal 2001. For the first...

EDITORIALS

Jun 17, 2003

Clamp down on illegal exports

The Metropolitan Police Department last week arrested executives of a Japanese engineering company, Seishin Enterprise Co., on suspicion of illegally exporting to Iran sensitive military-related equipment that could be used in the manufacture of solid fuel for missiles. Investigations have also revealed...

EDITORIALS

Jun 16, 2003

Controversial bill reaches Diet floor

There is no question that Japan should do what it can to help bring stability and democracy to Iraq. Although the world remains divided over whether the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified, rebuilding the country is an international undertaking that should be supported by as many nations as possible...

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2003

They impeach murderers, don't they?

By TED RALL

NEW YORK -- U.S. President George W. Bush told us that Iraq and al-Qaeda were working together. They weren't. He repeatedly implied that Iraq had had something to do with 9/11. It hadn't. He claimed to have proof that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed banned weapons of mass destruction....

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jun 16, 2003

St. Petersburg may rule again

By Constantine Pleshakov

MOSCOW -- St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia, has turned 300. Founded in a Baltic swamp at a frightening cost by the only outstanding Romanov reformer, Czar Peter the Great, it remains the architectural wonder of the nation. The "Venice of the North," as St. Petersburg was labeled in the 18th...

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2003

Averting a nuclear disaster

By Keizo Nabeshima

The international community is joining forces to prevent North Korea from escalating its nuclear threat. The Group of Eight summit (June 1-3) at Evian, France, adopted a declaration on the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, criticizing North Korea and Iran for its development of WMDs.

EDITORIALS

Jun 15, 2003

Trust in tatters

We've known all along we shouldn't believe everything we read in the newspapers, but this is getting ridiculous. First came the double blow to the credibility of the New York Times -- America's oft-proclaimed "paper of record" -- by disgraced reporters Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2003

Different strokes for different war critics

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- One of the most notable moments at the Group of Eight summit (June 1-3) in Evian, France, was the bilateral meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, the first such encounter following their dramatic falling out over Iraq.

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2003

'Propaganda' effort reflects U.S. image

By Brad Glosserman

HANOI -- I just wrapped up a 10-day speaking tour for the U.S. State Department after participating in the department's Public Diplomacy (PD) program, which sends folks to speak to universities, think tanks and public forums. The trip took me to the Russian Far East (Vladivostok and Sakhalin) and Hanoi,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2003

Finding shortcuts to conflict

By Gregory Clark

The new Bush-Blair-Howard-Koizumi rules for waging war deserve attention. They say you are free to use whatever justification you like that if you want to attack someone.

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2003

Hope for Germany's recovery

The German economy, long the engine of Europe, has been sputtering of late. The nation's gross domestic product has registered little or no growth, the unemployment rate is climbing and, for the second consecutive year, the government budget deficit will top the 3 percent limit set by the European Union....

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.

The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan

By Alex K.T. Martin

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