More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2002

A reunion on neutral ground

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- Shame on Pyongyang . . . and shame on Tokyo, too!

EDITORIALS

Nov 28, 2002

Staving off banking disaster

The latest financial reports from Japan's major commercial banks tell more of the same story: The huge overhang of nonperforming loans continues to block a return to health. To be sure, banks made a profit in their main lines of business in the first six months of fiscal 2002, as they did in previous...

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2002

Jiang's 'thought' deified in his own time

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- The constitution of China's Communist Party, revised at the recent 16th Party Congress, elevates President Jiang Zemin to virtually the same level as that of party founder Mao Zedong and the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Each is identified as "chief representative" of the Communists...

EDITORIALS

Nov 27, 2002

Not the time to celebrate profits

At first glance, corporate earnings reports for the first half of fiscal 2002 seem too good to be true, given the continuing economic slump. On average, pretax profit surged nearly 40 percent in April through September from the same period a year earlier -- a dramatic reversal from the 40 percent decline...

COMMENTARY

Nov 26, 2002

Environmental security risks

By Brad Glosserman

HONOLULU -- The United States has become acutely aware of "new security threats" since 9/11. Transnational terrorism does not fit neatly within the mind-set that has guided U.S. national security thinking throughout the 20th century. The move to create a homeland security department is proof of the need...

EDITORIALS

Nov 26, 2002

Reviving the image of peacemaker

Israel's opposition Labor Party now has a new leader, who is calling for an immediate resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. In Tuesday's leadership election, Mr. Amram Mitzna, the mayor of Haifa, won an easy victory over Mr. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the party chief who had served as defense minister...

EDITORIALS

Nov 25, 2002

Birth of a new NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was reborn last week. The alliance has added seven new members, all former Eastern bloc countries, extending NATO's territory to Russia's borders in the Baltic and to the Black Sea. Yet unlike the last round, this time Moscow accepted the expansion without protest....

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Nov 25, 2002

Gilded Age of excess returns to America

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- During a recent talk in this city on his lifelong subject, the Iwakura Embassy, businessman-scholar Saburo Izumi reminded those gathered that the Japanese group visited the United States during the Gilded Age. This appellation comes, of course, from American writer Mark Twain (and C.D. Warner)...

COMMENTARY

Nov 25, 2002

Get serious about Zimbabwe

By David Howell

LONDON -- The miserable Zimbabwe saga now seems to be moving to a moment of catharsis. Opposition leader Morgan Tsangvirai has sent a desperate appeal to the United Nations, almost like the last cry of a free country about to be obliterated, warning of imminent descent into civil strife that will threaten...

COMMENTARY

Nov 25, 2002

Flawed civil service proposal

By Kiroku Hanai

To carry out the first major reform of the national civil service system in 50 years, the government plans to introduce legislation in the Diet next year to revise the national public service law. Under present plans, the new law would be implemented beginning in fiscal 2006. A task force of the Cabinet...

EDITORIALS

Nov 24, 2002

Picking on Tiger

There are some things that enlightened people nowadays pretty much agree are beyond dispute. A good example would be the view that it is wrong to discriminate against women. And then there are things that enlightened people find themselves arguing about quite heatedly. An example of this would be the...

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 2002

Pyongyang's threat to peace

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- In North America and Europe the joint problems of Iraq and of al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism dominate the news. Only limited attention is given to the threat posed by North Korea. This is partly because North Korea seems far away and partly because there is no simple way of dealing with the threat....

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports