More Opinion Articles - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

EDITORIALS

Jun 28, 2002

Peace without Mr. Arafat

U.S. President George W. Bush has finally laid out his vision of Middle East peace, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat does not seem to have a place in it. That is one of the few details in Mr. Bush's speech, which is long on "vision" and short on specifics. The call for a new Palestinian leadership...

COMMENTARY

Jun 27, 2002

Teetering on the edge of real democracy

By Doug Bandow

ANKARA -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 27, 2002

Labour spinning backward

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- When its press becomes the story, a country is in a strange shape.

EDITORIALS

Jun 27, 2002

The shrinking U.S. dollar

The U.S. dollar continues to slide on international currency markets. Actually, slide is too polite a word: "Nosedive" seems like a more apt description of the greenback's behavior in recent weeks. Some economists now worry that a "hard landing" -- a crash in the dollar's value -- is the chief threat...

EDITORIALS

Jun 26, 2002

Salvaging the truth

It has been six months since an unidentified armed vessel, presumably a spy ship from North Korea, sank in the East China Sea off Amami Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, following a gun battle with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats. An operation to salvage the ship finally began on Tuesday.

COMMENTARY

Jun 26, 2002

International consensus needed on asylum-seekers

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- The latest dispute between South Korea and China, in which more than 20 North Koreans sought asylum in Seoul's embassy, does no credit to either country. Fortunately, the meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung Hong on June 19 appears...

EDITORIALS

Jun 25, 2002

A problem of corporate ethos

The Financial Services Agency has ordered the Mizuho Financial Group, whose computer system crashed spectacularly on the occasion of its integration last April, to improve its internal management setup so as to prevent any recurrence of the bungle. Mizuho itself has decided to cut the pay of all of its...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 25, 2002

Shenyang highlights bilateral problems

By Ding Dou

BEIJING -- Although the furor raised by the two-week dispute over the Shenyang incident has died down, it has not entirely dissipated -- particularly in Japan. The incident highlighted Japan's sensitivity toward China's growing power, and demonstrated that if frictions in this area are not effectively...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 25, 2002

Nuclear taboo remains strong

By Yumiko Nakagawa and Brad Glosserman

Recent comments by leading Japanese politicians have raised international concern about Tokyo's nuclear intentions. Those fears are misplaced: Japan's nuclear taboo remains as powerful as ever. The comments do signal growing frustration within Japan's policy community over the need for a long-delayed...

EDITORIALS

Jun 24, 2002

Mr. Bush's Middle East dilemma

U.S. policy toward the Middle East is reaching a critical point. Although every U.S. instinct is to keep a safe distance from the explosive conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the administration of President George W. Bush is being forced to take a more active role in the region. The success...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 24, 2002

Shameful progress on reducing hunger

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK-- The World Food Summit in Rome underscored the severity of malnutrition around the world. More poignantly, it showed how slow the progress has been so far toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. According to some estimates, 800 million people worldwide -- among them 300 million children...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jun 24, 2002

U.S. lessons Japan may prefer to skip

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- Americans love to learn and teach lessons. The Japanese love to seek and accept them.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

By Hanako Lowry

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports