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COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2001

Yasukuni still casts a long, ugly shadow

By Ding Dou

The annual official visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese government dignitaries in recent years have raised controversy and negatively affected Sino-Japanese relations. This summer was no exception, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at the shrine on Aug. 13, two days before his previously...

COMMENTARY

Aug 20, 2001

Cleaning up Clinton's unfinished business

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Three years ago, in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, U.S. President Bill Clinton launched a missile strike against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory, claiming that it manufactured chemical weapons. It is now widely recognized that the United States acted hastily and mistakenly....

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2001

Kim Jong Il's quaint trip to Moscow

By Philip Cunningham

BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in...

EDITORIALS

Aug 19, 2001

The urgent task of money policy

The Bank of Japan decided last Tuesday to pump more money into the economy, obviously in deference to the growing calls for a looser credit policy from the government and the ruling parties. The decision also reflects a desire to prop up sagging stock prices. Earlier in the week, the Nikkei stock index...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Aug 19, 2001

The greatest show on Earth?

By Constantine Pleshakov

There have been only three notable 20th-century leaders who were addicted to trains: Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Chinese leader Mao Zedong and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung. These venerable gentlemen would readily expose their tender flesh to the inconveniences of a long railway journey rather...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 19, 2001

Environmental destruction dooms us all

By Ramesh Thakur

"Environmental security" has three different meanings. First, it can be used to explain conflict. Resources can be causes, tools, or targets of warfare. Disputes over water can cause conflict between nations. Upstream states can use water as a tool of warfare by manipulating shared river basins to inflict...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 19, 2001

Suicide bombers targeting peace process

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Fifteen Israelis, half of them children, were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem on Thursday. A comparable number were killed by a suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv disco in June. These outrages have a far greater impact on public opinion at home and abroad...

COMMENTARY

Aug 19, 2001

George W. Bush and the politics of DNA

By TED RALL

NEW YORK -- "Today's overwhelming and bipartisan House action to prohibit human cloning is a strong ethical statement, which I commend." -- George W. Bush, July 31, 2001

EDITORIALS

Aug 18, 2001

Grim forecast for the Mideast

The low-grade war between Israel and the Palestinians continues. The number of victims increases every day, but the greatest casualty may be the hopes for any resolution of the violence. Real peace will require some measure of trust and goodwill between the two parties. Both these qualities are practically...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 18, 2001

U.S. mortgaging wealth before recession

By Bharat Jhunjhunwala

NEW DELHI -- It's becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. economy, despite a sharp slowdown, is holding the world against a global recession. Americans are borrowing globally and using the money to consume the goods of the world. Alas! This can continue only as long as U.S. assets exceed liabilities....

COMMENTARY

Aug 18, 2001

Many twists in the road to democracy

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- The road map for returning Pakistan to democracy, delivered this month by President Pervez Musharraf has ended a long wait for a number of countries, including the United States, which had repeatedly urged the former general to state exactly when democracy would be restored.

EDITORIALS

Aug 17, 2001

The first step toward reform

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic reform program is taking shape now that the government has set a spending framework for the fiscal 2002 budget. Policy-based general spending, not including debt servicing costs and revenue transfers to local governments, is pegged at 47.8 trillion yen, down...

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

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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