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COMMENTARY

Jun 18, 2001

Moving toward real reform

By Yukio Suzuki

The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has drawn up guidelines for a range of structural reforms planned by his administration. These policy outlines, designed to reshape Japan's outmoded economic society, are by and large acceptable.

COMMENTARY

Jun 17, 2001

Bipartisanship is killing American politics

By TED RALL

NEW YORK -- When I vote for a Democrat, the last thing I worry about is whether he'll be able to get along with the Republicans. I never consider his ability to reach across the aisle, or his willingness to act in a bipartisan manner or take conservatives into consideration. Quite the opposite: I expect...

EDITORIALS

Jun 17, 2001

U.S. visit will test Tanaka

After hemming and hawing, Washington has agreed to a visit to Washington by Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, who has stirred controversy here and abroad over her off-the-record comments that reportedly raised doubts about the U.S. missile defense plan, the Japan-U.S. security alliance and other issues....

EDITORIALS

Jun 16, 2001

One year after Pyongyang

On Friday, the two Koreas marked a bittersweet anniversary: It has been one year since the historic summit between the leaders of the two countries. Koreans rejoiced as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea leader Kim Jong Il toasted each other in Pyongyang and promised to end a half century...

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2001

Hawkish China policy serves U.S. ill

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- The foreign-policy portfolio of the Bush administration is obviously a work in progress, but its increasing sourness toward China is beginning to alarm many Americans. Last week's Defense Department decision to back away from meetings and contacts between the Chinese and American militaries...

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2001

Urgent tasks for Koizumi

By Keizo Nabeshima

Peace and stability in East Asia in the coming years will hinge on Japan's political and economic leadership, North-South rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, China's policies as an emerging regional power and strategies of the United States, the sole superpower.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 16, 2001

Time for the suits to make way for dresses

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Japan is going through an interesting period of political change. Or is it? A Japanese colleague in Cambridge who was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago came back to say that it was only an interlude and that the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would only last a few months,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2001

Backers of Chinese press in Malaysia mobilize to defend its freedom

By David Chew

KUALA LUMPUR -- Despite stringent mass media laws, Chinese newspapers in Malaysia have built a reputation for objective, balanced and accurate political reporting and analyses. This widely-held perception among all ethnic groups in multiracial Malaysia -- Malays, Chinese and Indians -- often stands in...

EDITORIALS

Jun 15, 2001

The state's right to kill

America was riveted -- and riven -- this week by the execution of one of its least defensible mass murderers, Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the deaths of 168 people in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklohoma City six years ago. At the same time, Japan was traumatized...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2001

Korean summit fails to meet expectations

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- Under normal circumstances, the meaning of a great event should become clearer in retrospect than in prospect. Yet on the first anniversary of last year's Korean summit, confusion rather than clarity reigns. In a sense, a year is too short a time to know if real change has occurred, setting...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Jun 15, 2001

Bush and Putin square off

By Constantine Pleshakov

On Saturday, U.S. President George W. Bush is meeting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Ljubljana, Slovenia in what will be the first Russo-American summit of the 21st century. The issue that will dominate the talks is clear: Bush's grandiose plan for national missile defense. Like chess champs...

EDITORIALS

Jun 14, 2001

Long-term gain worth the pain

Japan's gross domestic product in the first quarter of the year dropped 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, or 0.8 percent at the annualized rate, according to figures released Monday by the Cabinet Office. Economic indicators since April also show the economy is decelerating. Mr. Heizo Takenaka,...

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

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