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COMMENTARY / World

Feb 25, 2000

Tax raises the right issues

By Yoichi Masuzoe

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has presented to the Metropolitan Assembly a bill that would impose a temporary tax on all funds held by major banks operating in the metropolis. The proposed tax, the first of its kind in Japan, stirred mixed reactions nationwide. The Japanese Bankers Association issued...

EDITORIALS

Feb 24, 2000

Congratulations, but be careful

The United States economy continues its amazing performance. It has just marked the longest economic expansion in the country's history, growing for a record 107 consecutive months. The unemployment rolls are shrinking and inflation is under control. Whatever the explanation -- and there is no good one,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 24, 2000

Americans hold positive view of Japan

By Ted Gover and Alfred Balitzer

An important new poll on U.S. attitudes toward Japan's wartime past will please neither those who feel that Japan has not done enough to atone nor those who believe that Japan has done all it needs to do. Using a sample of 1,000 registered voters in California, the survey by Pacific Research & Strategies...

EDITORIALS

Feb 23, 2000

Taxing times for Tokyo banks

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to levy a new tax on large banks in the metropolis has created a stir. The banks are dead set against it, but Tokyo citizens -- and the public at large -- are applauding the idea. No Japanese politician, national or local, has made such a widely acclaimed decision...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 23, 2000

It's simple: Economic freedom is the key to prosperity

By Doug Bandow

In a world of plenty, want abounds. To blame are big corporations, international trade and open markets, according to demonstrators who have been attacking the World Trade Organization.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 23, 2000

Irrational intransigence

By Robert A. Manning

Was I the only one who noticed? Ever since the end of the Cold War (that breeding ground of massive numbers of nuclear warheads), U.S. policy toward Russia has been to get rid of as many Russian nuclear weapons as possible. Yet when the Russians recently proposed eliminating up to 1,000 strategic nuclear...

EDITORIALS

Feb 22, 2000

Iran changes -- its own way

Iranians went to the polls last week in the sixth general elections held since the Islamic revolution of 1979. The ballot was the most fiercely contested since the overthrow of the shah, and for good reason: The stakes could not have been higher. Voters knew that a win for reformers could break the religious...

EDITORIALS

Feb 21, 2000

Talking again to Moscow

Although the Cold War has been over for more than a decade, Russia continues to befuddle Western diplomats. Moscow's international influence is a fraction of that of the Soviet Union, its economy is a basket case and it is beset by one domestic political crisis after another, yet the country maintains...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 21, 2000

Penny-wise, pound-foolish

By Hisahiko Okazaki

The Japanese government is reportedly planning to negotiate a cut in so-called "omoiyari yosan" (sympathy budget), or special host-nation support, for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan. The word "omoiyari" is left out these days, however, on the ground that it can create misunderstandings. The budget...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 21, 2000

Pinochet's contribution to humanity

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- The greatest contribution Gen. Augusto Pinochet has made to the rule of international law and to the reign of justice goes beyond his rightful detention in Britain, something never even imagined by Chile's most powerful dictator. Rather, it is to have made real the validity of extraterritoriality...

EDITORIALS

Feb 20, 2000

Criminals in the least likely places

Like the media abroad, Japan's press and television are criticized for sensationalized crime reporting - with one important difference. Critics say they are too slow and too timid in reporting criminal behavior by the nation's police forces. At a time when random crimes of violence are occurring with...

COMMENTARY

Feb 20, 2000

Infrastructure key to growth

By Gregory Clark

As the Asian economies rebound from their 1997-1998 lows, we hear much less about the alleged collapse of something called "Asian values" and its crony capitalism. Which is good, since there never was such a thing as "Asian values" in the first place.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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