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EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2008

Torch relay lights up many issues

The most controversial Olympic torch relay in history will arrive in Japan this week. The relay route has been changed and another event canceled in Nagano amid worries over the many protesters who have followed the route as persistently as any athlete. This Olympic torch has turned out to be symbolic...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2008

Gambari's battle in Burma

SINGAPORE — The United Nations special envoy to Burma is coming under fire for failing to nudge the country's military rulers in the direction of real political reform. But it is wrong to blame the envoy, Ibrahim Gambari. After all, his mandate is from the United Nations and he reports to the U.N....
Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2008

Valuable data from whale research

In his Jan. 3 letter, "Where is the whale research?," Darryl Magree asks who evaluates the study designs and methods, and how many articles are published in respected scientific journals, as a result of Japan's research whaling. Study design and methods are reviewed annually by the International Whaling...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 25, 2007

Whaling — for nationalism or science?

When it comes to whaling, Japan digs in its heels, as do antiwhaling nations and conservation groups.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 25, 2007

Whaling — for nationalism or science?

When it comes to whaling, Japan digs in its heels, as do antiwhaling nations and conservation groups.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2007

Iran's quest for security and stability

TEHRAN — A major shortcoming in today's world is the persistence of a zero-sum sense of geopolitics. The world expected something different in the post-Cold War era to promote peace and stability. Instead, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, momentum swung toward a "global war on terror," which, in practice,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2007

Shake up top financial clubs

HONG KONG — They trooped out for their five minute photo-op, gray men in gray suits — plus this time one woman, also in a gray suit — and then huddled again for their discussions and finally painted a rosy economic picture of a world of turbulence.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2007

Let economic cooperation break the fall

NEW YORK -- According to estimates by the United Nations, the global economy expanded by 3.8 percent last year, continuing the strong performance recorded since 2003. Led by China and India, developing countries were prominent among the best performing economies, expanding by 6.5 percent on average in...
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2007

Falling off the educational ladder

school or just a private cram school. I don't know what we are," said Saito, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian. A change in immigration policy in 1990 enabled second- and third-generation Japanese-Brazilians to obtain long-term resident visas to work in Japan. That led to an influx of Japanese-Brazilian...
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2006

Club can't shake its fatal attraction

As the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki this week mark the 61st anniversary of the first atomic bombings in human history, the world faces the likelihood of the further spread of nuclear weapons. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki, three days later, caused the immediate...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2006

At least no new wars began

The Davos-based World Economic Forum has just published the third annual report of its Global Governance Initiative. The past year was rated slightly less dangerous than 2004 but still a long way from being safe and secure. The United Nation's 60th Anniversary World Summit in September, a once-in-a-generation...
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2006

America missing out in Asia

HONOLULU -- The structure of global power is shifting, and Asia is finally emerging as one of the pillars of the international system. We have heard this talk before -- over a decade ago the "Asian century" was the story line -- but it is finally happening. The rise of China is part of this story, but...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2005

Firms raided in Narita bidding probe

Prosecutors searched the offices of several electrical machinery makers Thursday over allegations that the companies rigged bids for projects at Narita airport.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2005

Taiwan sees wider recognition as key to upholding democrac

Taiwan has been endeavoring to lift the stature of its 23 million people in the eyes of the international community as a foil to China's plans for unification.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2005

MPD trio to join Beirut probe into assassination

Japan will send three police experts to help a U.N. team investigate the February car-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to sources.
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2004

First steps toward U.N. reform

It has become clear that the United Nations is ill suited to the challenges of the 21st century. Its institutions were created in the aftermath of World War II and to this day they reflect that balance of global power. Yet the world has changed drastically in the past half century. The number of states...
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2004

No laughing matter in South Korea

Reports that South Korean scientists secretly -- and unbeknown to the government -- conducted experiments to enrich uranium are another blow to the nuclear nonproliferation regime. News of the tests is proof that nuclear standards have to be toughened and that the Additional Protocol needs to become...
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2004

Clarifying the cyber-crime fight

Japan is set to become an active party to an international treaty designed to combat computer crime. The Diet, which earlier this year approved the Convention on Cyber-crime, is in the process of debating a set of revision bills for related domestic laws, including the Criminal Law. Given the rapid rise...
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2004

Former U.N. bureaucrat wants bigger SDF role

The Self-Defense Forces should be allowed to maintain security in conflict zones, even if those activities are not authorized by the United Nations, former U.N. undersecretary general Yasushi Akashi said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

U.N. forces may go to Iraq after power transfer: Annan

The United Nations Security Council may send multinational forces to Iraq to help stabilize the security situation after sovereignty is transferred to a provisional government at the end of June, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2004

Come clean on Iraq

Recent admissions by top U.S. officials that Iraq might not have had weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, demand an explanation. Questions must be answered and the damage done to both U.N. and U.S. credibility must be repaired.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2003

Chen winning back respect for Taiwan's position

NEW YORK -- Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's president, recently made a whirlwind international tour. During a three-day transit in New York three weeks ago, he received the 2003 award from the International League for Human Rights. He attended centennial independence anniversary celebrations of Panama, then...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2003

U.S. continues to stir Muslim resentment

SINGAPORE -- In an Oct. 1 report to the U.S. Congress, titled "Changing Minds, Winning Peace," a high-level panel warned that "hostility toward America had reached shocking levels." It recommended that the administration overhaul and increase public-relations efforts to salvage its plummeting image among...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2003

Choosing human security

The notion of "human security" has gradually but steadily gained greater international currency. Canada and Japan, especially under former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and the late former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, respectively, were prominent early advocates of incorporating the...
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

SARS, Iraq war hit JAL earnings in first quarter

Japan Airlines System Corp. said Friday it lost 77.28 billion yen during the first quarter of fiscal 2003, blaming the Iraq war and the SARS epidemic for the plunge in its international flight passenger volume.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2003

U.N. strives to control real weapons of mass destruction

In July 2001 the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus an action program to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Two months later, the 9/11 terror attacks hit the United States, shifting the focus to international terrorism and the proliferation...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’