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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 26, 2006

Politics scaled with music

Matthew Herbert's new album "Scale" is easy to like. His signature arrangements of accessible house-inflected beats behind jazzy melodies are polished to a glossy sheen. Strings swoon. Horns sound lushly. Songs like the soulful "Moving like a Train" or "When We Are in Love" positively slink out of the...
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2006

Messy energy politics

Two decades ago, Europe and the Soviet Union first pondered a long-term energy-based relationship, one in which the Soviets would use their considerable energy reserves to fuel European economies. The prospect of European reliance on Soviet supplies triggered concern in the United States and some European...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2005

Democratization process brings Palestinian politics to a crossroad

KUALA LUMPUR -- Palestinian political life seems to be unwittingly embracing a distinctive style, contradicting its own traditional political parameters. The last few weeks clearly attest to this political divergence.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 10, 2005

Abe suggests he'll still go to Yasukuni in new post

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a front runner to be the next prime minister, hinted Wednesday he will keep visiting the contentious Yasukuni Shrine.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2005

Koizumi must now master global politics

LOS ANGELES -- I met Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi two years ago for a fascinating interview. I recall slightly pressing him on the touchy question of whether Japan would actually overcome its restrictive pacifist Constitution (a significant legacy of the U.S. Occupation) and dispatch troops to Iraq,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2005

Lively politics worries China

HONG KONG -- Although Taiwan's lat est constitutional reforms preclude any declaration of formal independence for the foreseeable future, they do strengthen Taiwan's democratic development.
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2005

Power politics ensnare reform

NEW DELHI — Sixty years after its establishment, the United Nations is at a crossroads, its future direction and authority uncertain, even as it struggles with the diminution of its role in world affairs. Reforms are essential to revitalize the U.N.'s role, shore up its legitimacy and make it politically...
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2004

Enough of grievance politics

DUBAI/LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been in the Middle East recently, asserting that the Israel-Palestine dispute is "the most important issue facing the world today."
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2004

Afghanistan's volatile politics

ISLAMABAD -- A spate of attacks by Taliban forces on U.S. troops and Afghan government soldiers has intensified worries over the country's first presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place next month.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Bureaucracy, politics in Hosoda's blood

A former bureaucrat at the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Hiroyuki Hosoda, the newly appointed chief Cabinet secretary, entered the world of politics following in the footsteps of this father, Kichizo, who served as transport minister.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2004

Fog of politics obscures war

For most Americans, World War II began Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Europeans date the beginning of the war to the 1939 invasion of Poland. Few Westerners appreciate the length and savagery of the Sino-Japanese war that was already in full force even by then.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 7, 2004

Dean shows green is still king in American politics

WASHINGTON -- Things look a little rosier in the U.S. economy at the moment, with the stock market roaring at last. You may remember that 2002 was the worst year for the stock market for 25 years. The Dow closed in 2002 at 8,341.63, down 16.8 percent. In 2003 it closed at 10,453.92, the highest in almost...
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2003

The year politics turned a corner

Looking back on Japanese politics in 2003, two events stand out from all others: One is November's general election, which brought the two-party system a step closer to reality. The other is the government's decision earlier this month to send Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 18, 2003

Unusual election full of promise

It may be difficult to take an interest in Japan's election last week, since many readers cannot vote. But results this time may be critically important for Japan's future as a democracy.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 21, 2003

The role of politics and religion in the history of art

DISCOVERING THE ARTS OF JAPAN: A historical overview, by Tsuneko S. Sadao and Stephanie Wada. Kodansha International, 2003, 284 pp., 3,000 yen (cloth). According to this new publication from Kodansha International, "The insular culture of Japan can best be understood as a process whereby successive waves...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2003

Politics of human migrations

One in five Canadian workers, one in four Australians or -- at the other extreme -- one in 500 Japanese workers is foreign-born today. The 1 million Indians in the United States comprise a meager 0.1 percent of India's population, but earn the equivalent of an astonishing 10 percent of India's national...
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2003

Politics still trumps business in China-Taiwan relations

HONG KONG -- The new year has begun with conciliatory messages from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, suggesting that both China and Taiwan want to avoid too much tension in their relationship, although neither side seems likely in the short term to yield any ground on the sensitive issue of "One China."...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2002

Suzuki enters plea of not guilty in court

House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki pleaded not guilty Monday to bribery, perjury and falsifying political funds reports.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2002

Chinese politics still a personality game

HONG KONG -- The 16th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, being held this week in Beijing, marks a pivotal period in Chinese history. For the first time since the Communists won the civil war in 1949, power is being transferred without bloodshed or a political upheaval.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2002

A very busy month for Japanese politics

Last month, the political situation in Japan was roiled by three big events: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's surprise visit to North Korea (Sept. 17); the confused leadership election in the Democratic Party of Japan (Sept. 23); and a Cabinet reshuffle (Sept. 30).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 1, 2002

A heaping spoonful of satire helps the politics go down

Mixing music and politics is always tricky. While it sometimes results in great art (e.g. Bob Dylan's pacifist tirade "Masters of War"), often the music is ruined by too much didacticism (John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City" is a prime example).
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2002

A revolution in British politics

LONDON -- The British Constitution has long been widely admired, if not always understood.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2002

Populist politics behind Argentine crisis

Those who would blame Argentina's economic woes on free-market policies or pegging the peso to the U.S. dollar choose to be willfully blind to reality. Although the most evident and most disastrous results are economic in nature, the bases of the problems are political.
COMMENTARY
Jun 17, 2001

Bipartisanship is killing American politics

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 6, 2001

A fresh start for Peruvian politics

Peru's political drift ended with the victory of Mr. Alejandro Toledo in the runoff presidential election on Sunday. Mr. Toledo, an economist and the son of a poor mountain sheepherder, won 53 percent of the vote to defeat former president Alan Garcia who got 47 percent.
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

UNICEF ambassador blames politics for plight of children

In 17 years as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi has seen the worst of what could happen to children around the world.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years