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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2004

EU dream has caught America napping

WASHINGTON -- Europe: We love to vacation there, if we can afford it. It's the cultural mecca many of us flock to, to awaken our senses and feed our souls. But Europe as a political entity?
Japan Times
Features
Oct 3, 2004

Teddy bares all

Long before baseball's Ichiro Suzuki or soccer's Hidetoshi Nakata became stars overseas, in 1987 a 15-year-old boy from Asahikawa in Hokkaido flew to London on his way to taking the ballet world by storm just a few years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2004

No long-term gains against terror yet

WASHINGTON -- So which U.S. President George W. Bush was right? The one who said Aug. 30, the day the Republican National Convention started, that the war on terror might not be winnable, or the Bush who showed up the rest of the week and asserted that victory would be ours?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2004

A refitted Security Council

Everyone acknowledges the need for U.N. Security Council reform in theory. Unfortunately, they cannot agree on an one particular reform package. Once people see the details of a concrete proposal, losers and opponents always seem to outnumber winners and supporters. The urgency for reform is now extreme....
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2004

Murofushi poised for shot at glory in hammer throw

Four years after cracking under pressure in Sydney, Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi has grown in confidence and experience and is heading for Athens as an undisputed medal contender.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

Hanging by a thread

Spurned by many top Japanese designers, patchy in quality and sprawling over a month at a mishmash of venues, the twice-yearly Tokyo Collections -- whose fall/winter 2004/05 shows end this week -- still lay claim to being the highpoints of Asia's fashion year. But are Tokyo's days numbered as the `Paris...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Japan hoping to make Athens Games a gold rush

Japanese athletes are expected to figure in a rush on gold medals at the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens, on the strength of their showing in world championships in swimming, track and field, gymnastics and women's wrestling.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2003

Reforming the United Nations

The United Nations is our collective instrument for organizing a volatile and dangerous world on a more predictable and orderly basis than would be possible without the existence of the organization. As the year that saw war in Iraq draw to a close, the future and prestige of the U.N. is under scrutiny...
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2003

Europe rues decline amid shift to Asia

PARIS -- Officially, we were discussing Russia's place in Asia. It was hard to tell whether the French senator/historian on the panel was warning of Moscow's return to great-power status or urging it on. He was no crypto-communist, however: For him, Russia's resurgence would signal the return of multipolarity...
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2003

EU may bite off more than it can chew in euro-dollar rivalry

LONDON -- How fares Europe's single currency, the euro? Much too well.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2003

Liberal ideals gain ground in the Asia-Pacific region

MANILA -- In past decades, liberal democracy and economic freedom have made great advances in all parts of the world. This general trend also applies to Asia, as is documented in the annual "Freedom in the World" surveys published by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and the "Economic Freedom...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2003

September 11, two years on

In many ways, the world is a very different place today than it was two years ago. The Taliban and Saddam Hussein are no longer in power. Fears of international terrorism are pervasive; the possibility of an attack is considerably more real. There is heightened awareness of the dangers posed by weapons...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 2, 2003

Japan scoops silver, bronze

PARIS -- Japan's Mizuki Noguchi and Masako Chiba won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the women's marathon on Sunday, the final day of the track and field World Championships in Paris.
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...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2003

Activist draws on his talents to expose U.S. militarism

American sociologist and antiwar activist Joel Andreas, 46, is the author of "Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2003

The ebb and flow of the Group summit

LONDON — When then-French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing organized the first meeting of world leaders in the form of the Group of Seven in 1975, the idea was that they would conduct a relaxed private dialogue about settling major problems facing the world, with the emphasis on joint economic programs....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2003

State of the 'empire'

BANGKOK — China has suffered most from the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus with thousands of victims, a few hundred deaths and new cases being uncovered daily as the disease spreads from major cities to the countryside.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2003

Contradictory U.S. triumph

An unusual, and thus intriguing, feature of the Iraq war is how both proponents and opponents feel passionately vindicated by what happened. The switch in justification -- from finding and destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the war to the humanitarian liberation of Iraqis from a murderous...
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2003

The silent birth of a killer virus

BEIJING -- Is it the "big one" -- the indestructible one? Perhaps not. Either way, China's inability to tell the truth has made it a threat to all of us.
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 2003

Outsiders neglectful as China hid SARS

HONG KONG -- Chinese officialdom continues to both avoid reality and to invent it. The Chinese people still suffer because of the absence of freedom of information. Ironically, Hong Kong residents are still receiving phone calls from friends and relatives in Guangdong, asking them what is going on in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 30, 2003

Was WWF3 a washout for citizens' rights?

While the outbreak of war in Iraq may have disrupted proceedings at the Third World Water Forum being held in Kansai, it also lent them deeper significance.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

Water forum closes amid clash over privatization

KYOTO -- For eight days, and at a considerable cost to local taxpayers, the World Water Forum brought together international corporations in the water supply business, World Bank officials and a large number of Japanese construction and design firms, as well as senior government officials and thousands...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2003

More relevant now than ever

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, set in revolutionary France, begins with the observation that it was the best of times and the worst of times. So might it be said, thanks in no small measure to France, of the tale of two cities of contemporary times, namely Washington and New York, the political...
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2003

Water forum under way as war concerns mount

KYOTO -- With war in Iraq possibly only days away, a leading delegate to the Third World Water Forum declared at the opening session that providing clean water is more important than the looming conflict.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2003

Reasoning against Iraq 'catastrophe'

Few were the world leaders who, in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, withheld moral support for the United States. Longtime friends and onetime foes, Christians, Jews and many Muslims alike sang as in one chorus: They would root out terrorism where it lurked. It seemed the birth of a new world...
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 19, 2003

Perseverance, positive outlook carrying Inamoto

Scoring an important goal obviously affects the outcome of a game. But it also sometimes changes the scorer's career -- as in the case with Japan and Fulham midfielder Junichi Inamoto.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 10, 2003

Takahashi setting sights on another Olympic gold in 2004

This is the second and final installment of an exclusive interview with Naoko Takahashi, the gold medalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympic women's marathon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 8, 2003

Music of the saints

Someone once said that the best way to start building a jazz collection would be to buy a couple albums from each decade that Miles Davis was recording and, after that, choose a sideman from each of these selections and buy one of his solo albums. The same could be said of John Zorn and his collaborators,...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2002

A rising China lifts Asian economies

HONG KONG -- For many years now, a debate has raged over the political and economic implications of a rising China, both for the region and for the world. That China is rising is not a matter of debate.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji