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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 16, 2005

Former prime minister's pride of pots

"On a sunny day I go to the fields, and, when it rains, I read. Simple enough, isn't it?" Sounds like the words of a cute obachan out in the countryside, but these are the words of former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa who now leads a quiet, secluded life.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 13, 2005

Pushing the boundaries of the Tokyo tribunal

BEYOND THE "JUDGEMENT OF CIVILIZATION": The Intellectual Legacy of the Japanese War Crimes Trials, 1946-1949, by Kei Ushimura, translated by Steven J. Ericson. Tokyo: LTCB International Library (No. 14), 2003, 336 pp., unpriced (cloth). This is a provocative examination of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2005

Forging an alternative to U.S. hegemony

BRUSSELS -- At a series of meetings around the left-leaning World Parliamentary Forum (WPF) held late last month in Porto Alegre, Brazil, there was a strong case made for the necessity of building a new economic and political partnership between the European Union and South America.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2005

Mr. Bush's ambitious agenda

In the first State of the Union address of his second term, U.S. President George W. Bush laid out an ambitious agenda that is designed to transform his country and the world. The speech marked the opening volley in Mr. Bush's attempt to shape his legacy. He reveled in the victory afforded by Iraq's...
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2005

Winning the world's confidence

International talks on how to reform the United Nations are entering crucial stages as nations stake out their positions. Last month, the nations involved, including Japan, attended a special session to discuss a report published in December by a high-level advisory body to U.N. Secretary General Kofi...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2005

Key to a common currency

The Economist magazine forecast in a recent issue that a future multiple reserve currency system could include the Chinese yuan: "The world might drift toward a multiple reserve currency system shared by the dollar, the euro and the yen, or indeed the yuan at some time in the future."
COMMENTARY
Jan 31, 2005

Zhao Ziyang: the death of a nonperson

HONG KONG -- While it seems unlikely that the death of China's former leader Zhao Ziyang will provoke mass unrest, the way in which it is being handled indicates the profound official insecurity still aroused by the mass unrest in 1989.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2005

Looking up after bleak year

Two years ago, the World Economic Forum launched a Global Governance Initiative that brought together a group of experts from around the world to map the state of the world on peace and security, education, environment, health, human rights, and hunger and poverty. The initiative provides an assessment,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2005

Foggy North Korean shuffle

BRUSSELS -- Recent events in North Korea have been interpreted in various ways and, generally, the wish has been father to the thought. The truth is difficult to discern, but indications are that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has placed himself firmly behind a reform program that may finally bring...
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2005

Things look up to Downer

LOS ANGELES -- They say an optimist looks at the very same glass that the pessimist sees as half-empty and proclaims it to be half-full. By that measure, one of the world's foremost optimists has got to be Alexander Downer, Australia's minister for foreign affairs.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2005

Koizumi set to resume battle for postal reform

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will go all-out in the 150-day Diet session that convened Friday to push his long-cherished, but highly contentious, plan to privatize the nation's postal services.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2005

Unfinished tasks for Mr. Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, speaking at the Liberal Democratic Party's annual convention Tuesday, again expressed his resolve to privatize postal services, saying that "without constant efforts for reform, possibilities for Japan's development will be closed." Mr. Koizumi defines postal privatization...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 16, 2005

Antibalas burn it down and build it back up

At the intersection of North Moore Street and Broadway in downtown Manhattan is No Moore, a bar favored by well-heeled young professionals. The walls are exposed brick, the wooden floor is comfortably worn and, in the daytime, sunlight gilds the space through floor-to-ceiling windows. It's a pleasant...
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2005

Busting tired political myths

LONDON -- Opinion polls continue to put the British Labour Party well ahead of other parties, and the general expectation of the political pundits is that Prime Minister Tony Blair will win yet again when the general election comes, most probably on May 5.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 12, 2005

Blue skies over architectural utopias

The latest offering from the Mori Art Museum lives up to its big name: "Archilab: New Experiments in Architecture, Art and the City, 1950-2005." The first architecture exhibition at the Mori, this is a big show, ambitious in both scale and manner of presentation. Featuring drawings, videos and maquettes...
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2005

Mideast peace staked on Sunday's poll

On Sunday, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will go to the polls to choose the successor to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who died in a Paris hospital in November. With the Middle East locked in a vicious cycle of hatred and bloodshed, it is hoped that the election is completed...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 6, 2005

Lessons from last year's landmark U.S. election

WASHINGTON -- The last election that we just endured is still being quantified and dissected. From the seemingly endless forums and reviews that have flowed since Nov. 2, we are learning a bit about how our elections are run and won.
COMMENTARY
Jan 3, 2005

Modern England leaves Granny behind

LONDON -- "What are we coming to" cried one of the grannies at my Christmas dinner, meaning we, the English. Her small anguish was prompted by the thought of the bank holidays and festive refusal of work that wraps everyone in a haze of food and alcohol, gifts and family, and lets the outer world fend...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jan 3, 2005

Putin's tragic gaffes of 2004

MOSCOW -- The year 2004 has had mixed blessings for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He won re-election in a landslide, and though the results were probably rigged, by and large they still reflected voters' sympathies well enough: Russia likes its president.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 3, 2005

Common weeds of nationalism

NATIONALISMS OF JAPAN: Managing and Mystifying Identity, by Brian J. McVeigh. Latham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, 331 pp., $34.95 (paper). Angry Chinese and Korean responses to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, anti-Japanese actions by Chinese soccer fans at the Asia...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 1, 2005

F.W. de Klerk

In his autobiography. "Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson Mandela wrote: "On February 2, 1990, F.W. de Klerk stood before Parliament to make the traditional opening speech and did something no other South African head of state had ever done: he truly began to dismantle the apartheid system and lay the groundwork...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 29, 2004

Get 'em fresh

This seemed like an off year for cinema. How bad was it? Well, I write a column for a women's monthly, and some months I couldn't even find one movie to recommend wholeheartedly. As usual, there were plenty of in-your-face junk flicks to wade through, but things like "Van Helsing" or "Catwoman" were...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2004

Japan as seen through Hollywood's eyes

OSAKA -- Over the past year or so, Japan has figured in several popular Hollywood films.
Dec 28, 2004

Japan as seen through Hollywood's eyes

OSAKA -- Over the past year or so, Japan has figured in several popular Hollywood films.
Japan Times
Features
Dec 26, 2004

Men or monkeys in 2004?

A year is a novel that writes itself. The plot may be incoherent and the main characters disappointing, but the overall effect never fails to be riveting.
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2004

The year of the blog

Whether you're sick to death of the word "blog" or have no idea what it means, you are equally abreast of the times, linguistically speaking. Merriam-Webster, the U.S. dictionary publisher, recently declared it the most looked-up term on its Internet site this year, not counting profanities and perennial...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2004

Ukraine's poisonous politics

How far will the old order in Ukraine go to safeguard its privileges? News that opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned suggests that it is desperate indeed. Three months after the alleged poisoning, questions continue to mount about how Mr. Yushchenko ingested what should have...
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2004

DPJ lacks drive to take power

Many Japanese want the Democratic Party of Japan to take power in the next general election in the hope that a DPJ victory will usher in a two-party system that puts Japanese politics on a sounder footing. The party's latest annual convention, however, must have left people wondering whether the DPJ...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 22, 2004

The sound of 2004

Rock and blues Animal Collective, "Sung Tongs" (Fat Cat): An acoustic hootenany reinvented for the electronic era. Exhilarating, innocent of any apparent influence, and completely unlike anything else released this year (or maybe ever). (S.T.)
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2004

EU opens the door to Turkey

For more than four decades, European leaders have held out to Turkey the prospect of membership in their club. The odds that Turkey would join Europe shortened considerably last week, when officials from the European Union and Ankara agreed to commence discussions on Turkish membership next October....

Longform

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