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EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 1999

The limits in Pakistan

The coup that deposed Pakistan's prime minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was a long time coming. It had many causes, the most immediate of which was the animosity between Mr. Sharif and the military. But by almost every measure, Mr. Sharif's term in office has been a disaster. That does not excuse the military's...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 1999

Skeletons in Yeltsin's closet

The debate over who lost Russia is intensifying as the U.S. presidential election draws near. Although the United States' policies toward post-Soviet Russia have been bipartisan, politicians sense that Vice President Al Gore is especially vulnerable because of his cochairmanship of the Gore-Chernomyrdin...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 1999

China's canny strategy in East Timor

China supported the U.N. Security Council resolution clearing the way for the deployment of an International Force for East Timor and also offered to send a civilian police contingent to be part of the U.N. peacemaking operation. Given China's advocacy of the principle of noninterference in internal...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1999

Top LDP execs to put wrangles aside

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 1999

Celebrations and sublimations

China this week celebrates the 50 years of the People's Republic. Of course, it is not celebrating all of those years: The Great Leap Forward, which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese, and the Great Cultural Revolution, the decade of terror that turned the country upside down, will...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 1999

Washington consensus cracks, but what is next?

WASHINGTON -- Is the so-called Washington consensus coming to an end?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 1999

Pakistan's Sharif fights for his political life

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces a rising political storm in his nuclear-capable country, just halfway through his five-year term in office. The significance of Pakistan's worsening political environment has been noted by the United States, which has campaigned for over a year...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Top Iranian official to begin six-day visit next week

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 1999

Hope amid the rubble

Taiwan is digging out of the worst earthquake to hit the island since 1935. The magnitude 7.6 temblor has claimed more than 2,100 lives, and the death toll is sure to climb as rescuers search for the other 3,000 people thought to be trapped in the rubble. More than 5,000 others are injured; 100,000 have...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 1999

No mandate for Mr. Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has been re-elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by warding off the challenge from former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former LDP policy chief Taku Yamasaki. Many LDP Diet members have been quick to see his impressive victory as a vote of confidence...
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 1999

When the whole world is watching

What can we do when faced with atrocities being committed on a monstrous scale? It is an old question, but it has taken on a renewed urgency with the advent of new communications technologies and mass media eager to exploit them in the competition for viewers. Being blind to distant injustices is a luxury...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 1999

Get ready for the second nuclear age

FIRE IN THE EAST: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age, by Paul Bracken. HarperCollins, 1999, 186 pp., $25 (cloth). The last two years have upset a lot of strategic certainties. Rather than moving toward nuclear disarmament, the nuclear club has expanded as India and Pakistan exploded...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 1999

Lost along the Third Way

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has pledged to remake his Social Democratic Party along the lines of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's "new" Labor Party. Those plans suffered a rude setback last weekend when the SPD lost two state elections to its conservative rival, the Christian Democratic Union....
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 9, 1999

Sipping sake's diversity, one cup at a time

Accessibility is key when it comes to learning about sake. You can read about it until you're blue in the face, but if you can't access it and sample various types, there's not much point.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 1999

California squares off on apology issue

SAN FRANCISCO -- "Apology diplomacy," a staple of politics in Asia, has made its way to the California State Assembly. Taking action on an issue that has divided Japanese Americans, the state assembly in the capital at Sacramento recently passed a resolution asking Japan to apologize for World War II...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 5, 1999

Yeltsin's would-be successors

In December, Russia's Parliament will hold elections. Deprived by the constitution of any true political authority, the Duma is still important as a collective opinion-maker. In 1993-1999, it became an ongoing anti-Yeltsin show, the most prominent podium for any sharp criticism of the president. As a...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 1999

LDP race unofficially under way

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

Obuchi says he is key to coalition

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi stressed Wednesday that the successful launch of a coalition government comprising his Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito depends on his re-election as LDP president.
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 1999

Mr. Robertson's agenda

LONDON -- The appointment of George Robertson, formerly the British secretary of state for defense, as secretary general of NATO has rekindled discussion on a number of important defense issues facing Europe. Robertson should be able to influence the outcome, but decisions will largely rest with the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 1999

All eyes on Mr. Bush

The Republican campaign for the U.S. presidential elections has drawn its first blood. A mere 15 months ahead of the actual ballot, the party hopefuls descended upon Ames, Iowa, to participate in an unofficial straw poll that has no standing in the nomination process, which begins next February. Originally,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 1999

Richard Nixon's long shadow

John F. Kennedy may have won the heart of mid-century America but no U.S. president of that period cast a longer shadow than his former rival, Richard Milhous Nixon. Facing impeachment and almost certain removal from office for his role in the Watergate scandal -- a string of transgressions bunched under...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 1999

End the 'one China' fiction

China is again rattling its sabers over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's recent statement that Taiwan will henceforth conduct its relations with China as "a special state-to-state relationship."
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 1999

Ozawa's future appears bleak

Japan is engulfed in severe political turmoil as the Diet session closes today. Things have turned out as I have been predicting since last fall regarding the coalition strategies of Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the chief strategist in Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's administration.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 1999

Obuchi announces LDP re-election bid

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Friday declared his bid for re-election as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, while two other contenders -- Koichi Kato and Taku Yamasaki -- also announced their candidacies.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 5, 1999

Jambalaya! Cooking to die for in the Big Easy

A visitor to New Orleans in the early part of this century described the city as "a paradise for gluttons," and considering that the Big Easy has the highest number of restaurants per square kilometer in the United States and its denizens have the lowest life expectancy in the country, it's easy to see...
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 1999

Morocco's visionary passes away

An extraordinary group of world leaders assembled in Morocco last weekend for the funeral of King Hassan II, who died last week of a heart attack at the age of 70. The turnout, ranging from U.S. President Bill Clinton and his predecessor, Mr. George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and South African...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 1999

And now to work at the WTO

After a bruising, eight-month battle, the World Trade Organization has a new director general. Actually, the WTO now has two director generals, although they will not be occupying the office at the same time. In a solution that optimists will call Solomonic, but is at best "diplomatic" -- with all the...
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 1999

True leadership in the 21st century

The most important political development of the closing millennium is the extended application of the rule of law. This century has witnessed two world wars, but it has also seen the rule of law applied more widely than ever through the League of Nations and later through the United Nations. A host of...
JAPAN
Jul 22, 1999

No national consensus on national symbols

Staff writers
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 1999

Battle for women's rights in Japan

THE RISE OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT IN JAPAN, by Akiko Tokuza. Tokyo: Keio University Press, 1999, 302 pp., 3,000 yen (cloth), ISBN 4-7664-0731-8. Buddhism instructed wives that " . . . even if (your husband) seems more lowly than you are, man is the personification of the Buddha . . . (and) you must...

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