Search - local-elections

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2002

A healthy contrast to politics in Beijing

HONG KONG -- The openness, mutual personal criticism and freedom displayed during the latest Taiwanese election were a refreshing contrast to the secrecy, sycophancy and control displayed before, during and after the Chinese Communist Party's 16th Congress.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2002

Chirac sets out to win voters' hearts

PARIS -- Once again, some 150,000 people lined the Champs Elysees on July 14 to watch the Bastille Day parade. At noon, President Jacques Chirac received 6,000 guests at the traditional party held in the palace gardens. At 1 p.m., as he has always done since his first election in 1995, he gave an interview...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 19, 2001

Campaign finance reform bill continues to dominate a divided U.S. Congress

This was "the week that was" for campaign finance reform. The stakes were high. The votes were close. You could cut the tension around the Capital with a knife. And when it was over, just like all the years in the recent past, there was no result. The only winner may well have been U.S. President George...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Koizumi's bid to empower urban voters hit

Toshikatsu Matsuoka is frustrated.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2001

State to repeat review of lengthy projects

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday the government will review long-term public works programs whose value are questionable due to lengthy completion times.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2001

South Korea weighs a constitutional revision

SEOUL -- In private, even his friends acknowledge that South Korean President Kim Dae Jung has passed the peak of his term. With the opposition increasingly less inclined to cooperate, it has become ever more difficult for the "government of the people" to enact domestic reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2001

A time of hopeful change in the Philippines

MANILA -- Political life is always exciting in this fascinating country of over 7,000 islands, be it in periods of great upheavals, as with the two famous "EDSA" popular movements or during subsequent periods of transition in search of calm and stability, as at the present moment.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2000

Mounting problems to test Cambodia's new 'stability'

PHNOM PENH -- They fought with guns and bombast during a civil war, a U.N. peacekeeping mission, an election, a coup, another election -- and every free moment in between. For most of the past two years, the followers of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh have cooperated in...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2000

Africa's growing thirst for democracy

There is a saying among my people in Ghana: one head alone is not enough to decide. I often think of that when I hear people say that democracy is alien to Africa, or that Africans are "not ready" for democracy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2000

The answer is in the heavens

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is doing everything he can to discourage Japanese voters from taking tomorrow's election seriously. He is succeeding. On top of his efforts, is getting help from the media, which are already predicting a comfortable margin of victory for the current ruling coalition.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Bad parents to be denied access to their kids

The Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday endorsed a government-proposed draft of a bill that calls for restricting the rights of parents who abuse their children to see or talk with them.
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2000

Western media err on China and Taiwan

So Taiwan has elected an allegedly pro-independence candidate as president. But China has still not invaded.
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 1999

Indonesia's armed forces strike back

Indonesia's powerful military is not giving up. After humiliating the country with its mishandling of East Timor, the armed forces have rammed legislation through the Parliament that gives the government new powers in the event of an emergency. Opponents fear that the groundwork is being laid for a coup,...
JAPAN / Politics
May 30, 2023

LDP looks to repair Komeito ties with electoral olive branch

While still at loggerheads over the candidate for Tokyo’s 28th district, the LDP no longer intends to field contenders in Saitama’s 14th district and Aichi’s 16th in a possible snap poll.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 14, 2023

From rap star to engineer to young mayor demolishing swaths of Kathmandu

Balendra Shahm known as Balen, made an unlikely bid for mayor of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, last May.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 5, 2023

Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf, military ruler who allied with the U.S. and promoted moderate Islam, dies at 79

The four-star general who ruled Pakistan for nearly a decade after seizing power in 1999, attempted to usher in socially liberal values in the conservative Muslim country.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 19, 2023

Modi and India’s diaspora: A complex love affair making global waves

Many Indian professionals overseas who cheer on India's economic rise also fear Modi's Hindu-supremacist policies will keep the country from standing as a democratic superpower.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2023

Are they Asian values or just Chinese dreams?

Beijing is pushing for so-called Asian values in the region — but how that should work differs with each country.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 2, 2023

Why Jair Bolsonaro was barred in Brazil but Trump can run in the U.S.

In both the United States and Brazil, former presidents made baseless claims of fraud, and their supporters stormed government buildings.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 29, 2012

Tsunami lessons for Tohoku from Tamil Nadu

On Dec. 26, 2004, a massive tsunami blasted across the Indian Ocean, cutting a swath of destruction through communities in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India that claimed a staggering 230,000 lives.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 21, 2020

Tokyo and Osaka governors vie for national attention

As Yuriko Koike gears up for re-election in the Tokyo gubernatorial race, comparisons are being drawn between her and Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 5, 2016

Japan's English-language print media feel the pinch

Publications struggle for relevance in a world where news is available free, to all, all the time.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2013

Education reform over-reaches

It's possible that an Abe administration panel proposal to simplify the board of education system could vest local government leaders with too much influence.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 10, 2006

Politics at the grass roots

Judging by the society pages of certain publications in Japan, politicians at both the local and national levels seem to spend a lot of their time being photographed with ambassadors, captains of industry, assorted aristocrats, passing film stars and all manner of other folk.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2006

Plug the fundraising loopholes

Political funds flowing into the coffers of political parties and political organizations nationwide in 2004 totaled 290.8 billion yen, down 9.8 percent from 2003. Of that amount, revenue collected by local party chapters and organizations came to 152.7 billion yen, a decrease of 16.3 percent from the...
People listen to a campaign speech in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 16, 2024

Unpacking the chaotic by-election in a scandal-hit Tokyo district

The residents of Tokyo's No. 15 district — which corresponds to the city’s southeastern Koto Ward — will head to the polls for the third time in a year.
Liberal Democratic Party candidate Nobuyasu Nikai speaks in front of a crowd in the district of Aridagawa, Wakayama Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 25, 2024

Election wildcard in Wakayama puts rural district in national spotlight

Former LDP member Hiroshige Seko's decision to seek a Lower House seat as an independent candidate highlights the fractured state of the ruling party.
Iraqi refugee Humam al-Gburi, 34, and retired nurse Ursula Panke, 85, in Altena, Germany, on July 15. Since Humam's arrival in 2015, he has been supported by Ursula, who volunteers as his mentor.
WORLD / Society
Sep 2, 2025

German town that welcomed migrants finds adding people won't fix fundamentals

Political failure to tackle rising inflation, job losses in the auto industry and a sense of economic decline now makes migrants a target for the anti-immigrant AfD.

Longform

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The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight