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May 01, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2000

Japan's national security policy ignores public sentiment

The impression that one gets when looking at the evolution of Japan's security policy in recent years is that the Japanese public has consented to steps taken by Tokyo. After all, that is the fundamental expectation that democracies nurture. Following this reasoning, Tokyo should be developing a security...
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2000

Tough challenges for the LDP

The death of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, coming in the wake of the retirement of his mentor, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, marks the end of the "Takeshita politics" that wielded considerable clout within the Liberal Democratic Party.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2000

The IRA cuts the knot

The Irish Republican Army has broken the logjam in the Northern Irish peace process. Last weekend, the group offered to put its vast stockpiles of weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use." That gesture will allow the suspended power-sharing agreement in the province to go forward. The implicit...
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2000

Will Clinton crumble again?

If Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's overseas foreign-policy tour this week has a theme, it is "coverup" and "damage control." Mori, known as a colorless political fixer, has been tasked with assuring foreign leaders that the July G8 summit will go forward successfully no matter what happens on the Japanese...
COMMUNITY
Apr 30, 2000

'English Patience' thickens plots

I found Yukichi Arai eating fruit sherbet in the lobby of the Tokyo Station Hotel. It was hot, I agreed, whereupon he ordered another. After four days sitting in a booth at the Tokyo Book Fair at Tokyo Big Site, promoting his book (titled in "katakana" as "English Patience"), he felt the world deserving...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys star Emmitt Smith running after NFL records

Nobody will argue that Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the premier running backs in National Football League history.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2000

A costly dearth of leaders

There is growing opinion at home and abroad that Japan lacks national leadership. When the former ruler of a neighboring country suggested recently that Japan had no true leader, there was no public outrage in Japan.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2000

Factional fighting set to split Liberal Party

The Liberal Party, the smallest member of the ruling coalition, appears to be splitting up.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Beijing all bark and no bite? Think again

Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are palpable after China did its best to intimidate Taiwanese voters in the runup to last weekend's election. First, the Cabinet released a white paper that drew an unmistakable line -- thickened with a new condition -- regarding the limits of acceptable Taiwanese behavior...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Built on a foundation of fear

THE SHOGUN'S PAINTED CULTURE: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States -- 1760-1829, by Timon Screech. London: Reaktion Books, 2000, 312 pp., with 33 color plates and 111 b/w photos, 19.95 British pounds. The argument of this prodigiously detailed study is that Japan as we now know it did not exist...
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2000

Democracy under attack

When I first read that the Japanese coalition government had decided to force through a bill to reduce the number of seats elected by proportional representation, my first thought was, since they had a majority of votes in both Houses for this measure and as democracy generally implies majority rules,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2000

The odd debacle in the Diet

In an unprecedented development in Japanese political history, the opposition forces are boycotting all Diet proceedings to protest the ruling coalition's handling of the controversial legislation for reducing the number of Lower House seats. The Democratic Party of Japan, the Japan Communist Party and...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2000

Ruling, opposition blocs duel over 2000 budget

Ruling bloc lawmakers on Thursday praised the expanded, bond-heavy fiscal 2000 budget compiled by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's administration as Lower House Budget Committee deliberations got under way. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, convened "an alternative...
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2000

Begin the Constitutional debate

The postwar Constitution of Japan, which was put into effect in 1947, will come up for formal and continuous debate for the first time in the ordinary Diet session that opens on Friday. It is unclear, however, whether the Constitutional Review Council -- which was created last year in both houses --...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2000

The U.N. should have its day in court

A report in the Jan. 10 issue of The Age newspaper stated that the National Post newspaper of Canada had editorialized that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan should resign. The National Post editorial call was made in the light of the alleged inaction of Annan when he was chief of U.N. peacekeeping forces...
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2000

Awaiting Diet dissolution

Despite widespread anxieties about potential Y2K disasters, the world greeted the new millennium without trouble. Volatility in the New York and Tokyo stock markets since the beginning of the year should not cause undue concern about the economic future at home and abroad.
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 1999

Victims of money politics

Mr. Helmut Kohl may no longer be Germany's chancellor, a position he held for 16 years, but he continues to be one of the country's most revered statesmen. He presided over the reunification of Germany and in the process helped the country become "a normal nation." While each of his predecessors pushed...
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 1999

Dreaming of a posh X-mas

How was your Christmas last year? Midnight Mass by candlelight in a 12th-century chapel? Convivial gatherings of friends and family around old oak tables laden with turkeys and rich, dark, steaming puddings? After-dinner strolls through frost-crisp fields and woodlands? Roaring fires?
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 1999

The DPJ at a crossroads

The Democratic Party of Japan looks set for a three-way race to select its new head next month. The current leader, Mr. Naoto Kan, and the deputy secretary general, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, have already announced they will run in the Sept. 25 party election. The third man, Mr. Takahiro Yokomichi, chairman...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 1999

Politicians go head to head

Political chaos in August ended when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Liberal Party, agreed to form an alliance with New Komeito, despite widespread fears that the tripartite negotiations would fail because of policy differences. By successfully playing a political...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 1999

Facing the reality of Taiwan

Later this week, government officials I have never used the words "one China." In fact, I have never learned the usage of "one China," and today I have found that this is not my singular experience. One of the distinguished participants from the United States told us that he did not remember having used...
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 1999

Bureaucrats block education

The first of two parts. The second part will appear on Wednesday's Opinion Page.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

Promise of autonomy fades in Hong Kong

HONG KONG -- Right from the start, the current legal and political case concerning "right of abode" in Hong Kong has been a journalist's nightmare. Highly complex, profoundly nuanced, and containing contradictory strands, the case was impervious to easy simplification. Both sides to the dispute could...
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 1999

Serving justice in Turkey

To no one's surprise, a Turkish court earlier this week found Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan guilty of murder and treason and sentenced him to hang. The 14-year war waged by Kurdish separatists has claimed more than 30,000 lives; the measures taken by the Turkish government to combat the insurgency...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

New probe into fatal car accident sought

OSAKA -- The families of two boys who were struck and killed by a car in 1994 will file an appeal with the Osaka High Prosecutor's Office and Supreme Prosecutor's Office, arguing that Osaka district prosecutors inappropriately dropped charges against the driver, sources said Monday.
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Constitution's anniversary sparks debate on revision

With last month's Lower House passage of bills covering the updated Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines as a backdrop, the nation on Monday celebrated the 52nd anniversary of the postwar Constitution with heated debate over the document itself.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 1999

NATO's call to arms in Kosovo

The six nations that make up the Contact Group on Kosovo have demanded that the parties to the conflict attend a peace conference in Rambouillet, France this weekend. They have backed up that summons with the threat of NATO military intervention in the troubled province if the combatants fail to stop...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 22, 1999

Jordan wasn't NBA's 'greatest'

This column originally ran in the print edition of The Japan Times on Jan. 22, 1999, approximately nine months before Wilt Chamberlain died.
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 1999

The trial of the century

On Thursday, the 100 senators of the 106th U.S. Congress were sworn in as jurors to hear the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. The legislators, who consider themselves part of "the world's greatest deliberative body," thus began the second such trial in U.S. history, 131 years after their...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 1998

Business focuses on the crew rather than the leader

Staff writer
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
Delta routes new Airbus plane to Tokyo to sidestep Trump tariffs
Delta Air Lines signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on April 9. The airline is flying a new Airbus SE plane through Japan to skirt U.S. import tariffs.
Single, or not? Japanese dating app launches relationship verification system
Tapple, one of Japan's most popular dating apps, has launched the nation's first feature to verify a user's single status via their My Number card.
CDP submits bill proposal on separate surnames, but challenges remain
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers speak to reporters in parliament on Wednesday after submitting a bill in the Lower House to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
Puzzling decisions and opaque rankings are all part of sumo's charm
Chiyoshoma (right) battles Churanoumi during the New Year Basho in Tokyo in January. The Mongolian's drop down the sumo rankings ahead of the May tournament was one of the biggest surprises of the latest banzuke.
North Korea's Kim sets sights on nuclear-armed navy
An unidentified weapons system is fired from the deck of North Korea's latest destroyer, the Choe Hyon, during two days of tests on Monday and Tuesday in this undated photo released Wednesday.
Single, or not? Japanese dating app launches relationship verification system
Tapple, one of Japan's most popular dating apps, has launched the nation's first feature to verify a user's single status via their My Number card.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
By Alex K.T. Martin

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Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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