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COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2002

Candidate of Kim's party in tough race

SEOUL -- Roh Moo Hyun, the recently anointed presidential candidate of Kim Dae Jung's Millennium Democratic party, or MDP, for December's elections, has been on a roll this spring. A relative political unknown, he succeeded in toppling his party's front-runner for the nomination, Rhee In Je, while generating...
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2002

U.S. idiosyncrasies on Cuba, free trade

LOS ANGELES -- Undoubtedly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's red-carpet reception in Cuba rubbed President George W. Bush the wrong way.
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

What is terrorism?

Two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, an article by Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist, director, playwright and easily America's most provocative public intellectual, appeared in the now-famous black-cover issue of the New Yorker magazine. In it, Sontag excoriated Americans for their...
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2002

Gloom looms before Koizumi

The outlook for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration, which previously enjoyed high approval ratings and looked set for continued success, has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.
COMMENTARY
Mar 20, 2002

Uncertain future for Koizumi

In politics, as the saying goes, all is darkness just a step down the road. How right they are. When the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was inaugurated at the end of April 2001, it enjoyed a stellar Cabinet support rating of 80 percent, and the prime minister himself was hugely popular....
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2002

Keeping politicians on leash

In a report published March 4, the Foreign Ministry acknowledged that Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Muneo Suzuki exerted exceptional influence over ministry affairs. The report, based on an in-house probe and released by Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, confirmed allegations that Suzuki intervened...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2002

Help the huddled masses

To Canberra's continuing irritation, the scandal of the Norwegian freighter Tampa will not go away. It now turns out that the Australian government's election victory last year may have been conceived in deceit and born in sin.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 21, 2002

Silver lining in Enron scandal: campaign finance reform

WASHINGTON -- It may look like Enron Corp. is the only game in town, but that would be far from the truth. A lot is going on these days, although Enron certainly has taken a big chunk of the capital's attention. There are hearings galore and press conferences in between. To what end? Good question. This...
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Japan and competition: You gotta have 'wa'?

Third-century Chinese visitors to Japan were struck by the easygoing equanimity of Japanese women. "All men of high rank," they reported, "have four or five wives; others, two or three. The women are faithful and not jealous."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2002

French imitations of a banana republic

LONDON -- Is corruption a Third World disorder? Not if the French are any guide.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Of nationhood and identity

Writer Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands in 1951. He attended university in Japan and has spent a large part of his adult life in Asia. His nonfiction works include "The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan," "Behind the Mask," "A Japanese Mirror" and "Voltaire's Coconuts." Buruma...
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2002

Yet more political corruption

The issue of political corruption is again coming to a head. This time around, a former secretary to Mr. Koichi Kato, one-time secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, is suspected of tax evasion, while an ex-aide to Mr. Michihiko Kano, deputy chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, is charged...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002

A rightist revival in Europe

LONDON -- For the past five years, the center-left has held the whip hand in Western Europe. Whether in the shape of Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour administration in Britain or the more traditionally leftwing Socialist-led government in France, social democracy has ruled in the major countries...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2001

Japan Times Readership Survey results

More than 90 percent of respondents to The Japan Times Readership Survey conducted in July rated our paper's news coverage favorably, both domestic and foreign.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2001

No public faith in Koizumi reforms

The first year of the 21st century has seen a great change in Japan's political landscape with the appearance of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi, who in April won the post of prime minister with an ardent call for "reforms without sacred cows," has been maintaining an unprecedentedly high...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

Shanghai mayor's fate may signal storm

HONG KONG -- A political mystery arose in Shanghai as the year drew to an end. Few foreigners took much notice. Yet the unexplained incident could indicate that a bumpy year lies ahead for politics in China.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2001

Expanding access to international trade

WASHINGTON -- The United States has forced medieval totalitarianism into retreat in Afghanistan. Still necessary is expanding the access of countries like it to the global economy.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Calls for Cabinet shakeup dog Koizumi

Speculation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will reshuffle his Cabinet sometime after the current Diet session ends Dec. 7 has not ebbed, despite his repeated denials.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Calls for Cabinet shakeup dog Koizumi

Speculation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will reshuffle his Cabinet sometime after the current Diet session ends Dec. 7 has not ebbed, despite his repeated denials.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2001

Koizumi should follow in Thatcher's footsteps

The infamous terrorist attacks on the United States have done much to alter the global economic landscape. But they have done nothing to change the economic problems Japan needs to tackle.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2001

Campaign reform illusion deserves to die

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Congress appears to have killed so-called campaign reform. Despite all of the wailing, legislators did the right thing. Campaign reform is an illusion which would only rearrange who has political influence.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2001

Mr. Lee makes headlines again

Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui has a penchant for controversy. His tenure in office was marked by some of the highest tensions between China, Taiwan and the United States over the past four decades. Some watchers had hoped that he would escape the spotlight after retiring from office. However,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 1, 2001

The importance of getting the vote out

Reality rarely bites my brain until I have downed my first cup of morning coffee, and sometimes not even several such cups are enough to juice me from dream mode out into open-eyed awareness.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2001

Learning the lessons hidden in victory

It was a stunning night for Labour June 7. British political geography has been permanently transformed. Yet learning the lessons of defeat is comparatively easy. British Conservatives are already starting to learn those lessons.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 7, 2001

Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill

It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2001

Labor's win, democracy's loss

LONDON -- It is possible that in some dark cavern by the River Thames, or wherever it is that Labor's inner circle does its thinking, party planners are already plotting who is going to do what in government for the next five years. Labor is confident of winning the election on June 7: Its lead in the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2001

S. Korea's local councils are weak link

SEOUL -- Anniversaries are a good time to pause and ask: Where have we been successful and where have we failed? Looking at the past critically is a precondition for avoiding mistakes in the future.
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2001

Koizumi tidal wave may crest

The past 10 days have been a tumultuous period in Japanese politics. I refer, of course, to the series of events from the resignation of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to the election of Junichiro Koizumi as Liberal Democratic Party president and prime minister and the inauguration of the Koizumi...
COMMENTARY
Apr 30, 2001

A real chance for change?

LONDON -- Is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi so different from other Japanese politicians that he can succeed in enforcing radical change in the political and economic system of the country?
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2001

Calls for change heeded

In his year as prime minister, Yoshiro Mori caused public disillusionment with the Liberal Democratic Party through his gaffes and incompetence. The LDP's presidential election Tuesday, in which former Health and Welfare Minister Junichiro Koizumi beat former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto by a wide...

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