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COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2003

Past guides U.S. postwar policy

LONDON -- The United Nations will only play a marginal role in postwar Iraq. The "transitional" administration will remain firmly in American hands, with some British, Australian and other coalition-member support, until there is an Iraqi government ready to take over the new Iraq. A hopeful estimate...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 6, 2003

Selfishness and greed motor the American Dream

Watching the war in Iraq from the vantage point of Japan, you don't get as much of the propaganda-like white noise that accompanies the coverage if you're watching it from the United States or the Middle East. But that doesn't mean you get less information.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2003

Don't bargain Taiwan away

U.S. policy toward China underwent a major change in 2001. The new president, George W. Bush, viewed China as a rising power, intent on changing the Asian balance of power in its favor, and a threat to U.S. interests. In marked contrast to former President Bill Clinton, who called China "a strategic...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2003

Caught between Iraq and a North Korean hard place

When the war between the U.S.-British coalition and Iraq finally began on March 20, a Japanese magazine put out a special issue headlined "The Realization of Justice or Arousal of the Devil?" to stress the importance of looking through to the essence of the war.
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2003

Alternatives to pummeling

WASHINGTON -- After Vietnam and Operation Mongoose (the bizarre 1962 attempt by the U.S. military to invent covert "pretexts" for an attack on Cuba), only flag-waving militarists and small children could want to believe current U.S. and British excuses for the attack on Iraq.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 27, 2003

Indigenous peoples speak up for nature

"In my community," says Roy Laifungbam of the Meitei people in northern India, "water is part of our daily ritual worship, as well as our annual spring festival. And this relationship is totally disregarded when you talk about water as a commodity."
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2003

The war of words

Every war breeds its own vocabulary, and the second Persian Gulf conflict has proved no exception. One thing does seem new, though. As this invasion (aka liberation) plays out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the world's living rooms, its singular lingo has circled the globe with unprecedented speed....
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2003

Forum closes with vows to prioritize water issues

KYOTO -- The 3rd World Water Forum closed Sunday with a declaration promising to make water issues a top priority among governments but failing to narrow the gap on the issue of privatizing water supplies and sanitation services.
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2003

Invading ancient Mesopotamia

As war again comes to Iraq, the international community is rightly concerned about the human toll, civilian as well as military, long-term as well as immediate. Governments and humanitarian organizations already have relief plans in place to help the expected flood of refugees. Others worry about the...
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2003

Opposition lambastes Koizumi over emphatic support for U.S. line

Opposition parties on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's emphatic support for the United States' ultimatum to Iraq, saying a peaceful solution to the crisis should be achieved through more U.N. inspections.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2003

Water forum promotes role of women

KYOTO -- Greater integration of the female perspective is critical for better management of water services, according to participants in a session Monday of the ongoing World Water Forum here.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 12, 2003

Charlie Watts: The beat goes (40 years) on

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, 61, has sunk into a deep leather chair in a huge hotel room in Toronto. In the corner hundreds of jazz CDs cover the walls. The table is strewn with old snapshots. Watts coughs and straightens his brown jacket.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2003

Bush will need a quick victory over Iraq

HONOLULU -- Last week U.S. President George W. Bush laid out his vision for the Middle East. For the most part, the text read like any other: It was a stump speech designed to drum up support for "regime change" in Iraq.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 5, 2003

Not just another pretty spaz

Singer-songwriter Rhett Miller, who is in Tokyo for a few days plugging his album "The Instigator" is feeing encouraged. "I told my manager I wanted to come back in May with a band," he says between sips of green tea at the offices of Warner Music Japan. During a solo acoustic showcase the night before...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2003

Celebrated geisha's tell-all a hot item

The mystery of the geisha, with their painted faces and elaborate kimono, has long been a source of fascination for people worldwide. But it has also led to fantasies and misunderstandings about their true roles.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 27, 2003

Sato eyes Japan's last berth for Paris

OSAKA -- Up-and-coming Atsushi Sato is staking Japan's final marathon berth for this summer's World Athletics Championships in Paris on next Sunday's Biwako (Lake Biwa) Mainichi Marathon in Shiga Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2003

Less than reassuring words

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries held one of their regular meetings last weekend in Paris. Two days of discussions produced a statement promising efforts to stabilize and stimulate their economies and a pledge to convene again in the event of an emergency....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2003

Restructuring the U.N. Security Council

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Although we live in an era of sad comparisons between the current status of the United Nations and the demise of the old League of Nations, let us hope and assume that the U.N. will survive its immense test without being relegated to "irrelevancy" and substituted by new formations...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 20, 2003

No taste for obesity

In the British cult comic 2000AD, future lawman Judge Dredd patrols the streets of Mega City One, a vast metropolis on the eastern seaboard of what was once the United States. Mega City One makes Tokyo seem spacious, and its residents make Harajuku's weirdest seem tame: One group of future misfits are...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Fears of 'anti-Americanism' overblown

MANILA -- In 1996 Samuel Huntington published his epochal work "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." In it, he argues that, since the demise of the Cold War, cultural divides have become the focal points of international conflicts. Judging from recent editorials in American and...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2003

WTO session unable to close farm trade gap

Ministers participating in the three-day informal meeting of the World Trade Organization wrapped up discussions Sunday but failed to narrow a huge gap over the controversial farm trade issue, further clouding the prospect of meeting a self-imposed March 31 deadline.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 16, 2003

Pride on the line in Asian Champions Cup

This is not just about club soccer. Managers of all four teams playing in the A3 Mazda Champions Cup stressed Friday that they will fight in the inaugural East Asian tournament with the pride while representing their countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2003

Few hawks in Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE -- As the world awaits the outcome of another report by United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq, and perhaps a second resolution (following U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441), war drums are beating ever louder in the United States, Britain and some allied nations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Japan urged to take lead in easing of drug patents

As host of an informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, Japan should take the initiative in easing rules on pharmaceutical patents so developing countries can have better access to desperately needed drugs, according to Dr. Tatsuo Hayashi, president of Africa-Japan Forum.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Toray Industries chief puts faith in technological research

Sadayuki Sakakibara, president of Toray Industries Inc., is confident there are researchers at his company who have the potential to win a Nobel Prize, just like Shimadzu Corp.'s Koichi Tanaka.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2003

Newer, smarter sentinels

There is no new thing under the sun, said the quotable author of Ecclesiastes a few thousand years ago. Won over by its pith and poetry, we have always regarded that statement as self-evidently true. Lately, though, we have begun to wonder if the exact opposite isn't the case. Sometimes it seems as if...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2003

Democracy in the Middle East

Peace in the Middle East depends on two things: settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and modernization of the Arab regimes in the region. Attention has usually focused on the first item, as the consequences of failure have long been plainly visible. But in recent months -- especially since Sept. 11,...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear