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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

A question of hegemony

An implicit alliance has emerged in Washington since the Cold War's end between avowedly "Wilsonian" liberals, anxious to extend American influence and federate the democracies, and unilateralist neoconservative believers in U.S. power projection, who call for American world leadership, aggressively...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Journalists debate role of English in Asia

English, as the dominant language in cyberspace, is becoming an indispensable communication tool for Asian people. And the increased use of English among nonnative speakers should make it more colorful as a world language.
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2000

Getting real on the Net

The Gallic gall. A French court has done the unthinkable. It has ruled that the French government has jurisdiction over cyberspace, or at least that part of the digital universe that overlaps with its physical borders.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2000

Obstacles in the road to a toxic-free future

The international community comes together in Johannesburg, South Africa this week (Dec. 4-9) under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program to conclude the draft of an historic treaty to rid the world of its most toxic and harmful chemicals.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

The pitfalls of a press run rampant

Nearly a year on, the children of the Hino district of Kyoto's Fushimi Ward at last seem as if they are getting back to normal.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Money-strapped NPOs must learn to use Internet: expert

KYOTO -- The proliferation of the Internet is spurring many groups to aggressively try to keep up with sweeping changes, and nonprofit organizations are no exception.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Cabinet mixed on plan to slash ODA spending

Members of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet expressed mixed opinions Friday over a proposal by the ruling coalition's chief policymakers to slash spending on official development assistance.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

The special mandate of peace research

This is the eleventh month of the year, on the eleventh day of which, at the eleventh hour, the world pays homage to those who died in the first great war in the century of wars.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2000

Mori, Khatami unite on trade

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and visiting Iranian President Mohammad Khatami have agreed to expand economic cooperation in a wide range of areas and to increase dialogue.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 18, 2000

Singing a different tune

With the Oct. 3 release of "Kid A," Radiohead's hotly anticipated but allegedly "difficult" album (i.e., no guitar solos, love ballads or sing-along chants), the British band accomplished quite a feat: It shot to the top of album charts worldwide, including Billboard's U.S. album charts, the holy grail...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2000

Palestinians fight decades of injustice

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Areen, my 6-year-old daughter, has been unusually quiet. This normally energetic, very talkative child could not fully understand why school was canceled on Saturday after she was dressed and ready to go. On Sunday, during the news broadcast of the death of 12-year-old Mohammed...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2000

More facts, less politics, on education

At first glance, the interim report from the National Commission on Educational Reform, an advisory panel of the prime minister, appears cautious about revising the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education. In marked contrast to an earlier subcommittee report that explicitly supported a revision, the panel's...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Pupils to be required to volunteer: panel

An education advisory panel to the prime minister on Friday submitted an interim report calling for drastic changes in the current education system that would nurture volunteer spirit among students by requiring them to do community service.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2000

Continued aid for Chernobyl sought

While memories of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl have faded in the international community, continued assistance is still needed for the disaster-hit region, according to the head of the United Nations relief program still dealing with the tragedy.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 19, 2000

Program laying groundwork to conserve rivers and trails

John Monroe jokingly refers to himself as a "conservation venture capitalist." Unlike most investment bankers, however, Monroe is investing for the long term.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2000

Little reason to celebrate in East Timor

Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2000

Chinese leadership sows seeds of democracy in the neighborhoods of Beijing

BEIJING -- On a cold January morning in the Caoyuan (Grass Garden) neighborhood of east Beijing, residents huddled together to watch the hustings. Yang Guiying stepped up to speak. "If I am elected, our committee will think for the residents here, help them when they are in need and provide the best...
COMMENTARY
May 18, 2000

Hypocrisy is the only standard

When white Europeans are dying, the Clinton administration acts. When black Africans are dying, Washington talks. Such is the hypocritical cynicism that passes for U.S. foreign policy today.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Troubling truths about India's bomb

INDIA'S NUCLEAR BOMB: The Impact on Global Proliferation, by George Perkovich. University of California Press, 1999, 597 pp., $39.95 (cloth). In many ways, the remarkable thing about India's nuclear bomb test on May 11, 1998 is not that it occurred, but that it didn't happen sooner. Ever since India...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

Diplomacy without guideposts

Ten years after the Cold War ended, we are moving toward the 21st century. In the past decade, the international community has been trying to catch up with fast changes and to establish a viable theory for creating a new order. However, drastic changes in the world have made it impossible for human wisdom...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 20, 2000

It depends

A gentleman tells us that he is puzzled by the term suspended sentence, often seen in newspapers. He encloses a copy of a headline: "Accountant gets 28 months suspended sentence for poisoning." The accused had put poison in the water for making tea. Nine of his coworkers became ill, and while no one...
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2000

Austria calls Europe's bluff

The formation of a coalition government in Austria that includes the rightwing Freedom Party headed by Mr. Joerg Haider is a potential nightmare for Europe. The prospect of an extremist party joining the Cabinet in Vienna has forced other members of the European Union to examine their own past. It has...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2000

Life during wartime through a child's clear eyes

A BOY CALLED H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan, by Kappa Senoh, translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1999, 528 pp., 3,200 yen (cloth). In Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," and again in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," we are told of life in poverty-ridden back streets of Ireland's cities...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Citizen advisers planned for schools

Beginning in April, local boards of education will be able to establish local resident advisory panels to school principals to enhance community-school cooperation, Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Thursday. At a general meeting of the heads of prefectural boards of education held in Tokyo's...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 29, 1999

An open ethOS

The latest tale of cyber-riches involves the Linux crowd. A recent string of IPOs earned shareholders obscene amounts of money. Red Hat, a distributor of the Linux operating system, is worth about $15 billion. VA Linux, a company that sells computers that use Linux, made history: Its shares leaped 700...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 8, 1999

May we help you?

They say this might be the year that online Christmas sales in the U.S. actually live up to past promises of e-commerce's ascendancy. Hurrahs could be heard when it was reported that online transactions over Thanksgiving were up 10-fold (and groans could be heard as servers started overloading with the...
JAPAN
Dec 1, 1999

Grocers' group aids family businesses

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji