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Jeff Kingston
Jeff Kingston lives in Tokyo, teaches history at Temple University Japan and has been contributing to The Japan Times since 1988. "Contemporary Japan" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) is his most recent book.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 6, 2017
Escalating threats to secularism in Bangladesh
Islamists have ignited contemporary identity wars in Bangladesh because they can't abide secularism, with hard-line clerics inciting violence to overturn constitutional principles and the rule of law.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 29, 2017
Civil society across Asia is flowering but fragile
The proliferation of civil society organizations throughout Asia is having a significant impact on relations between the state and citizens, on the institutions of the state and on prevailing norms and values.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 22, 2017
Japanese revisionist drivel exposed by former 'comfort woman'
Lee Yong-soo's is a poignant saga of abduction from her village at age 16 and ending up on an air base in Taiwan, where she was beaten and tortured until she succumbed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 15, 2017
Abe's self-inflicted statue wounds fester in Seoul
Abe face-planted by sending back Japan's ambassador to Seoul without resolving the statue issue, one that should never have been made into such a big deal in the first place.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 8, 2017
The nuclear journey from Hiroshima to Pyongyang
The moral revolution required to rid the world of nuclear arms seems further away than ever with Japan's abnegation of its unique position regarding such weapons.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 1, 2017
What conspires to make Japanese seem so unhappy?
Could it be that Japanese take many of the wonderful things about their country for granted?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 25, 2017
Tillerson tells 'frenemies' Japan and South Korea to heal 'comfort women' rift
With Seoul in political paralysis and amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Japan's ambassador to South Korea remains in Tokyo — all because of some statues.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 18, 2017
Why is Japan's public diplomacy so utterly inept?
Why does the Foreign Ministry insist on drawing attention to wartime Japan when the rest of the world is far more interested in 21st century Japan?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 11, 2017
Abe's revisionism nets own goals at home and away
What links Osaka, Seoul, Busan and Glendale, California? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's championing of revisionist history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2017
'Comfort women' in South Korea who serviced U.S. forces seek justice
Historical 'comfort women' cases involving Japanese and U.S. forces should be mutually reinforcing and underscore the ongoing need to hold Tokyo, Seoul and Washington accountable in ways that address the traumas and indignities endured.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 25, 2017
Does the nuclear option make sense for Japan?
Becoming a nuclear weapons power won't make Japan safer and won't lighten the U.S. security burden.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 18, 2017
Trump removes shared values from bilateral alliance
You have probably read and watched more about the recent bilateral summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump than anyone but a masochist should have to bear. However, there were some precious moments to savor.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 11, 2017
Dealing with Taiwan's nightmares past and present
On Feb. 28, Taiwan will commemorate the 70th anniversary of what is known as the 2.28 Incident, when Taiwanese rioted against mainlanders from the Kuomintang (KMT) who had taken over control of the island when the Japanese departed in 1945 following their defeat in World War II.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 4, 2017
Do the memories of 'comfort women' matter?
It is clear that as mutual recriminations mount, the irreversible and final resolution of the 'comfort women' problem pledged at the end of 2015 remains elusive.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 28, 2017
Sino-Japanese propaganda wars are heating up
Both Japan and China are wielding history like a cudgel to bash the other and assert a sanctimonious nationalism that impedes reconciliation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 21, 2017
Media deployed to fight history wars in East Asia
At a recent conference funded by the Toshiba Foundation on the media's role in representing the shared wartime past in East Asia, scholars and journalists gathered at Cambridge University to assess the current state of play.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 14, 2017
Regional turbulence likely to continue in 2017
Don't expect 2017 to bring much relief from the miseries that gathered in 2016. It's not all about President-elect Donald Trump but, alas, he is the unpredictable joker in the pack. Remember all those Trumpkins reassuring us that Trump as president would not be the spiteful bozo he seemed to be while...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jan 7, 2017
Inada's Yasukuni visit sinks Pearl Harbor gesture
If Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meant what he said about the "power of reconciliation" on his Dec. 27 visit to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, he should sack Defense Minister Tomomi Inada who visited Yasukuni Shrine two days later. If he does nothing, then his visit will be reduced to an empty public relations...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 31, 2016
Why Abe's Russian gambit is doomed
Say what you will about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he is a glutton for punishment. Too bad his bravado is not matched by canny discernment. Case in point is his plan to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin to follow up on the recent fiasco in Japan. In December, Abe came away from his 24 hours with...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 24, 2016
Is Abe the wrong messenger for Pearl Harbor?
In the American lexicon, "Pearl Harbor" is synonymous with treachery and betrayal. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, pundits invoked the term in ways that have taken many Japanese aback, surprised that the old associations linger and uncomfortable with the wartime incident being...

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