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November 21, 2024
 

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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
Dec 17, 2016
The politics of protest in Asian democracies
Across Asia we are witnessing political turmoil and vigorous political contestation. South Korea's "candlelight revolution," involving millions of citizens demonstrating for several weeks in Seoul, instigated the landslide vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye by the National Assembly on Dec. 9. In...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 10, 2016
Same-sex marriage sparks a 'culture war' in Taiwan
Taiwan is one of the most LGBT friendly societies in Asia, with an active gay community and possibly the largest annual gay pride parade in the region. In recent weeks expectations spiked that it would soon legalize same-sex marriage. On Dec. 3, The Economist opined, "It would be even better if the country...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 3, 2016
Abe, Trump and Modi get on the wrong side of climate change
Oxford Dictionaries proclaimed the word of 2016 to be "post-truth," a scary concept that was popularized by the repulsive presidential campaign waged by Donald Trump. It refers to his chronic dissembling, invention of facts and intermittent grasp of reality heralding a new era where fabulists, revivalists...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 26, 2016
Trump, Putin and Kim make Abe miserable
What a bad week for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. His foreign policy initiatives lay in tatters with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's plans to dump the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Russian President Vladimir Putin pouring cold water on Abe's hopes of regaining some of the Northern Territories....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 19, 2016
Can Asia survive the shock of Trump-ageddon?
Donald Trump made some outlandish promises to win the U.S. presidential election. America and the world will survive, but he poses significant risks to the global economy and the peace that has prevailed in East Asia since 1979. His denial of global warming also means America will provide no leadership...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 12, 2016
An age of anger imperils the West — and the East
Around the Western world we are witnessing an age of anger and fear. This is manifested in the vitriol of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's scorched earth presidential campaign and the fear-mongering by the pro-Brexit British. Across the EU, jingoistic messages are also gaining sway, if not respectability....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 5, 2016
Modi and Abe are at the nuclear altar again
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Nov. 11 and 12, and it is expected they will finally seal the deal on an elusive civil nuclear cooperation accord. When Abe visited India last year there was widespread speculation that the agreement would...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 29, 2016
Could nuclear advocacy be Abe's undoing?
Voters have elected anti-nuclear governors in Kagoshima and Niigata prefectures in recent months. These elections can be considered referenda on nuclear power because that issue was the main focus of debate in both campaigns. The results have put Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — and his plans to rev up...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 22, 2016
Why is Japan refusing to pay UNESCO its dues?
The Japanese government announced that it is withholding its payments owed to UNESCO. This is a $37 million expression of displeasure over the organization's decision last year to include a Chinese submission on "Documents of Nanjing Massacre" in the Memory of the World Register. It is also a warning...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 15, 2016
Koike exposes the dark side of the 'Iron Triangle'
When Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike was elected by a landslide in July, I don't think there were high hopes that she would take on the old-boy network of vested interests with such tenacity and verve. But she has defied expectations, exposing the seamy ways and means of a corrupt system run by the Liberal Democratic...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 8, 2016
Typhoon Trump could pummel Asian region
Should Asian leaders be worried about Trump? Hell yes. The world managed to survive the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, but the alarming prospect of a Trump presidency recently prompted 50 senior Republican national security officials, including former aides and Cabinet members, to sign a letter...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 1, 2016
Asia and the threat of untethered nationalism
George Orwell famously commented that nationalism is one of the "worst enemies of peace," feeding on grievance and insecurities, appealing to primordial instincts and unifying by invoking past traumas. Indian author Rabindranath Tagore also warned about this "great menace," arguing that nationalism enables...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 24, 2016
Troika of female politicians under scrutiny
The media has been abuzz about the emergence of three prominent Japanese female politicians: Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and Renho, the head of the Democratic Party. However, the significance of this development is limited. Overall, politics in Japan remains a man's world —...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2016
Memories of 1931 Mukden Incident remain divisive
Today marks the 85th anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident (also known as the Manchurian Incident), when Japanese troops staged a bombing of their own railway by placing explosives near the train tracks. Even though the explosion did minimal damage and a train managed to pass the damaged section soon...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 10, 2016
National trauma and the memory wars of Asia
It has been 15 years since 9/11, and America's nightmare has metastasized beyond anyone's wildest imagination. It is a bad dream that includes former President George W. Bush's Iraq War debacle, which plunged the Middle East into its current turmoil. But America's trauma pales when compared with the...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 3, 2016
Complicating Taiwan's love affair with Japan
This month, the Ama (grandma) Museum will open in Taipei. It will be a venue dedicated to Taiwan's wartime "comfort women" who provided sexual services under duress at Japanese military brothels.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 27, 2016
Bears encroach on blurred human boundaries
It is puzzling that the black bears have become aggressive recently, given their previous inclination to retreat when confronted by humans. My theory is that winters are shorter and that means shorter hibernations and more active time spent consuming dwindling supplies of food. They love beech nuts but,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 20, 2016
Bears: close encounters of the furred kind
As my wife and I listened to a news bulletin in June about bears killing four people in Akita Prefecture, she gave me one of those silent looks pregnant with meaning. Let me try to translate as best I can: It was one of those looks that say, "You see, you are nuts!" I am guilty as charged, but claim...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 13, 2016
A new Taiwan dreams of transitional justice
The newly elected Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of President Tsai Ing-wen has hit the ground running in a flurry of initiatives that highlight how powerfully the past resonates in contemporary Taiwan. Only in office since late May, she has positioned Taiwan on the progressive side of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 6, 2016
Why did Japan surrender in World War II?
The contentious debate among scholars about why Japan surrendered in World War II continues to rage.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
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