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November 24, 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.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2014
Richard Katz on the failures of 'Voodoo Abenomics'
Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of "Voodoo Abenomics: Japan's Failed Comeback Plan," an article published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Katz went into more detail about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy in a recent email interview...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2014
Bear attack: Up close and way too personal
On Aug. 14, I was attacked by a black bear. It all happened suddenly and in a blur of fur, paws and gnashing teeth as the tsukiwaguma charged out of the trees 10 meters from me in a forested, hilly area in Gunma Prefecture in the Kamimoku district of Minakami.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2014
China's million-migrant march into Africa
The scramble for Africa is intensifying. In early August, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted 50 African leaders, signaling renewed interest in the continent.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 9, 2014
Prelude to WWII: Japan's Nomonhan debacle
There has been considerable media hoopla about the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. The subsequent slaughter of 16 million people was prompted by the assassination of an Austrian archduke and duchess, which activated the system of interlocking alliances intrinsic to the balance of power that...
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2014
Watergate: Forty years since Nixon's resignation
U.S. President Richard Nixon submitted his letter of resignation on Aug. 9, 1974 in order to save himself from the humiliation of being impeached and thrown out of office. Only two other presidents, Andrew Johnson (1867) and Bill Clinton (1998), faced impeachment, but both were acquitted in their Senate...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 26, 2014
Japan's brand is floundering under Abe
Attending the Association of Asian Studies conference in Singapore last week, I realized that Japan's global image is not what it might be. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan is back, but doubts are spreading about the version of Japan he is promoting. It appears that Abe's energetic regional diplomacy...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2014
Modi's upcoming Japan visit signals closer ties
India's newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Tokyo in August to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, signaling closer bilateral ties infused by personal chemistry and shared values. The Namo-Shinzo show will be an elaborately choreographed red-carpet extravaganza to highlight the two...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2014
Abe's constitutional putsch and U.S. security cooperation
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's putsch involves bypassing constitutional procedures to revise the Constitution because he lacks sufficient support to win two-thirds approval in both houses of the Diet and a majority in a national referendum. Instead, Abe achieved by diktat what he could not gain democratically,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 5, 2014
Battle of Saipan: beginning of the end
Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Army lost a pivotal battle over the Pacific island of Saipan, a defeat that put Tokyo within range of high-altitude U.S. B-29 bombing raids that could evade Japan's inadequate air defenses.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 5, 2014
Battle of Saipan: a brutal invasion that claimed 55,000 lives
'It's hard to dig a hole when you're lying on your stomach digging with your chin'
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 5, 2014
Shinjuku self-immolation act protests Abe's democracy hijack
Last week a man set himself on fire next to Shinjuku Station to reportedly protest Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to lift constitutional constraints on Japan's military forces. It was a gruesome spectacle captured on numerous smartphone videos and disseminated on social media. Good thing because the...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 28, 2014
Abe's nuclear renaissance ignores stiff opposition
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nuclear renaissance involves downplaying risks, restarting reactors, building new ones, and exporting reactor technology and equipment. A number of hurdles remain before he can rev up the reactors, but the summer of 2014 will probably be Japan's last nuclear-free one for decades...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2014
Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution
By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 14, 2014
Hadid's curse: Mammoth monstrosity threatens Tokyo's greenbelt
The government needs to pull the plug on the planned new Olympic stadium designed by the celebrity British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 7, 2014
Abe touts immigration, but refugees get shunned
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be considering letting down the drawbridges for 200,000 immigrants a year in order to offset Japan's declining population and boost the economy. At this year's Davos World Economic Forum, Abe stated that Japan needs more foreigners, but accepting enough to make a difference...
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 31, 2014
People's republic of amnesia: exhuming China's Tiananmen trauma
"Lies written in ink can't hide truths written in blood." — Lu Xun, writer
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 24, 2014
Tiananmen Square stokes patriotic education
Last week, I discussed the prelude to the Tiananmen Square uprising and the ruthless government crackdown on June 4, 1989. The slaughter of students and their supporters who gathered in Beijing in the spring of 1989 and occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks made the world recoil in horror and isolated...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014
Dying for democracy: 1980 Gwangju uprising transformed South Korea
As South Korea marks the 34th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, we examine the massacre's influence on national identity and the country's struggle for democracy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014
Commemorating national trauma in South Korea
Memorials suggest neighbor has no inclination to forgive or forget colonial rule, a past Japan downplays
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2014
Tiananmen's silver year: from protest to massacre
Twenty-five years ago on June 4 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned on Chinese citizens in a ruthless display of violence, not for the first time, slaughtering many in the streets of Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement lead by university students.
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Woman dies after train collides with car in Tochigi
A Moka Railway train car
Japan will spend ¥325 million in government funds on Princess Yuriko's funeral
Princess Yuriko waves during the New Year's public greeting at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in January 2019.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.

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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