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November 22, 2024
 

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Gregory Clark
Gregory Clark has been around a long time (born 1936) and has done a lot of things. As a result, he likes to comment on foreign affairs, economic policies and education plus events in China, Russia, Japan and Latin America (he speaks all four languages).
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2013
Intervention for separation
Outside intervention in Syria should go even further and seek to separate the warring factions.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2013
'Happy go lucky' Australia now adrift in Asia
Australians used to call themselves 'the lucky country,' but today's mineral wealth seems to have created a nation prone to flip-flop foreign policies and crazy economic strategies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2013
Cyber-snooping only one side of the information war
Efforts by the NSA and others to find out what we are thinking have long been matched by black- or gray-information programs to tell us what we should think.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2013
Abenomics vs. bad economics
The good news is that the Japanese economy and stocks are recovering. The bad news is that austerity hawks still view 'Abenomics' as a mere flash in the pan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2013
Blame Western 'demonists' for Pyongyang's belligerence
Demonists never sleep. They concoct fantasies almost daily over a North Korea that almost certainly only wants to protect itself from the threat of U.S. attack.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 13, 2013
Flexibility key to resolving Japan's territorial disputes
Japan, now in severe dispute with every one of its neighbors, probably would resolve most of them if it could be persuaded to restrain its nationalists.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 28, 2013
Education miracles in remote Japan
It will be hard finding a replacement for the late Dr. Mineo Nakajima, who oversaw the development of a prestigious university in Akita Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 21, 2013
Japan's leaders must see the need for sustaining a fiscal Big Bang
With Japan's stock market surging even before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled his plans for economic stimulus, we would have expected the usual anti-stimulus critics to be silent, at least for a while. But no. Already we hear the usual complaints — more printing of money, more public debt, more...
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2012
Japan's university education crisis
Education minister Makiko Tanaka has apologized for trying to cancel approvals given by her ministry bureaucrats for three institutions seeking to operate as fully fledged four-year universities providing undergraduate degrees. But should she have apologized?
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2012
Remembering Japan's 'deserters'
The Obon festival celebrated on Aug. 15 in many parts of Japan marks the alleged release of ghosts from past mythical sufferings. The Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's 1945 defeat also gives Japan's dwindling band of progressive TV program producers freedom to confront the ghosts of Japan's militaristic...
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2012
Economics of austerity don't add up
Do Europe's budget-cutting austerity-minded planners understand simple math? They say they have to embrace austerity policies to reduce excessive national debt. But those policies inevitably cut tax revenues more than they cut spending. National debt increases rather than decreases. Worse, recovery from...
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2012
Reforming Japan's universities
Media reports say Japan's education bureaucrats are considering allowing students with "stellar" academic records to graduate from high school before they turn 18. In other words, the required three-year stint at high school might be cut to two.
COMMENTARY
Apr 30, 2012
Fact-checking Japan's critics
The better U.S. media now use fact-checkers and truth meters to debunk outrageous claims by politicians. Maybe Japan should do the same toward its critics.
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2012
Labor showdown in Canberra
It was a battle of the opposites. On one side we had ex-Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, 54, a former diplomat with baby-face looks, devoted wife and family, carefully cultivated religious persona and impeccable CV. Opposed was current Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 51, ex-lawyer, atheist with a...
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2012
Dubious reasons to attack Iran
It is hard not to be impressed by the one-dimensional reasons the United States gives for its various animosities.
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012
Europe's potion is now its poison with China inheriting the benefits
Today's lecture is on the sorry state of that dismal science called economics.
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2011
North Korea's Khrushchev
Scenes of Pyongyang citizens wailing the death of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il remind us how easily dictatorships can manipulate public opinion. But are the rest of us so immune to similar manipulation?
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2011
TPP: APEC's anti-China son?
The French have a saying: "The more something changes, the more it remains the same thing."
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2011
The economic morality play
World attention focuses on the problems of the Greek economy — no doubt with a large helping of schadenfreude added: There, but for the grace of God, go the rest of us is the thought.
COMMENTARY
Jul 20, 2011
Murdoch's moral rise and fall
Recent U.K. phone-hacking revelations have made the Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch a symbol of all that is wrong with U.K. tabloid media — scoop mania, rampant political bias, sex, sensationalism and trivia. But it was not always like that. The Rupert Murdoch whom I knew many years ago...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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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SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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