Gregory Clark - The Japan Times

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

Mar 15, 2007

North Korea prefers Bush?

Japan's distress over the rapid progress in U.S.-North Korean talks for normalization of relations is palpable. The government as well as the mainstream media seem united in hopes that Washington will delay normalization until North Korea meets Japan's demands over the abductee issue -- the return of...

COMMENTARY

Feb 20, 2007

Knocked back in Beijing

Tokyo tries to keep a brave face on the agreements reached at last week's six-nation talks in Beijing aimed at putting an end to North Korea's nuclear development plans. But no amount of strong talk about refusing any direct participation in aid or other concessions to North Korea unless Pyongyang accepts...

COMMENTARY

Jan 18, 2007

So much for Abe's reconciliation policy

Remember all that talk just a few months back about how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, unlike former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, was embarked on a policy of reconciliation with China?

COMMENTARY

Dec 30, 2006

English should be an elective

The debate over whether Japanese children should be taught English at primary school deserves better consideration than it is getting.

COMMENTARY

Nov 20, 2006

Ideological laundry unfurled

Japan's neo-nationalistic rightwing is its own worst enemy. It sees itself as the defender of Japan's global reputation. But by its own actions it besmirches that reputation.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 8, 2006

Expected behavior in a school jungle

That large clucking sound you are hearing is the sound of breakdowns in Japan's over-regulated education system forcing some very large chickens to come home and roost in the Kasumigaseki premises of Japan's conservative education ministry, MEXT.

COMMENTARY

Oct 12, 2006

Koizumi vs. Abe economics

A popular pun in Japanese is to take the word kaikaku (reform, or change for the better) and turn it into kaiaku (to change for the worse.)

COMMENTARY

Sep 19, 2006

Ugly finale to bogus pretexts

The fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center by Islamic militants has come and gone, leaving some glaring contrasts in its wake.

COMMENTARY

Sep 6, 2006

Japan fishing for trouble with Russia

In a recent Sunday TV talk program, commentator, writer and former Japanese Cabinet minister Taiichi Sakaiya queried Foreign Minister Taro Aso about the recent incident involving the Russian capture of a Japanese fishing boat. The boat was caught poaching in Russian-controlled waters near the Habomai...

COMMENTARY

Jul 20, 2006

Japan's anti-North Korea complex

Japan's fevered reaction to North Korea's recent missile tests should not surprise. It is yet another example of the emotional way that an otherwise admirable nation finds it hard to separate causes from effects.

COMMENTARY

Jun 19, 2006

Tokyo's hard line slowing solution to abduction issue

Japan is understandably upset over past abductions of its citizens by North Korea. But rightwing pressure has made a solution almost impossible. It is a good example of how emotional nationalism and Tokyo's manipulations can damage sensible foreign policies.

COMMENTARY

May 31, 2006

Textbook economists leave casualties in their wake

The United States and Europe have their trade problems with China, but pause for a moment to consider what is happening in the developing world.

COMMENTARY

May 8, 2006

Never give an inch to China

Tokyo's propensity for getting into territorial and maritime boundary disputes with its neighbors seems large. And if the disputes with China escalate any further, they could make the recent confrontation with South Korea over the Takeshima islets (Dokdo in Korean) look tame.

COMMENTARY

Apr 8, 2006

Pack journalism can be lethal

Some call it pack journalism. It is also lazy journalism.

COMMENTARY

Feb 24, 2006

Insults reserved for Islam

Recently, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons offensive to Muslims, Muslim protests met claims that our Western democracies had to uphold the sacred principle of free speech. Under no circumstances could we Westerners be expected to give up that important right simply because others objected to...

COMMENTARY

Feb 1, 2006

Horie and LDP boosters have it coming

Some Western media seem to want to dismiss the Livedoor scandal now convulsing Japan as an example of Japan's conservative establishment seeking to shoot down a high-flying, unconventional entrepreneur who had been too successful. The reality is quite different.

COMMENTARY

Jan 7, 2006

No rest for 'China threat' lobby

I recognize that it (China) is becoming a considerable threat."

COMMENTARY

Nov 16, 2005

No wonder anti-free traders are angry

If you want to understand why anti-free-trade demonstrators in Argentina were so angry nearly two weeks ago, visit a small metal-working factory in a humdrum Japanese village near where I spend weekends. Outside it looks nondescript. But inside it is a technological wonder -- CAD/CAM-operated machine...

COMMENTARY

Oct 23, 2005

Look for change next year

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's determination to visit Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine needs to be seen in the perspective. The visit was not necessarily, as Beijing and Seoul seem to believe, a final proof of prime-ministerial evil.

COMMENTARY

Sep 21, 2005

System's flaws help keep Koizumi on top

From the start of the recent Lower House election campaign it was predictable that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's theatrics -- his constant references to magic "kaikaku" (reform) and the alleged benefits from postal-service privatization -- would have its inevitable mesmerizing effect on Japan's...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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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