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November 22, 2024
 

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Kevin Rafferty
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2011
Do we rate state-run companies as heirlooms or dear luxuries?
Conventional wisdom, except in China with its plethora of state-owned enterprises, has become that governments should get out of business. Business knows best how to run things efficiently and to make money, whereas governments tend to tie up enterprise in bureaucratic red tape, or so the thinking goes....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2011
U.S. dances on debt cliff edge
It was fascinating to watch U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner make their appeals to the nation in television addresses over their deadlock about whether and how to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling on U.S. debts before the country runs out of money next week.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2011
Murdoch's malign empire
The resignation of two key lieutenants of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his own full-page signed apology in British newspapers — "We are sorry for the widespread wrongdoing that occurred" — is clearly a desperate attempt to save his News Corporation group from being incinerated in the firestorm...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2011
Kissinger blighted millionsas U.S. jockeyed for position
Henry Kissinger has distilled many words of wisdom from four millennia of Chinese civilization, and several centuries of Western diplomacy, including almost half a century of personal experience at the sharp end of power politics. He has captured headlines and captivated some of the world's best commentating...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2011
Lagarde in the IMF inferno
Christine Lagarde has leaped into a hot job, an inferno, as the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund less than a week after after having been chosen.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2011
Japan is losing IMF game, and it isn't keeping score
Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's finance minister, is increasingly tipped as the frontrunner to take over from Naoto Kan when the prime minister finally bites the bullet and resigns.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2011
Fat, dumb profile-gazers
In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the United States needed to "out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world" to remain competitive and "win the future." In his short history, though, Obama has not proved very adept at turning brave words into action....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2011
Pakistan's risky China card
U.S. President Barack Obama's bold move in ordering the raid on Osama bin Laden's secret mansion close to the Pakistan military establishment is in danger of backfiring. Islamic terrorist groups have stepped up their murderous atrocities principally against Pakistanis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2011
A dentist need not be a masked demon
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2011
Economy hits political faults
Naoto Kan's departure as Japan's prime minister looks to be as messy and wretched as his uncomfortable time in the job.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2011
Thailand Inc. versus Thaksin
Thailand is preparing to go to the polls on July 3 in an election that is supposed to mark the restoration of full democracy to the country, one of the liveliest, best-endowed and most promising countries in Asia. But the way the campaign is going, the chances are that Thailand will face another coup...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2011
Feud over U.S. debt ceiling risks driving off investors
U.S. politicians are in the thick of a debate that is fascinating, urgent, passionate, stubborn and potentially highly dangerous both for the American economy and for the country's political reputation and standing in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2011
Japan: the silent IMF partner
Which of the following often used words is wrong — "Japan's the world's third biggest economic power"?
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2011
Top vacancy looms in IMF
The International Monetary Fund will be looking for a new managing director sooner than anyone imagined, and in the most bizarrely depressing circumstances.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011
Bin Laden bled U.S. of a cool trillion
Osama bin Laden must be laughing from his watery grave. In announcing a new policy of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy," he mockingly declared in a 2004 video that "It is easy for us to provoke and bait. ... All that we have to do is to send two mujaheddin ... to raise a raise a piece of...
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2011
Bin Laden's bizarre death
Osama bin Laden is dead, but the troubling questions continue. It's far too early to declare an end of the war against terror. Bin Laden was only the ugly face of a hydra-headed terror monster that has been spreading tentacles in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Europe and America. But governments...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2011
BRICS without the mortar
Last month's summit of the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, now renamed BRICS with the addition of South Africa, announced with great fanfare that the group was determined to punch its new muscle on the world economic stage and no longer to be pushed around by the tired old powers. But you...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2011
No time for political games as Japan tries to rise again
Japanese people who have been hit by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident have been — rightly — praised worldwide for their courage and resilience. In many other places, even one such disaster would have triggered widespread looting if not rioting.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011
More than cocoa at stake in helping out Ivory Coast
Looking at the scenes of bloodshed and looting, and the terrified flight of thousands of people, as Alessane Outtara took over as president, it is hard to imagine that only 25 years ago the Ivory Coast was the sparkling jewel of sub-Saharan Africa.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2011
Market investors loath to weigh real challenges to U.S. economy
HONG KONG — Sometimes I find it hard to understand "Mr. Market" — if I may presume to call and poke fun at the combined wisdom of investors in stock and other markets. Immediately after announcement of a modest rise in U.S. employment numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose, triggering a general...
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.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
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.
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.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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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