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July 16, 2024
 

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Kevin Rafferty
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010
Obama's seven headaches
HONG KONG — Supporters of U.S. President Barack Obama are greatly cheered by notable victories in the final days of Congress before Christmas: the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" law concerning homosexuals serving in the military, and the ratification of the New START treaty with Russia to...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010
Piyasvasti battles Thai Airways' beasts
<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2010
A thought for the holy day
HONG KONG — A sad note in returning to Europe as the end of the year approaches is to see how "political correctness" (P.C.) has tried to drive out not only what is sacred but also what is important, vital and precious to our very civilization.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2010
Pernicious 'rogue' offers of aid
HONG KONG — China found itself in the unwelcome WikiLeaks spotlight the week before last with sweeping claims against its "aggressive" policies in giving aid to Africa. Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, called China "a pernicious economic competitor with no morals"...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2010
'Made in the world' notion no answer to U.S. prayers
HONG KONG — Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, recently made an interesting and thoughtful plea for a new approach to trade, with the idea that "Made in the world" could often be a more accurate description than one that put a purely national label on a product.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2010
Scariest WikiLeaks' tales show U.S. wandering in fog
HONG KONG — Breakfast tea or coffee has suddenly become more interesting with the flood of tittle-tattle, gossip and serious political reporting pouring out via WikiLeaks. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the American right fulminate and wish to charge WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2010
Airport security 'theater': dancing to terrorists' tune
HONG KONG — With air travel peaking next month in Asia and Europe for Christmas and New Year after going into overload in the United States over the Thanksgiving weekend, governments should re-examine the costs and inefficiencies of security that add tens of billions of dollars to the cost of doing...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2010
Suu Kyi: free to do what?
HONG KONG — Aung San Suu Kyi regained her freedom last weekend, but walked into a "free" life that is still misgoverned by one of the most repressive and stupid regimes in the world, which only days before had thumbed its nose at its own people by conducting fake elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2010
Overvalued club debate
HONG KONG — American domination of the world economy was challenged last week at the Group of 20 summit in Seoul much the same way that Barack Obama's Democrats were mauled in this month's U.S. congressional elections, which the president termed a "shellacking."
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2010
Kan ducks the rice problem
HONG KONG — Has Prime Minister Naoto Kan finally woken up to the fact that the world is changing rapidly and Japan risks being left behind? In recent days he has spoken of a fresh fleet of "black ships" off the coast of Japan, and has noted nostalgically that he comes from Choshu (now Yamaguchi...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2010
Economic voices to shift
HONG KONG — The Nov. 5 agreement on new shareholdings in the International Monetary Fund, which will see China become the third-biggest power in the institution, has been heralded as a triumph for a new global financial order that will challenge the old Western imperial dominance.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2010
Not so gentle on his mind
HONG KONG — Democracy in America — what a fine show it is, great television, wonderful speeches, some weird and wacky candidates, an opportunity for The People to make their views count.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2010
Bending over to humiliate Tokyo
HONG KONG — Is Beijing deliberately trying to intimidate and humiliate Japan and Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, or are the Japanese merely collateral damage in China's wider ambitions to assert the political muscle of its new global economic aspirations?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2010
Thailand after the protests
BANGKOK — Only a few months ago, governments of the West were warning their citizens not to visit Thailand. The heart of the capital was a no-go area with battle lines drawn and blood shed between security forces and protesters. Shops and hotels were shuttered, but that did not prevent one of Asia's...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2010
U.S. voters set to jump from frying pan to the fire
HONG KONG — Is the United States heading for disaster when the country goes to the polls Tuesday to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2010
ATM for the new gold rush
HONG KONG — The 21st-century version of the Gold Rush is becoming so sophisticated and convenient that soon all you will have to do, if you live in the right place, is put your card in the normal slot of a special ATM machine, punch in your password, and out will tumble not boring paper currency...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2010
Rationing miracle rescues
HONG KONG — Surely the picture of the month was of Chilean miner Mario Sepulveda thumping the air like a 2-year-old in jubilation that he was free after 68 days in a dank, dark dungeon more than 600 meters below the Atacama Desert.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2010
Entrepreneurs' best friend growing long in the tooth
HONG KONG — Standard Chartered Bank has an advertisement currently running on television that is eye-catching and thought-provoking. Its central message is that "not everything that counts in life can be counted" and that the bank wants to be "here for people; here for progress; here for the long...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2010
Return of a maverick
HONG KONG — On the way to the airport in early 1990, I saw a strange face among the profusion and confusion of election posters. Not a European grandee, or indigenous Indian, or mestizo, or mulatto. It was more like Chinese, but surely not in this heart of Latin America.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2010
Rebalancing global growth
WASHINGTON — Finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings ended their discussions last weekend with a whimper of a final communique. There was much talk of currency war and trade war in the hallways and hotels, but in the end the leaders postponed...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals
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