author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Tom Plate

Meta

Tom Plate
Tom Plate, a veteran American columnist and career journalist, is the Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His many books include the "Giants of Asia" series, of which book four, "Conversations with Ban Ki-Moon: The View from the Top," is the latest.
COMMENTARY
Sep 23, 2005
Chinese show commendable patience
LOS ANGELES -- In very important negotiations, the Chinese tend to work things in a manner different from the West. Their diplomats generally dislike framing positions in an edgy, confrontational, take-it-or-leave-it style. That approach strikes them as too risky. They tend to process an initial rebuff...
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2005
Koizumi must now master global politics
LOS ANGELES -- I met Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi two years ago for a fascinating interview. I recall slightly pressing him on the touchy question of whether Japan would actually overcome its restrictive pacifist Constitution (a significant legacy of the U.S. Occupation) and dispatch troops to Iraq,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2005
From Kyoto to New Orleans
LOS ANGELES -- Beneath the endlessly horrific details surrounding the hurricane that swamped parts of New Orleans and the southeast United States lurks a monster question. Just how angry -- really -- is Mother Nature over the irreverent, careless way we humans and our energy-hungry machines have been...
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2005
When it comes to American policy, Tokyo and Beijing have something in common
LOS ANGELES -- In two recent decisions involving the two major powers of East Asia, the United States revealed that it is still ungenerous about sharing power, even with a close ally like Japan, and that it is still so paranoid about China that it is willing to risk antagonizing it by acting as if it...
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2005
China: how threatening, and to whom?
LOS ANGELES -- Nations tend to act like alcoholics when it comes to military arms: The more, the merrier. What's more, they do not generally tend to adopt a healthier lifestyle and drink less as they become wealthier. Instead, they just consume a better quality of booze.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2005
America's blase approach to doomsday
LOS ANGELES -- The policy of the United States, at the moment the world's only superpower, lacks an overall sense of urgency about the spread and possible use of nuclear weapons. In all probability, this lapse will someday lead to immense tragedy.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2005
A tidal wave of optimism
LOS ANGELES -- Talk about an ocean of optimism! Here's a positive current for you if there ever was one: A close friend -- whom I dub The Very Successful Korean-American Businessman (VSKAB), who doesn't want his name to be used (but whose last name is Kim like several million other Korean-Americans),...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2005
Career soldier sees China for what it is
LOS ANGELES -- How many of you out there would just love to see Colin Powell back in the saddle as U.S. secretary of state? Or, better yet, as secretary of defense, giving the boot to his arch-nemesis -- the war-prone Donald Rumsfeld?
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2005
The gulf between Bush, Roh
LOS ANGELES -- I'm sorry, but President George W. Bush just doesn't get South Korea and he doesn't understand its president, Roh Moo Hyun, either. And I doubt he ever will.
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2005
Hilariously ineffective charm offensive
LOS ANGELES -- Watch out, the Chinese oil-saboteurs may be coming. Hold on to your derricks! Western newspapers are reporting that the giant China National Offshore Oil Corp. may make a bid to acquire the U.S. oil group Unocal. If the effort is successful (note: the U.S. oil giant Chevron may have a...
COMMENTARY
Jun 7, 2005
Kudos here, detention there
LOS ANGELES -- Journalism free from government constraint just isn't for everybody. It certainly wasn't for Richard M. Nixon while he was president. Unrestrained investigative journalism of the Watergate variety ultimately pushed Congress in the direction of potential impeachment and shoved Nixon onto...
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2005
How the U.S. courts a diplomatic fiasco
LOS ANGELES -- The government of North Korea is difficult to deal with, no matter who you are. Just ask China's leaders. After all, they are Pyongyang's closest ally and yet they probably find dealing with leader Kim Jong Il not a whole lot more fun than their testy cross-strait exchanges with Taiwan's...
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2005
Relax, war unlikely in Asia through 2008
LOS ANGELES -- We here in the West -- despite our ritualistic (and sometimes loud-mouthed) advocacy of democracy -- do appreciate the decision of the people in charge in Beijing to clamp down on those anti-Japanese protests, clear out the streets, order people to get out of those incendiary anti-Tokyo...
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2005
Some pits remain in Vietnam's growing bowl of cherries
LOS ANGELES -- The people of Vietnam -- who celebrated the 30th anniversary of the United States' final pullout from Saigon on April 30 -- are getting with the market-oriented, rich-is-glorious, we-love-anyone-with-money (including Westerners), China-clone program of economic reform (while keeping dissidents...
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2005
China and Japan have their work cut out
LOS ANGELES -- It is true that the issue of Japan's behavior a half century ago is not moot, especially if there is reason to believe that aggression against its neighbors is not truly a thing of the distant past.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2005
Is Asia moving forward or backward?
LOS ANGELES -- Settling old scores is the characteristic of small minds; moving forward is the stuff of vision and leadership. Despite the growing trade among China, Japan and South Korea, much political activity appears to focus on the settlement of grudges.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2005
The danger of keeping Japan in its place
LOS ANGELES -- Reform of the United Nations -- that terribly tarnished crown jewel of post-World War II global order -- is, as everyone agrees, urgently needed. For all its imperfections, it is the best world political organization we have.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2005
Tokyo talks of a challenge, not a threat
Tension between China and Taiwan are heating up again, but Japanese government officials seem not as hot and bothered about it as one might expect. Perhaps they have taken a measure of China and decided that Japan will do just fine and is very capable of holding up its own end of Asia.
COMMENTARY
Mar 29, 2005
Japan apologetic: Prisoner of the past?
It is really sad. At a time when Asia would profit immensely from as much togetherness and mission-sharing as possible, nationalism and finger-pointing seem more in force than ever.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2005
Bet your bottom dollar on financial jolt
LOS ANGELES -- Fasten your seat belts -- and get ready for a major test of the core stability of the global financial system. How do we know that a jolt is coming? Just consider that:
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.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
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.
'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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono
The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER