Tom Plate - The Japan Times

November 22, 2024

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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

Apr 4, 2004

Taiwan invasion scenario not so unlikely

HONG KONG -- It's unimaginable that China would ever go to war against Taiwan, right? Until recently, that's what I thought.

COMMENTARY

Mar 30, 2004

Cheney must prove himself on Asia trip

LOS ANGELES "The Ear" is going to Asia, says the White House. The White House didn't put the announcement exactly this way, of course. But Dick Cheney, the U.S. vice president, is widely known in Washington to have President George W. Bush's ear. When Cheney talks, Bush listens.

COMMENTARY

Feb 23, 2004

U.S. harsh line won't help

The official U.S. negotiating position for the upcoming North Korean peace talks in Beijing was recently laid out by the top U.S. negotiator, a respected man of peace. But details of the position may actually be a prescription for war. This is alarming.

COMMENTARY

Feb 15, 2004

Japan jumping headfirst into the future

The Japanese "get no respect, no respect at all." That trademark line from American comic Rodney Dangerfield certainly applies to the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Last August when I interviewed Koizumi in his official Tokyo residence, I asked him point-blank if Japanese troops really...

COMMENTARY

Oct 15, 2003

Schwarzenegger should learn from Asia's strongmen

LOS ANGELES -- It looks as though California is getting some Southeast Asian strongman-style leadership. But will Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's new governor, prove half as effective as the two dominant personalities that have run Malaysia and Singapore these past decades? Or, in the end, will Schwarzenegger...

COMMENTARY

Oct 2, 2003

Book fight turns up a Beijing weak spot

LOS ANGELES -- Love her or loathe her, Hillary Clinton is something else. In 1995, for instance, the then-first lady stood on a Beijing dais and delivered a tough speech that denounced violations of women's rights worldwide. With steely passion she said: "Human rights are women's rights."

COMMENTARY

Sep 22, 2003

Can 'Special K' save Japan?

For all the attention given to the rise of China, it is still not the most important nation in Asia. Japan, with the world's No. 2 economy and a growing list of problems, is.

COMMENTARY

Sep 14, 2003

Shy man performs historic balancing act

HONG KONG -- Because Hong Kong's leader tends to view the news media (local or otherwise) with the enthusiasm of a swimmer greeting a school of sharks, Tung Chee-hwa has scant hope of receiving his due as the historically pivotal man he is. His public image is generally terrible, and he is often portrayed...

COMMENTARY

Sep 6, 2003

Only one way that the terrorists can win

SINGAPORE -- Terrorism and the world economy are heavy on the minds of Asia right now. Among many government officials, leading academics and others, Tokyo and Hong Kong -- not to mention this clean-as-a-whistle, well-run island city-state -- there is increasing agreement that future world geopolitics...

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2003

Asia-watcher likes what he sees

LOS ANGELES -- Like the American stock market, the Asian political scene suffers ups and downs. Today, Asia might seem more like a hibernating bear in a China shop than anything else. SARS-hit Hong Kong is experiencing its highest jobless rate in years, China is toying with the idea of a currency devaluation,...

COMMENTARY

May 26, 2003

Megawati deserves greater U.S. support

LOS ANGELES -- What country has the largest population while probably remaining the least known among Americans? It's Indonesia -- an awesome archipelago of maybe 13,000 islands and some 220 million people. Most of them are moderate Muslims, and there are more of those in Indonesia than anywhere.

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2003

Why war in Korea is less probable now

LOS ANGELES -- Many fretful observers, on both sides of the Pacific, are convinced that U.S. military action against North Korea is inevitable. But this gloomy doomsday scenario, it seems to me, becomes increasingly improbable as time goes on.

COMMENTARY

Apr 14, 2003

China stumbles on SARS and Pyongyang

LOS ANGELES -- Mistake-making is a common occupation of governments everywhere, but lately the Chinese government has made two monster blunders that uncomfortably reopen the question of whether China has made all that much progress after all. The issues concern North Korea and severe acute respiratory...

COMMENTARY

Apr 7, 2003

Diplomatic offensive awaits

LOS ANGELES -- Iraq is finding out what it means to be an enemy of the United States. But what does it mean to be a friend?

COMMENTARY

Mar 31, 2003

Win the peace with Muslims after the war

LOS ANGELES -- Location, in politics as well as in real estate, is almost everything. When British Prime Minister Tony Blair came calling on U.S. President George W. Bush, America's foremost ally raised with Washington the tender issue of repairing badly damaged relations with America's "old Europe"...

COMMENTARY

Feb 3, 2003

Pendulum swings on China vs. Japan

DAVOS, Switzerland -- How wildly the pendulum swings whenever "the experts" start talking about Japan vs. China. One can do no wrong, and the other can do no right.

COMMENTARY

Nov 30, 2002

West Coast optimists say the sun also rises

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the only explanation for it is that there are two Americas. The East Coast America, with its dark cynicism and worldly seen-it-all sangfroid, sees Asia as mostly a problem and a threat. But West Coast America, soaking up its proximity to Asia and reveling in local Asian ethnicities...

COMMENTARY

Nov 4, 2002

Greatest generals gave peace a chance

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the vital struggle for peace and stability is too important to be left to civilian "experts," especially when there are exceptional generals to help save nations from disaster. That was patently the case after Japan's crushing World War II defeat: The Japanese certainly benefited...

COMMENTARY

Oct 28, 2002

Just don't call him Senior Minister Jiang

LOS ANGELES -- Extreme conservatives would have you simply bomb 'em; extreme liberals would simply have you love 'em. Real life, though, often comes down to a difficult choice between questionable alternatives. And when the issue relates to how to relate to more than a 1.3 billion people, perhaps the...

COMMENTARY

Oct 14, 2002

Resurgent Asia may yet help buoy America

LOS ANGELES -- Think of the world economy as one huge ship with many passengers from all over and wildly varying tiers of service.

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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