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November 23, 2024
 

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Tom Plate

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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 25, 2008
North Korea's role in U.S.-China relations
LOS ANGELES — Call it what you will. In the red-baiting McCarthy era, to be sure, it probably would have been labeled as some sort of sinister Fifth Column operating on behalf of Beijing behind America's lines. They themselves call their U.S.-based organization, rather plainly, not mentioning China,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2008
The U.S. election: grounds for optimism
LOS ANGELES — One early sign that a run of optimism may be on the way is the point at which the utility of continued pessimism is seen as utterly dysfunctional by all concerned.
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2008
Voice of Taiwanese heard around Asia
HO CHI MINH CITY — Sure, the election of the next president of the United States will be the most closely watched election in Asia or anywhere else this year. America, for all its stumbles, is still the No. 1 superpower: So whomever the American voter picks, the world is stuck with.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2008
The power of Vietnam's feminine side
HO CHI MINH CITY — Powerful women seem to be appearing frequently in Asian news these days. Recent headlines have trumpeted the continued defiance of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi while mourning the assassination of the Pakistani heir-apparent Benazir Bhutto.
COMMENTARY
Mar 16, 2008
Is Obama another JFK, Bush, or both?
LOS ANGELES — Admirers of Barack Obama who glibly and favorably compare the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency to John F. Kennedy always assume that they are doing the former a favor. But there's another way to look at it — and it's less pretty.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2008
Redundant royal honors provoke wonder
HONOLULU — Not every monarch is alike. It's true that many are mean and greedy and full of themselves — selfish squirrels who sock their ill-gotten gains beneath everyone's eyes overseas while they stick their political opponents into dark dank prisons — or graves. But some are comparatively mild,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2008
Oscar for patient diplomacy
LOS ANGELES — For much of the first few years of the new millennium, North Korea was viewed as the most probable nation-state aggressor in Asia.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2008
Starting with Kyoto, Rudd aims high
LOS ANGELES — Before too much time goes by, maybe somebody ought to take note of the smart political stuff coming out of Australia lately.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2008
China's path deserves respect, not fear
LOS ANGELES — Let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Congressional grumblings about currency and balance-of-trade issues, and equal grumps from the U.S. Democratic Party's leftwing (over human-rights issues), could leave the impression that U.S. policy toward China has been a dismal failure....
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2008
McCain's stubbornness raises questions
LOS ANGELES — One of my all-time favorite Chinese proverbs goes like this: "To listen well is as powerful a means to influence as to talk well, and it is essential to all true conversations."
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2008
A growing laundry list against Beijing
LOS ANGELES — Some double-standards are two-faced in the extreme, but not all.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2008
When snow falls on China and Japan
LOS ANGELES — Snow has been falling on two of the world's greatest cities — lightly on Tokyo, brutally on Shanghai.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2008
Election should settle the war question
LOS ANGELES — The current race for the White House might just prove to be a great clarifier on the Iraq war. This is undoubtedly the high-profile foreign-policy problem that the world would like our electoral system to resolve decisively.
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2008
China isn't blazing a path for anybody
LOS ANGELES — All political systems are peculiar, each in its own way. This is true of democracy, however defined, as well as of communist systems, more easily defined.
COMMENTARY
Jan 15, 2008
Recurring dream about Asia's prospects
LOS ANGELES — The Grand Asian Master, no more than a few thousand years old, appeared to me the other night (as he does from time to time) and asked what I wish for these days.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2008
Embodiment of Pakistan's paradoxes
LOS ANGELES — A gift given to me years ago from Benazir Bhutto, an elegantly decorated wood jewelry box slathered in glossy lacquer, still adorns a sideboard in our home.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2007
Censorship serves to flag our own limits
LOS ANGELES — It appears that many mainland Chinese moviegoers are traipsing over to Hong Kong in droves to view the uncensored version of Ang Lee's latest blockbuster, "Lust, Caution." With their feet, in effect, they are voting for lust — and as if wishing for official Beijing caution to be gone...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2007
A man of principles in desperate times
LOS ANGELES — There are times when — from a moral standpoint — men and women simply should not remain silent. In such times, seemingly fine lines need to be turned into unequivocal hard lines. This is when the men and women of conscience stand out.
COMMENTARY
Dec 13, 2007
Something's not quite right about Hillary
LOS ANGELES — Hillary Rodham Clinton may well prove to be a great president of the United States, who knows? But as a presidential candidate she has a lot to be desired, and it's getting worse.
COMMENTARY
Dec 6, 2007
So what's bothering China's generals?
LOS ANGELES — What's eating the People's Liberation Army?
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

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