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August 15, 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
Dec 2, 2007
Stateside view of Australia's landslide
LOS ANGELES — In a parliamentary system of government, there are no guarantees. You can be in one day and out the next.
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2007
Upbeat band of moderates keep the faith
BALI, Indonesia — A bad idea can sometimes illuminate the darkest landscape of truth with brilliant flair in a way that mere fact cannot. Consider, for example, the idea that Islam is incompatible with democracy. It's a really bad idea, but it can serve a very good purpose.
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2007
Stoking democracy in a Muslim giant
BALI, Indonesia — Do you like big-time success stories? There may be a quiet one in the making here that almost no one knows about, aside from the neighbors. And it's an important story at this early stage, even if the political tale's ending cannot honestly be forecast.
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2007
Is the democracy image losing its glow?
BALI, Indonesia — There's no guarantee that an intellectual counter-revolution will last any longer than a major monsoon. But there is in the works in this region growing disenchantment with the views of what one might call democracy fundamentalists. These are the people who insist that the democratic...
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2007
Three relationships the U.S. must tend to
LOS ANGELES — Three of the largest pieces in the sprawling jigsaw puzzle known as Asia are, of course, China, India and Japan. The first is the most populous country on Earth, the second is the most populous democracy and the third is the world's second-biggest economy — and (theoretically) chief...
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2007
Something about a one-party approach
LOS ANGELES — Under the communist system — as history has taught — you get to persecute potential opposition parties, warehouse political prisoners and pervert the country's patriotism with a noxious Orwellian poison of prickly but pervasive paranoia.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2007
Timely apology calms an Asian storm
LOS ANGELES — Donald Tsang, the executive leader of Hong Kong, recently apologized to his good citizens for something he said he didn't really mean. But the people of Hong Kong said they thought they heard it right the first time: that he believed the territory's rapid democratization, which many people...
COMMENTARY
Oct 11, 2007
'Silly summit' produced serious results
LOS ANGELES — It sure opened up as one big oddball of a summit.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2007
China might still the hands of the junta
BANGKOK — In 1989 Chinese troops, on orders of the government, mowed down demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. It was a sad spectacle that China is still living down, though memory fades with every year of spectacular economic development — and with the nation's steady prideful movement toward...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2007
Another Japanese prime minister falls
LOS ANGELES — Japan is of gigantic importance to the United States and to the world. This nation — of 127 million people squeezed into one relatively small island — developed into the second-largest economy in the world.
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2007
How to downsize Bush's 'axis of evil'
LOS ANGELES — The "axis of evil" has certainly proven one tough triangle with which to tangle. But is it about to be downsized? As defined by U.S. President George Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address, this putative axis triangulates Iraq, Iran and North Korea. But is one of them on the verge...
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2007
Scaremongering about China, as usual
LOS ANGELES — It might almost seem like a game of geopolitical chicken: How far can we go in creating monstrous new fears about China?
COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2007
What's wrong with talking to save lives?
LOS ANGELES — How much might a human life be worth these days?
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2007
Asian Americans building a key bridge
LOS ANGELES — A funny thing happened to Tokyo's Masahiro Kohara after he arrived in Los Angeles almost 2 1/2 years ago: He felt right at home.
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2007
Don't toy around with Sino-U.S. relations
LOS ANGELES — An effective foreign policy requires proportionate thinking. Hysteria and demagoguery can win a few elections, but they can lose wars and economic battles of enormous consequence. In the United States, foreign policy is particularly complex: Even if the president and the executive branch...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2007
Thai character trumps flaws of politics
LOS ANGELES — When social scientists or journalists are in doubt, sometimes it's best to consult the artist.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2007
Howard feeling the squeeze
LOS ANGELES — John Howard, often the most patient and sure-footed of Western-style political leaders, is reported to be losing patience with the current Iraq government and mulling over options for an Australian troop withdrawal.
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2007
Know that the devil is in the derivative
LOS ANGELES — Although Warren Buffet does have — I reluctantly admit — more money than I do (like maybe $50 or so billion more?), we do share a pair of common traits. The first is that this internationally famous investment banker (known as the "Sage of Omaha") tends to favor cautious, carefully...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2007
Taiwan sets itself up for yet another fall
LOS ANGELES — Of all the countries of Asia, Taiwan deserves to be near the top of the list in terms of having earned the world's respect. Therein we find the tale.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2007
Spielberg as himself in China-lobby role
LOS ANGELES — Has the U.N. Security Council gone Hollywood? Suddenly it's all action on the Darfur, Sudan, nightmare. Maybe the United Nations got hit with a touch of " E.T."!
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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