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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
May 12, 2006
Beijing flouts an old rule of separation
LOS ANGELES -- "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2006
China unlikely to double-deal over Korea
LOS ANGELES -- China is acting in bad faith on the Korean nuclear issue. That's the provocative suggestion now coming from some Western intelligence circles. It's a scary, foul and ultimately upsetting thought. It may also be wrong.
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2006
Goodbye to a visionary on U.S.-Asian ties
LOS ANGELES -- Anxious students will often ask me what they should ideally aspire to be when they grow up.
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2006
Asian leaders acting badly: the makings of nightmares
LOS ANGELES -- Paging Dr. Geopolitical Freud! It's an emergency.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2006
Democracy? Good leaders matter more
SINGAPORE -- The notion of multiparty democracy as an ideal one-size-fits-all form of government is, I am sorry to have to report, not exactly bowling people over these days. Take a look at Thailand and the Philippines, which Washington has often enshrined on its ideological placards as a pair of shining...
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2006
Heavyweight media visionary of the times
LOS ANGELES -- This will be a simple column about a relatively simple man who himself believed in keeping things simple. His name was Otis Chandler, surfer, champion weight-lifter, newspaper-builder. Last week, he died, at 78 years of age. He will go down in U.S. media history as a great man.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2006
Thoughts better left buried
LOS ANGELES -- Japan offers the world a culture of surpassing elegance, intellect, literature and political achievement, but it still remains something of an enigma. The great novelist Haruki Murakami understands, perhaps as well as anyone, this aspect of his country. His recent "Kafka on the Shore,"...
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2006
Sri Lanka has so much, and stands to lose it all
LOS ANGELES -- If there is one country in Asia that can serve as a metaphor for all the good and the evil in the world, it may well be little Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon.
COMMENTARY
Jan 21, 2006
Is Islam compatible with women's rights?
LOS ANGELES -- About 10 years ago Hillary Clinton delivered a seminal address in Beijing at the United Nations' 4th World Conference on Woman. The then-first lady stirred the international delegates by articulating a more inclusive definition of human rights. Bluntly put: "Human rights are women's rights,"...
COMMENTARY
Jan 11, 2006
Can Asia bank on West?
LOS ANGELES -- I recently visited the cradle of the "Asian financial crisis," Thailand. This is the name given to the well-documented sequence of events between 1997-1999 that sent many of Asia's economies and currencies into terrifying tailspins. The crisis originated with the baht, Thailand's currency....
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2006
Beneficial potential of Singh's leadership
LOS ANGELES -- What will be the No. 1 geopolitical story in 2006? Don't be surprised if, by this time next year, India is the hot topic and Manmohan Singh, its prime minister, one of the world's most-watched leaders.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2005
Insecurity fuels anti-globalization battle
LOS ANGELES -- The issues that fueled the antiglobalization movement at the Battle of Seattle have not gone away. A revival movement surfaced last week. Call it the Battle of Hong Kong.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2005
A job dogged by historical comparisons
HONG KONG -- Not all modern Chinese leaders are alike. First there was Mao Zedong. History's judgment suggests he could and should have done a lot better as boss man of the Middle Kingdom after the World War II, to say the least.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2005
Koizumi's success hinges on transparency
LOS ANGELES -- The Japanese are trying to sell their Asian neighbors a plan to rearm militarily -- and become more like a "normal" nation and less like a thoroughly defeated World War II aggressor. In their view, this shouldn't make anyone nervous.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2005
Trying to stem controversy in South Korea
LOS ANGELES -- The people of South Korea have responded to the stem-cell scandal involving genius-innovator Hwang Woo Suk with admittedly excessive passion and near-unanimous conviction. Still, by rallying around their amazing Seoul National University pioneer, their support should be a comfort to risk-taking...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2005
The dark side of the Libby indictment
SANTA BARBARA, California -- Arguing with an icon is a loser's game. In America, Daniel Ellsberg is certainly a political and antiwar icon. But I do have a quarrel with him, and it is so serious that I'll take my chances.
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2005
How not to manage U.S.-Singapore ties
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps the last thing that the well-run city-state of Singapore needs is for some outside columnist to defend it. Among the many natural-born rhetorical defenses available on this amazing island is the redoubtable Lee Kuan Yew. Even at 82, the founding prime minister of modern Singapore...
COMMENTARY
Oct 15, 2005
Asia's tough but not impossible journey
LOS ANGELES -- Perhaps the prospects of would-be Asian political unity can best be described as a "pipe dream." But even that description might be too optimistic, unless you imagine a water pipe filled with wildly psychedelic substances that are imbibed in huge amounts!
COMMENTARY
Oct 8, 2005
Stellar play fosters globalized mindset
LOS ANGELES -- Some things are just nice to see, and there's not much more to it than that. In America around this time every year, one of the nicest things to see -- especially for the inveterate sports fan -- is the invariably engrossing finale of the long Major League Baseball season.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2005
Toward a sensible U.S. foreign policy
LOS ANGELES -- An admittedly general but perhaps not insignificant consensus in America on the necessary future direction of U.S. foreign policy appears finally to be emerging -- and not a moment too soon.
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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