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July 18, 2024
 

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Jonathan Fenby
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2003
Iraqi crisis highlights strains in trans-Atlantic relations
LONDON -- Since the end of World War II, Western Europe has usually sided with the United States in global conflicts. Except for a few national exceptions, such as France's criticism of the Vietnam War, trans-Atlantic solidarity has been the order of the day from the Cuban missile crisis through the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2003
Berlin-Paris partnership faces challenges as EU grows larger
LONDON -- Forty years ago this month, President Charles de Gaulle of France and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany signed a historic agreement to consecrate the end of 75 years of conflict between their two nations. The Franco-German Friendship Treaty came six years after the establishment of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2003
Debate suffers as ruling parties dominate
LONDON -- The shape of politics is changing in the world's main democracies in a manner that Japan may find familiar. But the implications are only starting to seep through.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2002
NATO mission remains foggy
LONDON -- The invitations issued at the recent Prague conference to seven former Eastern Bloc states to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are a dramatic demonstration of how the world has changed in just a few short years.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2002
Protectionism threatens global economy
LONDON -- Japan's current row with China over steel exports is symptomatic of a growing retreat from the free trade aims that underpinned international growth in the last two decades of the 20th century. It is now a year since members of the World Trade Organization set themselves the task of reducing...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2002
A wretched winter for Tories and royals
LONDON -- This is proving to a wretched winter for two of Britain's most hallowed institutions. The reasons say much about the way the country has changed -- and is changing.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2002
EU needs a common purpose
LONDON -- Since the original European Common Market was founded in the mid-1950s, the Continent sought a common economic role, to be followed by growing political integration. Now, there is general agreement on the first count that a new institutional framework is needed to give the community more political...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2002
France losing steam for radical reform
PARIS -- Three months ago, the French center-right scored two stunning electoral victories. As a result of miscalculations and voter apathy, the Socialists who had formed the government since 1997 crashed to defeat, and President Jacques Chirac was re-elected with 82 percent of the vote in a runoff ballot...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2002
Continental drift worries EU leaders
LONDON -- Ever since the end of World War II, Western Europe and the United States have felt like partners, sharing a wide range of common values and bound militarily by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance. There have, inevitably, been strains over the decades, and a need to re-assess the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2002
Labour spinning backward
LONDON -- When its press becomes the story, a country is in a strange shape.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2002
Le Pen's shocking win shakes France to the core
PARIS -- France's presidential election system is meant to ensure both a maximum of democracy and the emergence of a strong national leadership at the end of the two rounds of voting. That was the model set by Gen. Charles de Gaulle when he established the Fifth Republic four decades ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2002
Tony Blair struggles to fill Margaret Thatcher's giant shoes
LONDON -- She has been out of power for a dozen years, but former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has remained a formidable political force while her contemporaries on the world scene have faded from view.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2002
Familiar faces fail to stir French voters
PARIS -- It could happen only in France. The president of the Republic is running for re-election as the opposition candidate while his main challenger is defending the government's record over the past five years.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2002
New strains of anti-Semitism
LONDON -- Sixty years after the Holocaust, is anti-Semitism spreading in Europe? The question is being asked increasingly in a number of countries, notably Britain, which fought the Nazis through World War II, and France, which lived for four years under a collaborationist regime that persecuted Jews...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002
Will Blair err as Icarus did?
LONDON -- No European leader rode higher in the reaction to the Sept. 11 attack in New York than Tony Blair. The British prime minister immediately rallied to the American cause, enunciated the need to fight terrorism in ringing tones and committed troops to fight in Afghanistan. At last he had emerged...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002
A rightist revival in Europe
LONDON -- For the past five years, the center-left has held the whip hand in Western Europe. Whether in the shape of Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour administration in Britain or the more traditionally leftwing Socialist-led government in France, social democracy has ruled in the major countries...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2002
Euro faces economic snags
LONDON -- The introduction on Jan. 1 of the euro currency into everyday use across 12 countries in one of the world's big three economic zones marks the accomplishment of a 50-year-old project to bring the continent together in partnership and mutual well-being as an alternative to the past periodic...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 6, 2001
Economies threaten credibility of euro
LONDON -- Ever since the common currency began to take shape in the mid-1990s, there has been a latent conflict between politicians in the euro zone and the guardians of the monetary stability pact in Frankfurt and Brussels. This autumn the politicians insist publicly that they stand four-square with...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2001
Scandals have Chirac on the defensive
LONDON -- August is the month when, traditionally, the French forget about the cares of everyday life as they head for long holidays at home or abroad. But, this year, the most eminent of them as had a far from relaxing time. Just nine months before he faces an uphill re-election battle, President Jacques...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2001
Macedonian crossfire threat
LONDON -- Ever since the Federation of Yugoslavia broke up a decade ago, the fate of the territories over which Marshal Tito ruled for most of the postwar period has provided not just an internal cycle of war and separation, but also a series of major challenges for the international community, in particular...
Cutting ties with JCP not easy for CDP despite Renho's defeat
When Renho (center) announced her candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election on May 27, the head of the Japanese Communist Party's secretariat, Akira Koike (far left), was also in attendance.
Japan soccer player Sano arrested for alleged sexual assault
Professional soccer player Kaishu Sano has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a woman in her 30s at a Tokyo hotel.
Taro Kono says central bank needs to raise rates to lift yen
Taro Kono, Japan's digital transformation minister, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Trump says Taiwan should pay for defense, sending TSMC stock down
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple and Nvidia supplier, closed 2.4% lower on Wednesday.
'Super spicy' potato chips land Japan students in hospital
High school students were taken to hospital in Tokyo on Tuesday after eating "super spicy" potato chips.
After Tokyo Olympic disappointment, Nadeshiko Japan look for redemption
Japan's Hikaru Kitagawa dribbles past a defender during an Olympic qualifying match against North Korea at National Stadium in Tokyo in February.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals
Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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