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July 17, 2024
 

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David Wall
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2002
At last, the rise of people power in China
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Bits of the jigsaw are beginning to fall into place. Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's preferred candidate to take over from President Jiang Zemin, is beginning to show the confidence that suggests his position as the new party secretary...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2002
Lofty words with little impact
CAMBRIDGE, England -- As I write, the world's leaders, well most of them -- U.S. President George W. Bush is too busy clearing his desk after a month's holiday -- are lining up to make their speeches at the Johannesburg global conference on sustainable development.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2002
Slovaks falling victim to EU hypocrisy
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Slovakia is the eastern part of the old Czechoslovakia that left the federation in 1993. It came off worse economically in the break-up, unfairly so, but it won in the geographical carve-up, getting two-thirds of the wine country and above all, the Tatra mountains.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2002
Of chicken legs and trash
CAMBRIDGE, England -- There has been much talk in China recently about hegemony. Some of it has been about denying that China has hegemonic interests in East Asia. But most of it has related to the United States. One wonders if everyone in China understands what is being complained about. I have this...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2002
Japanese housewife guide to investment
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Earlier this year Japanese and U.S. television stations carried pictures of Japanese housewives queuing up to buy kilo bars of gold, costing around $10,000 at the time. Their action and subsequently that of investors around the world have resulted in a 15 percent increase in the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2002
Legacy-building in Beijing
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin has made another speech -- another important speech -- adding gloss to the landmark speech he made July 1 last year at the Communist Party of China's 80th birthday party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2002
No winners in Shenyang case
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Now that a little time has gone by, and peoples' attention is distracted by the World Cup, it is time for a little quiet thinking about the implications of the Shenyang incident. This was the incident in which Chinese police forcibly removed five North Koreans from the Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2002
A foil to the 'Asian Miracle'
CAMBRIDGE, England -- The past few weeks have been sad ones for the supporters of the still young democratic process in South Korea. It has been alleged that a web of corruption surrounds the presidency of Kim Dae Jung, winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. While no one has, yet, suggested that the president...
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2002
Prime minister or nationalist puppet?
CAMBRIDGE, England -- The ink was barely dry on my April 21 Japan Times article "Koizumi trade pitch misses," which stated Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was thinking of going to pray at Yasukuni Shrine, when the news came that he had gone. We were told that he had felt the need "to mourn those who...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2002
IMF is backing the wrong horse again
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Oh dear, oh dear! The International Monetary Fund supports the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the dollar. In Hong Kong recently, a senior representative of the IMF applauded Hong Kong's decision not to break its fixed link to the greenback, saying that the IMF believes that "the peg...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2002
Time to engage, not bully, North Korea
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Since January 2001, relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have been tense. The various confidence-building measures agreed to at the summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in June 2000 came to a halt after newly elected U.S. President...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2002
Koizumi trade pitch misses
CAMBRIDGE, England -- At the Baoa Forum for Asia that met on Hainan Island in China earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made yet another proposal for a greater economic cooperation agreement for East Asia. This time Japan's focus is on an ASEAN-plus-five formula, as announced...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2002
Don't apologize to Li Peng
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Get out the bunting! Li Peng is on his way! One of the people that former U.S. President Bill Clinton described as the "butchers of Beijing" and now chairman of the National People's Congress, or China's "rubber stamp" Parliament, Li was the Chinese premier at the time of the Tiananmen...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2002
Bush-league diplomacy mars Asian tour
They have taken the Stars and Strips down in Tiananmen Square. Meanwhile, in the Great Hall of the People, U.S. President George W. Bush's visit is almost forgotten as the last meeting of China's National People's Congress before the 16th Party Congress in November has begun.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2002
North Korea: signs of trouble but no evil
CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just returned from a week visit to North Korea, one of the countries on U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil." I was one of three British academics running a workshop under a new technical assistance program inaugurated when the two countries opened diplomatic relations...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002
Dream on, Gordon Brown
CAMBRIDGE, England -- Just before Christmas, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown came out with the surprise announcement that he was proposing that member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development address the question of poverty in the world by setting up a new...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001
AIDS devastation felt far beyond Africa
CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just come back from a trip to Africa, my first in several years. I used to visit there frequently before my work became specialized on East Asia. This trip, to Botswana, was purely for a holiday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2001
Jiang unleashes revolutionary change
CAMBRIDGE, England -- There is a long tradition in China of requiring the people to study the words of their political leaders. In the late 17th century, the whole population of China was required to come together in small groups twice a month to study and recite the "16 moral maxims" published by the...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2001
WTO entry to change Chinese livelihoods
CAMBRIDGE, England -- So they finally made it. China has been admitted to the World Trade Organization. And so has Taiwan. Now that the bilateral and multilateral negotiations are over and China's trade partners have extracted all that they were able to in concessions from the new member, the fun begins....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2001
Murky international image of Koizumi
CAMBRIDGE, England -- We get the leaders we deserve, so we are told. But do we always know who our leaders are? I am constantly frustrated in China by being told what a great prime minister Margaret Thatcher was.
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
Japan finds a 'stealth' cure for zombie businesses: Let them fail
A worker at Sakai Seisakusyo prepares to transport metal rods at its factory in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, on July 8.
Trump makes his grand RNC entrance with a bandaged ear and a VP pick
Former U.S. President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday
China’s economic growth comes in worse than expected
Pedestrians in the Wangfujing shopping area in Beijing on July 11, 2024. China's economic growth in the second quarter was lower than forecast, adding pressure on Chinese leaders to lift confidence at the Chinese Communist Party's third plenum this week.
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.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

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

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