Yuriko Koike - The Japan Times

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Yuriko Koike

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jan 13, 2015

Now Abe must follow through

Three factors played important roles in securing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's extraordinary victory in last month's elections: falling oil prices, rising skepticism about China's peaceful intentions and Abe himself supplanting the role of labor unions by demanding that companies give pay raises.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 1, 2014

A vote for Abe is no gamble

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is almost certain to receive a voter mandate, not least because he lacks credible opponents.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Oct 31, 2014

APEC diplomacy could help thaw chilly ties

Next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing looks like a high-risk enterprise, as it is not even clear if Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye will agree to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for discussions aimed at lowering tensions in the region.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Oct 7, 2014

Abenomics' women problem

The key to Abenomics' success may turn on whether the Japanese people are convinced that more women in the workforce are essential to their country's economic revival, and on whether they will support efforts to establish institutions that support working women.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Sep 1, 2014

Putting an end to the Japan-Korea history wars

As another war of words heats up, Japanese and South Korean leaders need to step back, recognize where the real interests of their people lie, and stop obsessing about the past.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jul 18, 2014

High cost to new neutrality

South Korea's elite appears to be splitting into pro-Chinese and pro-American factions that transcend party lines, while German leaders' obsession with growing exports appears to have gagged them on China's human rights abuses and its aggressive behavior toward Asian neighbors.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 27, 2014

How to end the Philippines' Moro insurgency

Though questions remain about the durability of the landmark peace deal that Philippines President Benigno Aquino struck with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in January, the political autonomy granted to the country's Muslim areas seems to have persuaded most fighters that the time has come to end a half-century of carnage.

COMMENTARY / Japan

May 27, 2014

Recent events in Asia could be tipping points

Russia's struggle to conclude a long-term gas-supply deal with China seems to suggest that China is happy to see Russian President Vladimir Putin poke his finger into the West's eye but that China is more interested in turning Russia into the sort of vassal state that Putin seeks for Ukraine.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2014

Perilous road to Slovyansk

The utter disconnect between America's diplomatic principles and practice is emboldening the country's adversaries. The lone actor most responsible for threatening world peace might unwittingly be U.S. President Barack Obama.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 4, 2014

Japan's Russian dilemma

For the Japanese, President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea was an unsurprising return to Russia's historic paradigm. Thus it is understandable that many now consider the recent hopes for serious talks between Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the Northern Territories as stillborn.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 2, 2014

Abe courting equality or estrangement in quest

In Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's view, Japan needs to regain, wherever possible, the right of independent decision-making if it is to manage successfully the challenge posed to it by China. He seeks a policy of voluntary cooperation with the U.S.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 19, 2014

Time to speak up in defense of Thai democracy

Thailand, Southeast Asia's most developed and sophisticated economy, is teetering on the edge of the political abyss. Yet most of the rest of Asia appears to be averting its eyes from its anarchic unrest.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2013

Deciphering Kim's actions

The day is fast approaching when Kim Jong Un and his clan will have to take responsibility for the country's dire condition, and it may come soon after his aunt dies.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 3, 2013

A vital role for Caroline Kennedy

Given the nexus of issues that tie vital U.S. interests to Japan's reform process, Caroline Kennedy, the new U.S. ambassador to Japan, could well prove to be a crucial link between the countries.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Nov 8, 2013

Abe's security bill aims to shutter 'spy's paradise'

With the prime minister's Liberal Democrats in strong control of both legislative houses, a bill to undertake the long-overdue modernization of Japan's national-security governance is certain to pass.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2013

Asia and a post-U.S. Mideast

Dependence on imported oil motivated the U.S. military presence in the Mideast after 1945. With energy self-sufficiency in sight, will the U.S. pull back

COMMENTARY / Japan

Mar 7, 2013

The pope of Japanese finance

As with the deliberations at the Vatican, politics — not doctrinal debate — underpins the decision-making process for the next Bank of Japan governor.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 1, 2013

Bidding farewell to Hillary Clinton, for now ...

As Hillary Clinton prepares to step down as U.S. Secretary of State, millions of Americans would like to see her write another political act — as president.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 29, 2012

To kowtow or cooperate in Asia

When a U.S. president's first overseas trip following his re-election is to Asia, one can be sure that something big is afoot in the region. Indeed, Barack Obama's decision to go first to impoverished and long-isolated Myanmar (Burma) attests to the potency of the changes under way in that country —...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.

As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals

By Alex K.T. Martin

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