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December 22, 2024
 

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Michael Spence
While short-term disruptions like inflation are easing, the European Union faces long-term challenges including rising security risks, a widening productivity gap with the U.S. and an innovation deficit.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2024
Europe needs a new economic vision
The global economic shocks of the past few years have left Europe particularly vulnerable.
Bill Gates delivers a speech at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin in May. He and his ex-wife Melinda Gates started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has had a far-reaching impact on global health and sustainability.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024
The economics of philanthropy
Philanthropy can help bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots. But wealthy people need more of an incentive to give than just being altruistic.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to address a joint session of parliament in New Delhi in June 2019.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2024
Making sense of society
In a world that is becoming fragmented within and across countries, it is easy to lose hope for social and economic progress.
While broad-based action at the COP28 summit is critical, the fact is that just a few key actors such as the U.S., China and India have the power to bring about a radical reduction in global emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 6, 2023
COP28 can deliver progress on climate change, but will it?
Committed global climate action at every level of government, the economy, and society is needed to tackle such a complex, multifaceted challenge.
Artificial intelligence may well enable the automation of many tasks and the replacement of some workers. But AI tools are still fallible and are unlikely to replace humans any time soon.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2023
AI and the productivity imperative
The global economic outlook for the next decade appears grim. But a surge in productivity — fueled by artificial intelligence — could change that picture.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2023
The governance threat to global economic prosperity
The past few years have been characterized by growing political instability, which increases the risk of abrupt policy reversals that could dampen investment and undermine global economic growth.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2023
The U.S. and China's destructive decoupling
U.S. and Chinese leaders seem to have fully accepted the logic of economic decoupling. But what exactly will decoupling entail and what will its consequences be?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2023
Is a 1.5 degree Celsius climate objective just a pipe dream?
Continuing to tout the unrealistic 1.5 C global warming goal is unrealistic; but setting a more feasible target raises risks of its own.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2022
Done with deglobalization?
The global economy's dire and deteriorating prospects, together with the scale of the climate challenge, have opened world leaders' eyes to the risks that deglobalization poses.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2022
The global economy and secular inflation
After enjoying a long period of deflationary conditions, the global economy is being pushed by a wide range of forces toward a new and more difficult equilibrium.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2022
The supply-side fight against inflation
A recession can be avoided if policymakers recognize the large role that supply-side measures must play in restoring price stability.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2022
The global economy in transition
The green transition is a powerful mechanism for increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability to the weaponization of energy supplies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2022
Good U.S.-China strategic competition
The world needs a benign form of strategic competition more than ever, where countries strive to reach the forefront of innovation without trying to prevent others from challenging them.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2022
Regime change in the global economy
The Lewis turning point is being reached in developing countries as their expanding export sectors are absorbing the surplus labor in traditional sectors like agriculture.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2022
Is strategic cooperation between the U.S. and China possible?
Attitudes on both sides are hardening, with Washington and Beijing settling into a comfortable but unproductive certitude that it occupies the moral high ground.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2021
Is the global supply chain blockage here to stay?
Complex global supply networks work efficiently in normal times, but they are not prepared for COVID-19-like shocks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2021
If COVID-19 wasn’t worry enough, the climate crisis comes roaring back
The most eye-opening development of the past three months has not been the COVID-19 pandemic, but the dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2021
How great powers should compete
Many in the West disapprove of China's single-party governance structure, just as vocal elements in China disparage Western liberal democracy, which they argue is in terminal decline.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2021
The expected high-growth sectors in the post-recovery decade
Businesses that survived the pandemic closures (many with support from fiscal programs) will experience rapid expansion, powered by pent-up demand.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2021
Winners and losers in the digital transformation of work
Perhaps no single aspect of the digital revolution has received more attention than the effect of automaton on jobs, work, employment and incomes.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

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

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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