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November 21, 2024
 

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Ian Buruma
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2022
Was Trump or Brexit the bigger mistake? The answer is clear.
As Americans and Britons are discovering, nations can recover from bad elections far more easily than from bad referendums.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2022
Putin’s unconditional surrender should not be the goal
The Ukrainian demand that Russia withdraw its troops is a legitimate position to adopt. But it is a position, not an ultimatum; compromises should be reached once negotiations begin.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2021
America’s undimmed global cultural reach continues
The influence of American culture remains as strong as ever. The growth of a QAnon movement in Japan is the clearest example that some of its more paranoid ideas are spreading overseas.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 29, 2020
Overcoming Trumpism
The underestimation of Trump voters, and complacent belief in a Biden landslide, revealed the widening gulf between urban, educated America and rural, working-class America.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2018
Why is Japan populist-free?
Japan's middle-class mentality helps keep the dangerous populist politics roiling other countries at bay.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2013
Ian Buruma on 'Ai-no Borei (Empire of Passion)'
Nagisa Oshima is the best film director in Japan still making good movies. There are other good directors (Kon Ichikawa), but they are reduced to doing company hack-work. Oshima can still do the films he likes, partly because he gets financial backing in France from Argos Films, the producer of both...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2010
Eye to eye with the unwanted
NEW YORK — Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century Dutch philosopher, Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the 21st-century French president, have one thing in common: All were sons of immigrants.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2008
Europe's mania for a black U.S. president
NEW YORK — Why do Europeans adore America's president-elect, Barack Obama? Stupid question, you might say. He is young, handsome, smart, inspiring, educated, cosmopolitan, and above all, he promises a radical change from the most unpopular American administration in history. Compare that to his rival...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2008
Austria's fear and loathing still democratic
NEW YORK — Two far-right parties, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Movement for Austria's Future, won 29 percent of the vote in the latest Austrian general election — double their total in the 2006 election.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2008
Europeans draw wrong lesson from Munich
NEW YORK — Seventy years ago this month in Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed a document that allowed Germany to grab a large chunk of Czechoslovakia. The so-called Munich Agreement would come to be seen as an abject betrayal of what Chamberlain termed "a far away country of...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2008
Disturbing reasons to put a nation to death
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32 percent of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58 percent). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2008
Soccer nationalism mirrors European society
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York — The late Arthur Koestler, born in Budapest, resident of many countries, and writer in several languages, once said there is nationalism, and there is soccer nationalism. The feelings inspired by the latter are by far the stronger. Koestler himself, a proud and loyal...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2008
Why do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
NEW YORK — Why are French, British and American warships, but not Chinese or Malaysian warships, sitting near the Burmese coast loaded with food and other necessities for the victims of Cyclone Nargis?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2008
Is Tibetan culture slated for extinction?
NEW YORK — Are the Tibetans doomed to go the way of the American Indians? Will they be reduced to nothing more than a tourist attraction, peddling cheap mementos of what was a once-great culture? That sad fate is looking more and more likely, and the Olympic year already has been soured by the Chinese...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2008
Freedom and music go hand in hand
NEW YORK — North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is one of the world's most oppressive, closed and vicious dictatorships. It is perhaps the last living example of pure totalitarianism — control of the state over every aspect of human life. Is such a place the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2008
War rages against 'elites' of tolerance
AMSTERDAM — When "tolerance" becomes a term of abuse in a place like the Netherlands, you know that something has gone seriously wrong. The Dutch always took pride in being the most tolerant people on Earth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2008
China's top-heavy showcase
NEW YORK — It will be China's year in 2008. The Olympic Games — no doubt perfectly organized, without a protester, homeless person, religious dissenter or any other kind of spoilsport in sight — will probably bolster China's global prestige.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2007
Legislating history obscures the truth
NEW YORK — In October, the Spanish Parliament passed a Law on Historical Memory, which bans rallies and memorials celebrating the late dictator Francisco Franco. His Falangist regime will be officially denounced and its victims honored.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2007
Lucky little countries, or not?
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York — Western Europe's small democracies have, on the whole, been exceptionally fortunate. Freer and richer than almost anywhere else in the world, countries such as Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland would seem to have little to worry about. This is why the world normally...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2007
Believers make good rebels
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York — It has become fashionable in certain smart circles to regard atheism as a sign of superior education, of a more highly evolved civilization, of enlightenment.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

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