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 Brad Glosserman

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Brad Glosserman
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000
Television as a pillar of the state
BROADCASTING POLITICS IN JAPAN: NHK and Television News, by Ellis Krauss. Cornell University Press, 2000, 278 pp., $35 (cloth). Many of us know NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) for its film documentaries, its cultural programs -- stunning or plodding, depending on your perspective -- or its Sunday morning singalongs....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 6, 2000
Ready for takeoff
The pipes are clogging. There are 377.65 million people online worldwide, and some analysts warn that figure could increase by as much as 25 percent annually for a few years to come. Traffic could reach 10 times the current level in a few short years, and demand for bandwidth might reach as high as 200...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 22, 2000
Connecting the dots
It's hard to believe, but there is some organization to the Internet. The libertarianism that seems to be the dominant ethos rests not-too-lightly atop a neatly organized technical foundation. It has to be this way: The Net is a network of addresses and someone somewhere has to make sure that they hook...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2000
WTO falling victim to its own success
The World Trade Organization is headquartered, like its predecessor, the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trades, in the placid Swiss city of Geneva. These days, however, the WTO is more often associated with Seattle, Washington, and the images that come to mind when the organization is mentioned aren't...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000
Settle for a least bad worst-case scenario in Korea
AVOIDING THE APOCALYPSE: The Future of the Two Koreas, by Marcus Noland. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 2000, 431 pp., $22 (paper). The thaw on the Korean Peninsula continues. Every week, history is made: a meeting between Korean officials, a diplomatic breakthrough for North...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2000
A chance to reshape U.S.-Japan ties
Foreign policy is never a cutting-edge issue in U.S. presidential elections, and this year's campaign is no exception. Even when the candidates have ventured into the territory, the focus has been on China, North Korea or the role of U.S. forces in Europe or Africa or even Haiti. When Japan makes the...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 8, 2000
Nihongo dekiru?
Nihongo dekiru? Since Amazon.com opened for business, its biggest foreign market has been Japan. The company has about 193,000 customers here and they ring up about $34 million worth of sales. Mind you, the domestic Japanese market for online book sales is only $46 million. (In the name of full disclosure,...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000
Hard lessons Japan failed to learn
JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000
Hot off the press
THE JAPANESE PRESS 2000. Nihon Shinbun Kyokai, 2000, 154 pp., 2,000 yen. Nihon Shinbun Kyokai, the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, has released its annual survey of the Japanese press. As always, it includes a summary of industry trends, as well as a media directory.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2000
A lonely voice calls for shared values
It is one of the ironies of our time that the very process that is tying the world's disparate peoples together is at the same time generating friction between them. Globalization may be spinning a vast web of relationships as it builds a single world market, but as it does so, citizens are accentuating...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 13, 2000
Tomorrow today
Predicting the future is always a risky business, but the uncertainties seem to be magnified when it comes to information technologies. Blame it on "tipping points," unstable equilibriums, systems analysis, whatever, but planning ahead has never been a more hazardous exercise.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 3, 2000
U.S. alliances build peace in Asia
AMERICA'S ASIAN ALLIANCES, edited by Robert Blackwill and Paul Dibb. The MIT Press, BCSIA Studies in International Security, 2000, 143 pp., (paper). Asia is -- potentially -- a very dangerous place. Paul Dibb, one of Australia's leading security thinkers and co-editor of this valuable new book, explains...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 15, 2000
The periphery vs. the center
LOCAL VOICES, NATIONAL ISSUES: The Impact of Local Initiative in Japanese Policy-making, edited by Sheila A. Smith. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000, 136 pp., $32.95 (cloth). For students of power and politics in Japan, Tokyo is where the action is. Important decisions are made in...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 6, 2000
The horror, the horror
We're back. Did you miss us? That question isn't the product of an (especially) insecure soul. I mean it.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2000
Asia takes capitalism on its own terms
ASIAN VALUES, WESTERN DREAMS: Understanding the New Asia, by Greg Sheridan. Allen & Unwin, 1999, 326 pp., 14.99 British pounds (paper). A lot of people thought -- hoped, really -- that the Asian economic crisis would end all that nonsense about "Asian values." The region's stumbles were supposed to...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000
China stays focused on the big picture
INTERPRETING CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY: Past, Present, and Future, by Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis. RAND 2000, Project Air Force, 2000, 283 pp., $35 (cloth), $20 (paper). Dealing with China is the chief foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century. Governments in Tokyo, Washington and elsewhere...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000
Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence
It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2000
Making peace in Cambodia
EXITING INDOCHINA: U.S. Leadership of the Cambodia Settlement & Normalization with Vietnam, by Richard H. Solomon, with a foreword by Stanley Karnow. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000, 113 pp. (paper). Contrary to popular opinion, America's involvement with Vietnam did not end with the hurried...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2000
South Korea's new take on the world
The emotional pendulum swings in Korea are mesmerizing -- and predictable. First there was the euphoria triggered by last month's historic summit between the two Korean leaders. Then there was the inevitable reaction as more sober heads pointed out the difficulties that lie ahead: continuing talks to...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 19, 2000
Big train a-comin'
Pick your measure. No matter what standard you choose, the information revolution is less than 3 percent complete. That's right: Whether you count users, devices, speed, content or number of applications, the revolution is just revving up. That has two implications: 1) virtual lifetime employment for...

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?