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November 21, 2024
 

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Peter Singer
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2014
Should adult sibling incest be against the law?
The German Ethics Council's recommendation that consensual sexual intercourse between adult siblings should cease to be a crime leads a university ethics professor to wonder whether a rational debate on the subject is even possible.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2014
Choosing death when loss of self is imminent
For people who do not want to live on when their mind has gone, deciding whether and when to die is difficult, and likely to meet resistance from loved ones.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2014
Is Israel's offense morally defensible?
To say that Israel's actions are less clearly wrong than those of Hamas is not to say much. While pursuing its legitimate military objectives in Gaza, Israel should be showing more concern for Gaza's trapped civilians.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2014
Is there a right to secede?
If a majority of the voters in a distinct region of a country favor independence, does that mean that they have a right to secede? Paradoxically the EU has made it more feasible for states like Scotland and Catalonia to consider independence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014
Calculating the ethical cost of high-priced art
If artists, art critics and art buyers really had any interest in reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor, they would spend time in developing countries, where spending a few thousand dollars on the works of indigenous artists can make a real difference to the wellbeing of whole villages.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2014
Trouble with revoking citizenship extralegally
In the absence of global citizenship, it may be best for the U.K. government to retain the principle that citizenship is not to be revoked without a judicial hearing.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2014
Philosophers still vital to our high-tech world
A Harvard University report showing a big dropoff across the U.S. in the proportion of bachelor degree graduates who majored in the humanities contrasts with the finding by a Swiss think tank that three or four of the top five 'Global Thought Leaders' are involved in philosophy.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2014
Tips for electing a leader with common sense
One way voters perhaps can eliminate a presidential candidate from consideration is to look at his or her watch. If it costs more than $500, they should find someone else to vote for, someone whose interests extend beyond personal enrichment.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2014
Golden rice should be embraced as a lifesaver
With regard to the use of genetically modified organisms, regulations to protect the environment and the health of consumers should be maintained. What needs to be rethought, though, is blanket opposition to GMOs, especially when a lifesaver grain is at stake.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2014
Why is Stalin honored despite killing millions?
It is impossible to imagine a Hitler statue anywhere in Germany, so why is it that statues of Josef Stalin have been restored in towns across Georgia (his birthplace) and that another is to be erected in Moscow as part of a commemoration of all Soviet leaders?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013
Dilemma deepens as drones kill more civilians
The Obama administration's refusal to apologize in some cases to family members of the innocent victims of drone attacks, or even to explain what went wrong, indicates that his promise of greater transparency on drone policy has yet to be fulfilled.
COMMENTARY
Nov 15, 2013
The true bitterness of sugar
Our use of sugar implicates us in land grabs that violate the rights of some of the world's poorest communities. Better-informed and more ethical consumers could change this.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2013
A dream for the digital age: Internet access for all
Giving the five billion people who still stuck in the paper age digital access would transform their lives in a very positive way.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2013
Dethroning King Coal for the sake of the planet
Our continued high level of greenhouse-gas emissions protects the interests of one group of humans — mainly affluent people alive today — at the cost of others.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2013
Leaks play a critical role in health of democracies
How can a democracy determine whether there should be government surveillance of the kind that the NSA is conducting if it has no idea that such programs exist
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2013
Misplaced pride in conspicuous consumption
Wouldn't you laugh at someone who paid more than 200 times as much as you did for a watch, and ended up with an inferior product? Some lawmakers don't get it.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2013
Prodding big food firms into the field of ethics
Consumers should take it upon themselves to become better informed about what they eat and drink and to let ethics influence purchasing choices.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2013
Agricultural land grabs in developing countries?
Should rich countries — or investors based there — be buying agricultural land in developing countries?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2013
Agricultural land grabs in developing countries?
Should rich countries — or investors based there — be buying agricultural land in developing countries?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2012
Should we strive to live to age 1,000?
On which problems should we focus research in medicine and the biological sciences? There is a strong argument for tackling the diseases that kill the most people — diseases like malaria, measles and diarrhea, which kill millions in developing countries, but very few in the developed world.
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.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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