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December 22, 2024
 

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Stephen Mihm
Former President Donald Trump gets ready to take the stage shortly before the assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July, 13. Four U.S. presidents have been killed in office.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2024
The U.S. presidency is a deadly job — and always will be
Roughly a quarter of all U.S. presidents have been victims of serious assassination attempts — four of which ended in death.
The 1960s protests, rooted in civil rights and anti-war movements, convulsed campuses nationwide for nearly a decade, while recent protests lack comparable breadth and intensity.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2024
Comparing Gaza protests to the ’60s is wrong — and dangerous
Confusing a few weeks of pro-Palestinian activism with a more than decade-long movement could lead to needless tragedy.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century 
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2023
Many evangelicals see Israel-Hamas war as part of a prophecy
The bloodshed in Israel is seen by some as a sign of Second Coming of Christ, a worldview held by significant number of evangelical Christians.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2023
A fulfilling job is a luxury of modern times
The idea that your work should pay emotional dividends — and not just the bills — would have seemed strange to most people before the 20th century.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2023
Magnets will be minting tomorrow’s billionaires
“Lodestones” started out as lightning-infused magical rocks that could cure baldness. Now they’re an essential part of our machine-driven world.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2023
U.S. government has been dancing around UFOs for 75 years
A legacy of UFO hype, hysteria and fraud is undermining legitimate inquiry into those strange objects in the sky.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2023
ChatGPT sounds exactly like us. How is that a good thing?
For 70 years, programmers have tried to make computers more like people. Now they’ve succeeded — sort of.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2022
How Christmas has turned into an orgy of consumption
The Christmas holiday rooted in pagan rituals was transformed into a celebration of commerce by writers, artists, retailers and Madison Avenue.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2022
Fusion skepticism follows a century of genius, fraud and hype
Before we shrug off the latest fusion achievement as just another small step on a long road, consider the miles we've come since the idea of tapping the power of the sun was first conceived.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2022
American book-banning tradition is as old as the Mayflower
One activist said, 'Why is everyone so upset? Controlling what children read is entirely different from controlling what adults read.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2021
Is air rage caused by class warfare?
In a typical year, the Federal Aviation Administration logs between 100 and 200 incidents. In the first three months of 2021, it reported a whopping 1300 despite few fliers.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2021
How pandemics change the course of history
When COVID-19 first arrived last year, everyone’s go-to historical parallel was the 1918 influenza pandemic. Precisely because it was so fleeting, it’s hard to find evidence that it caused a sweeping reorientation of everyday life. In its wake, most people simply forgot what happened. Other global...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2020
How to fight disease in the 1880s: Fresh air
People learned the health advantages of open windows — and then closed them for air conditioners.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2020
The Great Depression paradox: children survived, then thrived
National crises can actually have positive effects on the young, building character as much as destroying it.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2020
Dangers of age segregation exposed
For most of America’s history, the idea that people over the age of 65 would voluntarily herd themselves into special communities built around their needs would have seemed absurd, even dystopian. Yet a largely voluntary movement toward segregating people by age has reached extreme levels in recent...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2020
Coronavirus exposes dangers of age segregation
America's embrace of retirement communities and nursing homes has led to a unique vulnerability.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / Commentary
Feb 20, 2020
The ugly history of blaming ethnic groups for disease outbreaks
As the coronavirus outbreak grows in scale and scope, a nasty side effect spreads: discrimination. Inside China, people from Wuhan have been treated like lepers. Outside, we're seeing numerous reports of verbal and physical abuse aimed at ethnic Chinese, and an aversion to Chinese restaurants and other...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2019
Sleazy journalism can serve the public good
Long before Bezos's battle with the National Enquirer, a fight involving a scabrous newspaper led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision expanding freedom of the press.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2018
Does corruption matter to voters? It depends
Democrats' main target should be the Republican Party, not the president.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2018
FDR's gun-control strategy was based on taxes
His administration gave gangsters 3,700 reasons to stop buying machine guns.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
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.
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

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

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