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COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2011
Peace in the Basque Country?
By Gwynne Dyer
Neither the Spanish government nor the ETA terrorists were there, but a conference in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian last weekend will probably lead to the end of ETA's long and violent campaign for Basque independence. "We believe it is time to end, and it is possible to end, the last armed...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2011
What is in store for Russian Asia?
By Andrey Borodaevskiy
When the Soviet Union disintegrated, a large number of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking and Russian-cultured peoples remained outside the borders of the Russian Federation — creating, in the short run, many acute and complicated problems but, in the long run, eventually facilitating a revival...
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2011
Chinese law reform may be a double-edged sword
By Frank Ching
Reform of the Chinese legal system is desperately needed but the draft of large-scale amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law shows that the current exercise in law reform is potentially a double-edged sword.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011
Our children's future no longer looks so bright
By Robert J. Samuelson
A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children's living standards would exceed their own....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2011
The microfinance catalyst
By Jayant Sinha and Tarun Khanna
So-called impact investors — providers of capital to businesses that solve social challenges while generating a profit — are the current rage in economic development. U.S. President Barack Obama's Office for Social Innovation and Civic Participation recently convened more than 100 practitioners to...
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011
China's unparalleled rise as a hydro-hegemon
By Brahma Chellaney
International discussion about China's rise has focused on its increasing trade muscle, growing maritime ambitions and expanding capacity to project military power. One critical issue, however, usually escapes attention: China's rise as a hydro-hegemon with no modern historical parallel.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011
NBA labor dispute illustrates an economic truth
By George Will
Kevin Garnett, 35, the Boston Celtics forward who has had a stellar career, was with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2004 when a teammate, Latrell Sprewell, augmented the national stock of unfortunate pronouncements. Dissatisfied with a three-year $21 million contract extension offer, Sprewell said: "I've...
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011
A decade of Afghan tragedy
By Ramzy Baroud
On July 1, 2002, the United States bombed an Afghan wedding in the small village of Deh Rawud. Located to the north of Kandahar, the village seemed fortified by the region's many mountains. For a few hours, its people thought they were safe from a war they had never invited. They celebrated, and as customs...
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2011
Time is running out to avoid civil war in Syria
By Gwynne Dyer
Back in 1989, when the communist regimes of Europe were tottering, almost every day somebody would say "There's going to be a civil war." And our job, as foreign journalists who allegedly had their finger on the pulse of events, was to say: "No, there won't." So most of us did say that, as if we actually...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2011
The EU's clean-air turbulence
By Kevin Rafferty
Passengers flying to and from Europe face higher fares from next year, and anyone flying to Japan or Asia will pay sharply more than those staying within Europe or going to the Middle East, thanks to new rules from the European Union in pursuit of an oxymoron, making air travel environmentally friendly....
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2011
Steady growth in euro-skeptic club
By Hugh Cortazzi
The governor of The Bank of England in announcing recently another round of quantative easing said that he feared there might be an economic slowdown worse than in the 1930s. He may have been exaggerating in order to justify the bank's decision to print more money at a time when inflation in Britain...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2011
Unjustness of death penalty underlined again
By Peter Singer
Three significant events relating to the death penalty occurred in the United States during September. The one that gained the most publicity was the execution in Georgia of Troy Davis, who had been convicted of the 1989 murder of Mark McPhail, an off-duty police officer.
Trump, claiming Japan guiding yen lower, hints at fresh tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that if Japan and China try to weaken their currencies and put the United States "at a very unfair disadvantage," he could impose fresh tariffs on them.
Not even Japan is safe from counterfeit luxury goods
While Japan's luxury goods market remains strong, its seconhand resale market is proving just as much a draw for tourists searching for great bargains — as long as they can manage to get their hands on the real deal.
Trump to order U.S. Education Department abolished, WSJ reports
People walk past the Department of Education building in Washington on Feb. 4.
China’s military puts Pacific on notice as U.S. priorities shift
A photo released by the Australia Defense Force showed an Australian Navy ship in the foreground and two Chinese navy ships in the Tasman Sea in February.
Snow forces highway closures in Tokyo
Officials from the Meteorological Agency hold a news conference about the heavy snow forecast, on Sunday in the city of Saitama.
Can Shiori Ito’s documentary open Japan’s black box?
Shiori Ito is the first Japanese director to have been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature film. "Black Box Diaries," which tells the story of her quest for justice following her rape in 2015, hasn't been released in Japan.
Japanese stocks stalled at 1989 levels as investors weigh tariffs and rates
An electronic sign displays the benchmark Nikkei stock average on a street in Tokyo. The stock average has been range-bound between about 38,000 and 40,000 since hitting a new all-time high in July last year.
Redevelopment and resistance in historic Nishiogikubo
Tsuyoshi Mizukoshi, owner of a pub in Nishiogi’s commercial area, is a community organizer who is rallying local residents against the road development plan.
Why the latest Iwate wildfire is so difficult to extinguish
Firefighters work to extinguish the forest fire in the city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, in this screenshot of a video footage from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency on Friday.
Japan’s climate heroes show potential and limits of local initiatives
Hidetaka Ishii, an official at the Chiba Municipal Government, says close coordination with private-sector operators is key for regional decarbonization efforts.

Podcast

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

Longform

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows
By Alex K.T. Martin

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