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COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2009
The decline of policymaking
By Shinji Fukukawa
I have misgivings about the decline of Japanese policymaking abilities.
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2009
Decay of Japanese politics
By Shinji Fukukawa
Japan's politics in recent years has lacked dynamism and incurred people's distrust. The purpose of politics is to present a vision for the nation's future, identify the systems and policies needed, and ensure the safety and prosperity of the nation and its people. Recently, though, Japanese politics...
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2009
A greater role in relief work for armed forces
By Michael Richardson
Will Asia-Pacific armed forces find their role in national defense and security shifting significantly in the future as the effects of climate change caused by global warming intensify? If so, how quickly will it happen?
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 18, 2009
Weighing the nuclear option
In his 2008 New Year's speech, Japanese political doyen and former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone warned that without a clear-cut national vision and objective, Japan might tread a path toward ruin like the ancient city-state of Carthage, which was defeated and destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C.
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2009
Corporate greed versus Americans' health
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — The health care discussion in the United States increasingly has revealed evidence of how corporations and politicians hinder the provision of adequate health care to the majority of Americans. The result is that the U.S. has one of the worst health care systems among industrialized nations....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2009
Japanese attacks provoked a seismic 'me-too' shift Down Under
By Roger Pulvers
"On 27 December [1941], with his government a mere 12 weeks old, [Prime Minister John] Curtin stood Australian foreign policy on its head by declaring that the country now 'looked to America' for protection from the Japanese. Until this ringing pronouncement, Australia, in truth, barely had a foreign...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2009
Fatah's new status quo leaders
By Barry Rubin
HERZLIYA, Israel — The Sixth Fatah Congress, held recently in Bethlehem, was an important event for the future of the Arab-Israeli conflict and for the Palestinian movement. But a careful look at the results of the Congress' elections to Fatah's Central Committee yields a picture that is quite different...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2009
Cory Aquino's legacy of enriched freedom
By Fidel V. Ramos
MANILA — The death of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino — "Tita Cory" to most of the 92 million people of the Philippines — left behind a precious inheritance: a legacy of freedom that the Philippines came to share with oppressed peoples around the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2009
Berlusconi's scandals are no laughing matter
By Arnold Cassola
ROME — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's political and sexual exploits make headlines around the world, and not just in the tabloid press. These stories would be no more than funny — which they are certainly are — if they were not so damaging to Italy and revelatory of the country's immobile...
COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2009
Seven global lessons from a teachable event
By Ramesh Thakur
WATERLOO, Ontario — Apparently Sgt. James Crowley's arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Boston on July 17 was "a teachable moment." Here are seven lessons relevant to world affairs.
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2009
Seven topics for a summer day
By Hugh Cortazzi
LONDON — As Japanese lawmakers campaign for the Aug. 30 Lower House election, British members of Parliament are in recess and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is on holiday. Papers and weeklies are scraping the barrel for something to write about. Many fill their columns with so much sports that foreign...
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2009
Hitting the recovery road with eco-friendly products
By Takamitsu Sawa
On July 16 the State Statistics Bureau of China announced that GDP for the April-June quarter grew 7.9 percent in real terms from a year before, surpassing the 6.1 percent rate of the January-March quarter. After the Lehman Brothers shock last September, China's annual economic growth rate — which...
The U.S. says Japan has a 700% tariff on American rice. Is that the case?
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a piece of paper with information about tariff rates at the White House on Tuesday.
Japanese superfans turn dental clinic into Ohtani mini-museum
Japanese dentist Yusuke Kamimura poses for a photograph in front of a private collection dedicated to MLB player Shohei Ohtani, inside his dental clinic in Koshigaya, north of Tokyo, on Feb. 28, 2025.
Bonsai thefts sweep Japan as miniature trees grow more popular
According to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative, there were about 30 cases of bonsai theft last year.
As pollen season peaks, Japan's allergy struggle emerges from hibernation
Urbanization is amplifying pollen-related allergies as grasslands and soft soil give way to concrete and asphalt.
China deports Japanese tourists over Great Wall buttocks pic, reports state
The Great Wall of China near Beijing. Two Japanese tourists were detained in China for taking photos showing exposed buttocks at the World Heritage site.
Ishiba on shaky ground over budget and gift vouchers
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's reversal over medical co-payments late last week and the revelation he gave gift vouchers to lawmakers have weakened his political standing.
As pollen season peaks, Japan's allergy struggle emerges from hibernation
Urbanization is amplifying pollen-related allergies as grasslands and soft soil give way to concrete and asphalt.
Japan to get tough on businesses not taking heatstroke countermeasures
A construction site in Tokyo in July 2018. Businesses failing to take measures to prevent severe heatstroke among employees will be subjected to criminal punishment from June.
In a sea of Dodger Blue, Japanese superfan ready to cheer on the Cubs
Takuya “Moby” Okamoto after Game 5 of the 2016 World Series, which the Cubs went on to win in seven games to snap a 108-year drought
Drones, budgets and infighting: Taiwan's daunting defense challenges
Officials from Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), the Ministry of National Defense’s research arm, say the lessons from the Ukraine conflict are clear for the democratic island: drones and other autonomous systems are crucial for its defense.

Podcast

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

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly
By Tomoko Otake

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