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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 27, 2008
Tycoon aims to speed up politics
Business tycoon Hiroshi Okuda is said to be meeting frequently but secretly with leading figures of both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, apparently with an eye to reorganizing the political landscape after general elections expected in the not-too-distant...
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2008
Second wind for cigarette sales
By Kiroku Hanai
At the initiative of the Finance Ministry, the government has introduced a system to verify the age of anyone using a cigarette vending machine. But the system reportedly is not widely used.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2008
A winner that Beijing would be wise to cheer
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES — Not every election has significant international repercussions, to be sure. Some are scarcely noteworthy even in the places where they occur. But in March there was a monster piece of an election in East Asia, and early last week the landslide winner was celebrated in happy parties all...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2008
Can India and China dance?
By Shashi Tharoor
TRIVANDRUM, India — It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. These are the two big countries said to be taking over the world, the new contenders for global eminence after centuries of Western domination, the Oriental answer to generations...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2008
Israel eyes post-American multipolar world
By Dominique Moisi
Israel is one of the only places in the world where U.S. President Georges W. Bush can be greeted with real enthusiasm and even affection. The most unpopular American president in recent history thus relished his recent triumphal welcome in Jerusalem, where he was the guest of honor of the International...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2008
Recognizing the limits of American influence
By Shlomo Avineri
JERUSALEM — Israel's 60th anniversary has come and gone. So, too, has President George W. Bush's final visit to the Middle East. Amid the celebrations and the soul-searching, no meaningful breakthrough in the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is visible.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 25, 2008
St. Petersburg, where a morose spirituality brings forth poets
By Roger Pulvers
In Petersburg we will come together again As if we had buried the sun there. — Osip Mandelstam What city in the world can boast as many great poets and novelists as St. Petersburg? Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Blok, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, the Bohemian Kharms, the satirist Zoshchenko, Brodsky (the poet...
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2008
Cross-strait opportunity
By Ralph Cossa
"Be careful what you wish for." This Chinese proverb came repeatedly to mind when listening to incoming Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's forward-leaning inauguration address that sent so many olive branches toward Beijing that even some of his ardent supporters feared he had "gone too far." Protesters...
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2008
Is China's Tibet policy bad for business?
By Adam Strangfeld
PRAGUE — When a Chinese government security official recently accused followers of the Dalai Lama of organizing suicide attacks — merely the most extreme of a barrage of allegations against the "Dalai clique" — it was as though the Cultural Revolution were still raging. Indeed, particularly where...
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2008
Asia's rise befalls the West
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — "When many Western observers look at China," the former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani writes in his latest book, "The New Asian Hemisphere," "they cannot see beyond the lack of a democratic political system. They miss the massive democratization of the human spirit that is taking...
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2008
It'll be Serbia's choice when the sulking stops
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — The rhetoric before the Serbian parliamentary election May 11 was ugly enough, but it has gotten worse since. President Boris Tadic spun the outcome as a victory for the pro-European Union forces when only half the votes were counted, which served his purposes as he is also the leader of the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2008
A first lady's diplomatic mission
By Brahma Chellaney
A natural calamity is usually an occasion to set aside political differences and show compassion. But Burma, ruled by ultranationalistic but rapacious military elites distrustful of the sanctions-enforcing West, came under mounting international pressure to open up its cyclone-wracked areas to foreign...
Tokyo pub hit with first-ever closure order for illegal street tables
One pub in Tokyo's Shimbashi district received more than 60 warnings from law enforcement for setting up tables on the street, blocking the way for traffic.
Japan to extend financial aid to more people moving out of Tokyo
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) speaks to officials of Miyada in Nagano Prefecture on Saturday during his visit to the village.
Tokyo gears up for April launch of law against harassment by customers
Tokyo will soon require all companies in the city to make efforts to stop harassment by customers, such as by creating a manual on how to handle suspected cases.
Mount Fuji hikers to be charged ¥4,000 on all trails
Tourists gather at the Fuji Subaru Line 5th station, which leads to the popular Yoshida Trail for hikers climbing Mount Fuji, ahead of its reopening for the season in Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture in June 2024.
Geely billionaire goes on a cost-cutting spree to catch rivals
Cars at the Geely Auto production base in Hangzhou, in China's eastern Zhejiang province on Feb. 16
At Tokyo Dome, a stage so big that even Shohei Ohtani felt nervous
Shohei Ohtani tips his batting helmet during the opening game of the MLB season between the Dodgers and Cubs on Tuesday at Tokyo Dome
Assassin’s Creed Shadows puts samurai style over substance
Releasing on March 20, Assassin's Creed Shadows excels in atmosphere and open-world gameplay but falls short of narrative expectations.
At Ventinove, Tuscan specialties taken to new heights
Tucked away behind the historic Tsuchida sake brewery, Ventinove's location and sleek, angular architecture make for impressive destination dining.
Private clubs quietly open in Tokyo for free-spending Chinese businesspeople
Sources say a hui suo — a private club, which in Japan caters mainly to Chinese businesspeople — will soon open on the upper floors of the Moutai Building in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
Japan’s youth climate activists still searching for a breakthrough
While climate demonstrations around the world often draw thousands of participants, in Japan such demonstrations rarely break the 100-person barrier.

Podcast

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

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo
By Alex K.T. Martin

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