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March 06, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2011
The dark legacy of North Korea's ruling elite
By Ezra Klein
Satellite images of Asia at night are eerily beautiful, illuminated as they are by hundreds and thousands of bursts of light. That light is what civilization looks like from space. It's the glow of fluorescent bulbs in office buildings and warm lamps in homes and bright runways crisscrossing airports....
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2011
F-35 fighter deal brings Japan multiple benefits
By Humza Ahmad
With its Dec. 20 decision to purchase Lockheed-Martin's Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II as Japan's next generation fighter aircraft, the Japanese government gets to have its cake and eat it too. What Japan wants is simple: the most advanced military technology available (or at least better than...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2011
Putin hasn't lost his political touch
By Gregory Feifer
Speculation is growing that Vladimir Putin will have to ease his grip on power if he wants to remain Russia's leader. His approval rating, at 80 percent a year ago, has been driven to 60 by, among other things, an uncertain economic future, critics exploiting the Internet's increasing popularity and...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2011
Debt undermines the classic answer to recession
By Robert Samuelson
"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2011
A new code of conduct for the South China Sea
By William A. Masters
A rash of run-ins between China and rival claimants in disputed areas in the South China Sea has prompted a search for a conflict avoidance and management mechanism. In January 2012, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China will begin negotiating a Code of Conduct (CoC) to govern activities...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2011
Vaclav Havel's life in truth
By Jiri Pehe
Long before Czechoslovakia's communist regime collapsed in 1989, Vaclav Havel was one of the most remarkable figures in Czech history — already a successful playwright when he became the unofficial leader of the opposition movement. Though he hoped to return to writing, the revolution catapulted him...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2011
Populism hinders globalization
By Shinji Fukukawa
The world is in a shroud of thick mist. At the time the Cold War ended, people around the world widely expected that globalization would make progress, the U.N.-centered order of peace would be maintained and market-economy-based global high growth would materialize. However, the ensuing reality has...
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2011
India flaunts poverty of its moral leadership, brandishing an ad hoc, reactive nuclear policy
By Ramesh Thakur
The Australian Labor Party has just endorsed, albeit narrowly, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's call to lift the contentious policy of the ban on uranium sales to India, although the latter is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2011
Suicide pact at Durban climate-health summit
By Gwynne Dyer
The Durban climate summit that ended Dec. 11 has been proclaimed a great success. The chair, South Africa's international relations minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told the delegates: "We have concluded this meeting with (a plan) to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2011
Why are monotheisms so sexually obsessed?
By Gwynne Dyer
One should not mock the sexual obsessions of Islamic fundamentalists; it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2011
Road map for Afghanistan as contested as ever
By Harsh V. Pant
Another conference on Afghanistan has come and gone, but the problem remains as intractable as ever. No one has any idea how the underlying issues facing Afghanistan and the region will be resolved, but the international community soldiers on in the hope that ultimately there will be light at the end...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2011
Motivation for college study
By Takamitsu Sawa
These days we often hear that there are two signs that the Japanese people, especially youths, have become inward-looking: The number of Japanese students going overseas for study has declined sharply, and far fewer employees in the public and private sectors are willing to take up posts outside the...
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.
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.
Prince Hisahito's coming-of-age ceremony set for Sept. 6
Prince Hisahito in the city of Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, on Feb. 12
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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