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COMMENTARY / World

Jul 28, 2011

U.S. dances on debt cliff edge

By Kevin Rafferty

It was fascinating to watch U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner make their appeals to the nation in television addresses over their deadlock about whether and how to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling on U.S. debts before the country runs out of money next week.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 27, 2011

Moscow must also look to the east

By Sergei Karaganov

Over the past 18 months, Russia's relations with Asia have begun to improve. Both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly pointed to the need for an economic turn to Asia. Dozens of protocols and agreements on new projects have been signed with China. Some are already...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 27, 2011

U.S. nukes to South Korea?

By Ralph Cossa

Support for the U.S.-South Korea alliance has never seemed stronger in South Korea. The two countries appear to be in lock step when it comes to dealing with the North and their two presidents seem to genuinely like and respect one another, thus permitting an unprecedented level of trust and cooperation....

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 27, 2011

Left-behind parents waiting

By Paul Toland

Ever since Christopher Savoie was arrested in 2009 after a failed attempt to retrieve his abducted children, Japan has been overwhelmed by international pressure to resolve its ever-increasing number of abduction cases. After years of demarches and public pleas by foreign governments, Japan has finally...

COMMENTARY

Jul 26, 2011

Push FTA of South Korea, Japan, China toward TPP

By Shinji Fukukawa

Ten years since the concept of a free-trade agreement (FTA) among Japan, China and South Korea was proposed, some visibly significant moves have gotten under way recently. The three countries, at their leaders' summit talks held in Japan on May 21 and 22, reached agreement to conclude the industry-government-academia...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 26, 2011

EU breaks the lock on hungry North Koreans

By Glyn Ford

The European Union announced July 4 it would provide €10 million of emergency food aid to North Korea through the World Food Program (WFP) until the end of September — before this year's harvest.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 25, 2011

Challenge to India's nuclear trade persists as suppliers group adds tighter guidelines

By Harsh V. Pant

At the end of the second annual Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue held in New Delhi, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that there were "issues" that had to be resolved by India and the United States in the civil nuclear field. She did not go into specifics.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 25, 2011

Toadies to the debt-to-GDP ratio

By Robert J. Shiller

Economists like to talk about thresholds that, if crossed, spell trouble. Usually there is an element of truth in what they say, but the public often overreacts to such talk.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Jul 25, 2011

Tepco's fight for distribution

The regional monopoly enjoyed by the electric power industry in Japan has come under unprecedented criticism since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, causing radioactive leaks and creating a highly political issue of how to compensate victims.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jul 25, 2011

The self-inflicted costs of a 'war of choice'

By Hiroaki Sato

In mid-July when Mumbai was attacked with three explosions, The New York Times carried photos of some of the bloodied casualties up front — at least in its online version — and I wondered: If the newspaper for "all the news that's fit to print" had carried photos of victims of American bombing and...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 25, 2011

Links between Pakistan and post-3/11 Japan

By Sadaaki Numata

During my tenure there, Pakistan went through the heightening of tension resulting from the Islamist resistance to the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and the near-war with India in May 2002.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jul 24, 2011

What a difference a friend's tales of 'hair on the heart' can still make

By Roger Pulvers

"Shinzo ni Ke ga Haeteiru Wake" is the intriguing title of a book published in April by Kadokawa. The book was written by my good friend, Mari Yonehara, and its title in English would be "That's Why Hair Grows on the Heart."

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

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