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March 14, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2010
Stop turning cheap food into expensive fuel
By Caroline Boin
LONDON — U.S. Department of Agriculture figures reveal that a quarter of U.S. cereals grown in 2009 went to biofuel, turning cheap food into expensive fuel. This pushes up food prices and damages the environment, yet President Barack Obama promised "continued investment in advanced biofuels" in his...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2010
Steps toward nuke-free world
By Daisaku Ikeda
In recent years there has been a growing chorus of calls for a world free from nuclear weapons. The Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference scheduled for this May will be a crucial test of the international community's ability to unite toward this goal.
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2010
China's reaction raises doubt about its intent
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — China's reaction to the announcement by Washington of a large arms sales package to Taiwan suggests that, 20 months after Taiwan replaced hostility with cooperation in its dealings with the mainland, Beijing still believes it will ultimately need to use force to bring about unification....
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 15, 2010
LDP flailing for relevance
The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party is said to be trying to re-establish its identity as a genuine conservative force, but the LDP leadership appears to be doing nothing more than working desperately to maintain the status quo.
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2010
Ignorance about Iraq in 2003 echoes today
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — At the Iraq inquiry in London on Jan. 29, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair found a new way to defend his decision to join George W. Bush in invading Iraq in 2003: the what-if defense. What if they hadn't invaded Iraq, and Saddam Hussein had remained in power there?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 14, 2010
Today's complex society in Japan spawns a new 'foreigner complex'
By Roger Pulvers
Among the many Japanese words and phrases that have fallen by the wayside of late and become shigo (obsolete), gaijin komupurekkusu (foreigner complex) is certainly among the least missed.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2010
Treason of the magistrates
By Guy Sorman
PARIS — In democracies, justice is supposed to be independent. Some prosecutors and investigating magistrates, however, conveniently forget this. Indeed many among them are deeply enmeshed in politics, pursuing agendas — and vendettas — of their own.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2010
Many in denial over China's quest for bases
By Harsh V. Pant
LONDON — For a long time, Chinese foreign-policy thinkers and the political establishment have been trying to convince the world that China's rise is peaceful, that China has no expansionist intentions and that China will be a different kind of great power.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2010
The best way to rebuild Haiti
By Robert B. Zoellick
WASHINGTON — In the wake of the devastating earthquake, there has been an outpouring of international support for Haiti. The first priority has been saving lives. That means getting water, food, shelter, medicine and other basic supplies to victims. The first rush must be backed up by an ongoing logistics...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2010
Critical role for bureaucrats
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — Some political commentators are suggesting that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is preparing to make Britain his model for reforming Japan's government system so that ministers — and not bureaucrats — make the important policy decisions.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2010
Iran's revolutionary echoes
By Said Amir Arjomand
STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Iran's continued unrest, now extending through the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the shah, raises the question of whether the Islamic Republic is about to fall. As in 1979, millions of Iranians have taken to the streets, this time to protest electoral fraud in...
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2010
In search of a big, new idea
By David Howell
Governments everywhere are nowadays being overpowered by the problems and tasks they face.
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.
Man arrested in Tokyo stabbing tracked victim through livestream
Kenichi Takano leaves a police station in Tokyo on Thursday to be sent over to prosecutors.
Concerns grow over possible U.S. tariffs on Japan's auto sector
Toyota vehicles are loaded onto a ship at the Port of Nagoya in June last year.
U.S. steered Syrian Kurds toward Damascus deal, sources say
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (right) and Syrian Democratic Forces commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi signing an agreement to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in Damascus on Monday.
China deploys food as a high-impact, low-cost weapon in tariff fight
Boxes of imported pork from the U.S. at a cold storage warehouse in Shanghai
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.
How Upper House pressure led to Ishiba's stunning reversal on medical cost caps
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends an Upper House Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
Taiwan’s No. 2 diplomat seeks higher-level ‘unofficial’ Japan meetings as ties grow
Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu told The Japan Times in an interview last week in Taipei that he hopes with the island democracy can strengthen ties with Japan and other like-minded nations “at every level.”
14 years after 3/11 disasters, Fukushima vies to become a startup hub
Aizawa Concrete employees work in the Namie factory in Fukushima Prefecture in January.
Tokyo’s vinyl experts say overseas buyers are ‘sustaining the scene’
Rintaro Sekizuka runs a record store in both London and Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward.

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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