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March 16, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2009
Promise and peril of global change
By Hans-Werner Sinn
MUNICH — Panta rhei. Everything flows.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2009
Time to reject tyranny and health insecurity
By Yoshi Tsurumi
NEW YORK — Since 2001, under the guise of "reforms," the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has adopted Bush's undemocratic dogma of market fundamentalism — dysfunctional deregulation, privatization and corporate money games. Such dogma destroyed America's financial systems, social safety net and manufacturing,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 27, 2009
Are green shoots sprouting?
By David Howell
Is recovery from the global recession already under way? In Germany, France and the United States, authoritative voices are declaring the recession over and telling us that growth has resumed. And now the same view is heard in Japan. Yes, if you take a magnifying glass you can see tiny little specks...
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2009
First ban the hawks, then the bomb
By Gregory Clark
This year's Hiroshima atomic bombing anniversary saw more demands for the abolition of nuclear weapons. It is a worthy goal. But does it make sense? People genuinely keen to rid the world of nuclear weapons need first do something about the hawks and hardliners whose actions often make nuclear weapons...
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2009
Drawing key lessons from the failure of Obamacare
By TED RALL
"What worries me: time and time again," writes Brendan Skwire in the Philadelphia Weekly about the circuses that are currently passing for Democrats' town hall meetings on health care, "[is that] the needs of the stupid and disingenuous are not only treated as valid concerns, but as the greatest concerns."...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2009
Opening a regulated market for kidney sales
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, N.J. — The arrest in New York last month of Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn businessman whom police allege tried to broker a deal to buy a kidney for $160,000, coincided with the passage of a law in Singapore that some say will open the way for organ trading there.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2009
Japan ready for 'no nukes'
By Hiromichi Umebayashi and Shingo Fukuyama
As the Obama administration contemplates major reductions to its nuclear arsenal, Japan's commitment to nuclear disarmament is being tested as never before.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 24, 2009
Party shakeouts unlikely if the DPJ wins big-time
The latest major opinion polls seem to indicate that the general election on Aug. 30 will bring about a change of government in Japan, with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) unseating the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Prime Minister Taro Aso as the predominant force in the Lower House. One is left...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2009
Afghan health crisis defies aid efforts so far
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — Afghanistan is going through a serious public health emergency, exacerbated by the unstable political situation in the region. Food shortages could leave 8 million Afghans — 30 percent of the population — on the brink of starvation, unless more effective aid is provided soon. Lack of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2009
Obama hails Lincoln — but is he on course to fail the LBJ way?
By Roger Pulvers
"Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. . . . It was the government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible, and the job...
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2009
Japan has plenty of work to do in transforming how it governs
By Shinji Fukukawa
The world is changing dramatically and political governance is at stake.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2009
Scrutinizing the Chinese threat to Taiwan
By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES — In the United States we refer to it as the Powell Doctrine. And it helps unravel a bit of mystery about what China is up to these days. Remember Colin Powell? Before Barack Obama rode into the U.S. scene on his white horse, Powell was America's most admired black public political figure....
Canada has a new prime minister with a very hard first assignment
Mark Carney, Canada's incoming prime minister (center), during a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday. Carney has been sworn in as Canada's 24th prime minister, bringing the former central banker to power in the middle of an explosive trade war with the U.S.
Despite tough talk, economic woes may force Iran to bargain with Trump
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting with students in Tehran on Wednesday.
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.
As Trump thaws ties, Russia has a new public enemy number one: Britain
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives to attend a summit held at Lancaster House in central London on March 2.
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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