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March 17, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2009
Stunned Australia starts searching for answers
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — The worst natural disaster in Australian history has killed at least 200 people, destroyed 7,000 houses and a dozen villages, and left a nation agonizing over the question — why did we let this happen?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2009
Nationalize insolvent banks
By Nouriel Roubini
NEW YORK — A year ago, I predicted that the losses of U.S. financial institutions would reach at least $1 trillion and possibly go as high as $2 trillion. At that time, the consensus among economists and policymakers was that these estimates were exaggerated, because it was believed that subprime mortgage...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2009
Are we ready for a new form of capitalism?
By Peter Singer
MELBOURNE — Is the global financial crisis an opportunity to forge a new form of capitalism based on sound values?
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2009
Former saviors racking up losses
By Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE — A year ago, before the financial crisis started to bite hard, the United States and Europe were worried that Asian and Middle East nations, armed with a mighty war chest of surplus foreign exchange reserves from their exports of manufactured goods and oil, would gobble up so-called strategic...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2009
Rumsfeld prosecution could set precedent
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — There is now enough evidence to try former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for war crimes, Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, recently told "Frontal 21," a German television program.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2009
Involve, don't attack, China
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her maiden overseas trip has a golden opportunity to show that the new administration of Barack Obama understands and is prepared to make its best efforts to put America's most important bilateral relationship on a surer footing. I'm not talking...
COMMENTARY
Feb 15, 2009
Immorality of bushfires
By Gregory Clark
Australia will recover from its recent bushfire tragedy damage. But can it recover from the shock of discovering how much of the damage was due to arson? Japan could provide some answers, though not all optimistic.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 15, 2009
Do Japanese yet realize that culture's acquired, not in the blood?
By Roger Pulvers
There's no doubt that Japanese people's attitudes toward foreigners, and the ways they relate to them, have changed markedly in the 40-odd years since I first arrived here. But is this change we can believe in?
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2009
When it's wrong to protect
By David Howell
LONDON — A government's first duty is to protect its citizens. So say all the authorities and experts. It sounds simple, but in practice and in real life it is a very complex and problematic matter.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2009
Israel votes for firmer hand with Palestinians
By Daoud Kuttab
PRINCETON, N.J. — War and violence always have a direct effect on elections. Wars account for dramatic shifts in voter preferences, and radical leaders and parties often poll much higher after a round of sharp violence than in normal times. Minority ethnic groups are therefore often able to sway the...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2009
Blaming bankers' bonuses
By Hugh Cortazzi
LONDON — U.S. President Barack Obama has called for an annual salary cap of $500,000 for directors of banks receiving government funds. (It is worth noting that this sum is $100,000 more than the president's salary.)
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2009
Japan as the catalyst for improving global public health
By M. James Kondo
What place should Japan occupy in the world? This existential question has troubled Japan's leaders for the past two decades. Military leadership is restricted by the Constitution. Economic might has lost its glimmer. Cultural influence, epitomized by "cool Japan," has yet to take center stage.
U.S. designated South Korea a 'sensitive' country amid talk of nuclear weapons
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol attend an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023.
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.
Unification Church faces dissolution in Japan
The logo of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, better known as the Unification Church, is seen at the entrance of its Japan branch headquarters in Tokyo in October 2023.
Tigers shut out the Cubs as Seiya Suzuki receives warm welcome in Tokyo
Tigers players walk off the field while carrying Cubs caps during a rare exhibition game between NPB and MLB clubs.
As it turns 70, LDP struggles to find its fountain of youth
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from left) cheers along with other members of the Liberal Democratic Party during the party's annual convention in Tokyo on March 9.
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.
Bank of Japan unlikely to raise rates this week as trade war intensifies
Bank of Japan headquarters building in February. In January, the BOJ voted to raise its short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%, taking it to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
As it turns 70, LDP struggles to find its fountain of youth
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from left) cheers along with other members of the Liberal Democratic Party during the party's annual convention in Tokyo on March 9.
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.

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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