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March 20, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2008
Preventing future nuclear catastrophes
By Stanley K. Sheinbaum and David Krieger
LOS ANGELES — Throughout the Cold War, nuclear deterrence was at the heart of U.S. nuclear policy. But deterrence has some important limitations that make it highly unreliable, particularly in a time of terrorism.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2008
Starting with Kyoto, Rudd aims high
By Tom Plate and Eamonn Butler
LOS ANGELES — Before too much time goes by, maybe somebody ought to take note of the smart political stuff coming out of Australia lately.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2008
Aussie personalist diplomacy
By Gregory Clark
Australia is never short of surprises. One is the way it has produced a prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who can talk directly with the Chinese leadership in their language. Reports say his Mandarin Chinese is excellent.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2008
Tyranny will be the biggest winner at the Beijing Games
By Nick Cohen
LONDON — At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, spectators will watch as athletes from the worst regimes on the planet parade by. Whether they are from dictatorships of the left or right, secular or theocratic, they will have one thing in common: the hosts of the games that, according to the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2008
European Union's catalyst for Kosovo
By Wolfgang Petritsch
PRAGUE — Kosovo's declaration of independence has put stability in the Western Balkans back on Europe's agenda. Unless the European Union acts quickly, the whole region could slide backward, with dire social, economic and security consequences. The EU needs a comprehensive regional approach, focusing...
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2008
Chasing out rich foreigners
By David Howell
LONDON — Of all the unwise policies of recent years that have steadily undermined the Thatcher legacy of British economic dynamism and enterprise, perhaps the worst and most ill-judged is the current attempt to drive out the super-rich foreigners who have hitherto found Britain such an attractive place...
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2008
Obstacles to overcome in the development of a concert of Asia-Pacific democracies
By Brahma Chellaney
NEW DELHI — The new Australian government is signaling a wish to turn its back on an initiative bringing four major democracies of the Asia-Pacific together, even as U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has vowed to institutionalize that venture.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 19, 2008
Fukuda and Ozawa plotting
A generally accepted view is that the opposition Democratic Party of Japan is bent on forcing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to dissolve the Lower House and call general elections just as soon as possible, while the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito seeks to put off the elections...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2008
The IMF as a global financial anchor
By Age Bakker
PRAGUE — Financial market turmoil has exposed weaknesses in the current global financial system, of which many were known but went unaddressed. This lack of action reflects the increased complexity and linkages of the global financial system, and the absence of an effective anchor for financial stability....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2008
Australia's historic apology
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — "Sorry," the hardest word in the English language to say, has been said by Australia to its Aborigines — officially, by Parliament in Canberra, in a ceremony screened in every city and set on the record to right the wrongs inflicted on them since white settlement began in 1788.
COMMENTARY
Feb 18, 2008
The afterlife for bureaucrats
By Takamitsu Sawa
For years the phrase "from the public sector to the private sector" has been used in the context of politics and the economy. In April 1985, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp. and Japan Monopoly Corp. were privatized, becoming NTT and Japan Tobacco respectively. In April 1987, Japanese National...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2008
Can the EU learn the lessons of empire?
By Wess Mitchell
WASHINGTON — If a European Union bureaucrat could travel to Vienna during the last years of the 19th century, he would be surprised at how closely the Habsburg Empire resembled today's EU. Like the EU, Austria-Hungary was an experiment in supranational engineering, comprising 51 million inhabitants,...
Snowfall in Tokyo as storm sweeps country
Snow falls on a narrow drinking alley in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward on Wednesday morning.
‘DEI’ purge prompts Pentagon to remove webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser
A signed picture by photographer Joe Rosenthal of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima is shown as part of a display at the new National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, in November 2006.
China sends most military aircraft near Taiwan since October
A Taiwanese military honor guard holds Taiwanese flags during an open day event for the public at the Keelung port on the island Monday.
Tokyo pub hit with first-ever closure order for illegal street tables
One pub in Tokyo's Shimbashi district received more than 60 warnings from law enforcement for setting up tables on the street, blocking the way for traffic.
Japanese singer and actor Ayumi Ishida dies at 76
Singer and actor Ayumi Ishida was well known for her hit song "Blue Light Yokohama."
At Tokyo Dome, a stage so big that even Shohei Ohtani felt nervous
Shohei Ohtani tips his batting helmet during the opening game of the MLB season between the Dodgers and Cubs on Tuesday at Tokyo Dome
Assassin’s Creed Shadows puts samurai style over substance
Releasing on March 20, Assassin's Creed Shadows excels in atmosphere and open-world gameplay but falls short of narrative expectations.
At Ventinove, Tuscan specialties taken to new heights
Tucked away behind the historic Tsuchida sake brewery, Ventinove's location and sleek, angular architecture make for impressive destination dining.
Private clubs quietly open in Tokyo for free-spending Chinese businesspeople
Sources say a hui suo — a private club, which in Japan caters mainly to Chinese businesspeople — will soon open on the upper floors of the Moutai Building in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
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.

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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