Search - author

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2016

Why the world must live with a nuclear North Korea

It is inconceivable that Kim Jong Un would give up the weapon that places his nation in the exclusive nuclear club, and sanctions won't force him to do so.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 14, 2016

Why 3/11 didn't change Japan

The Fukushima crisis should have been a catalyst for change; instead it sustained policy inertia.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 13, 2016

Making an impression in Japan: a hanko primer

Everything you wanted to know about chops, from cheapo ¥100-shop seals to the Privy Seal of Japan, which is wielded by the Emperor and hewn from pure gold.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 13, 2016

Saga of lost Rikuzentakata tsunami boat forges pan-Pacific friendship

A new children's book recounts events following the 3/11 disasters that have led to a forging of bonds and cross-cultural exchange between young people in Tohoku and the U.S. West Coast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 12, 2016

'Rough Living' captures the struggles of being a woman in the Meiji Era

Tokuda Shusei's "Rough Living," a translation of his 1915 novel "Arakure," explores lives of working-class people of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and the rupturing social transformations taking place in Japan at the time.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2016

Russia missed its chance to be more like America

Russians have shown a clear preference for a powerful state that interferes with the workings of a free market.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2016

Hillary: The best PR can't sell a terrible product

Despite a multitude of hurdles, Bernie Sanders is doing surprisingly well in the U.S. Democratic Party presidential primaries.
WORLD / Society
Mar 11, 2016

Gender stereotypes stubbornly unchanged over 30 years, U.S. study says

Stereotypes about men and women in the United States are largely unchanged from 30 years ago, a new study shows, in findings that researchers said could be reflected in this year's presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2016

Time to redraw the map of the Middle East

The Middle East map should to redrawn to reflect current ethnic, tribal, religious and political realities.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 9, 2016

LDP ponders bid by inspirational sports writer in Upper House election

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering fielding famed sport journalist and educator Hirotada Ototake, who was born without limbs due to a congenital disorder, as a candidate for an Upper House election this summer, reports said Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 9, 2016

Kim says North Korea has mastered nuclear warhead minaturization

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has asserted for the first time that Pyongyang can field nuclear-tipped missiles, state media reported Wednesday. A North Korean newspaper printed photographs of him meeting staff at a missile facility with a spherical silver object on a stand that appeared to be a mock-up...
WORLD / Politics
Mar 9, 2016

Pressed by critics, Trump says he'll pick foreign policy team 'in due time'

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday he did not yet have a foreign policy team and dismissed criticism that his harsh rhetoric on immigration and threats to gut global trade deals would damage America's standing on the world stage.
JAPAN / REVISITING 3/11
Mar 8, 2016

Five years on, joint disaster training a legacy of U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi

In the wake of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, a range of U.S. troops and civilian rescue workers joined the relief effort. The scale of the disaster led to unprecedented logistical challenges on both sides and calls for more joint training specifically for disaster relief.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2016

It's weird science against cancer

Tackling cancer requires unconventional ideals because cancer is an unconventional enemy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2016

It's risky to bash Donald Trump on talk radio

Talk radio, a bastion of the right wing in the U.S., has gone easy on Donald Trump throughout the campaign.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 5, 2016

Ryu Murakami turns on another light in Tokyo's lurid basement

This collection of short stories arrived with a warning from the publisher: "Graphic sexual content." Perhaps it was worried that reviewers would blush to the tips of their toes upon reading it. However, anyone who has encountered Murakami's excruciating 1992 sadomasochistic film "Topazu" ("Tokyo Decadence")...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 5, 2016

'Requiem' chronicles the thoughts of a Japanese girl in the ashes of World War II

Eavesdropping on a dying girl's inner monologue makes for a painful but powerful reading experience in this classic of Japanese young adult literature.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 5, 2016

Explaining the unexplainable to children with 'The Extraordinary Voyage of Kamome'

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. A number of books aimed at children and young adults have appeared in the ensuing years based on those tumultuous events. In "The Extraordinary Voyage of Kamome," a bilingual picture book suitable for children...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2016

Think life is hard now? Look back 100 years

Americans tend to forget the vast improvements that they've made in the past century.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 3, 2016

Ryohei Suzuki beefs up for a kingly role in Mishima-penned play 'The Terrace of the Leper King'

Ryohei Suzuki's body has been put to the test over the past 12 months.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2016

The West has always been keen to divide the Arabs

It has been almost 100 years since colonial powers divided up the Arab world, and they have invested much time, energy, resources and all-out wars to ensure that the arbitrary divisions never truly end.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 1, 2016

Nomadic Whiteside playing well, but remains enigma

Hassan Whiteside has become one of the most remarkable NBA stories of recent years, a virtual outcast who was a second-round draft pick, a regular in the minor league D-League and then expatriate playing in China and Lebanon, and even in an attempt to return to the NBA released by the Memphis Grizzlies....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2016

What the FBI versus Apple flap is really about

The Apple-FBI encryption flap is really all about Edward Snowden and the NSA.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 28, 2016

Canadians gear up to handle any influx of Americans if Trump wins presidency

Americans have said it many times before when eyeing a White House prospect they view as unpalatable: "If that guy is elected president, I'm moving to Canada!"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 27, 2016

Does Tohoku's disaster tourism exploit or educate?

Disaster tourism can be an unsettling descent into voyeurism as visitors ghoulishly gawk at, and photograph, those caught up in catastrophe as if they're at a petting zoo. The concept has prompted widespread condemnation of insensitive tourists and travel companies exploiting disasters as marketing opportunities....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2016

A privileged perspective on WWII in 'My Shanghai, 1942-1946: A Novel'

Partly inspired by the wartime experiences of author Keiko Itoh's mother, "My Shanghai, 1942-1946" is a comfortably old-fashioned epistolary novel told entirely through diary entries. The story begins in January 1942 as London-educated protagonist Eiko Kishimoto arrives in the Shanghai International...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2016

Global crisis: It's the 15th century all over again

The world has been going through these crises at least since the Middle Ages. They usually take a long time to recover from.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2016

Gas from thawing permafrost could add further to global warming, study says

Arctic permafrost that is thawing due to global warming is releasing greenhouse gases, further compounding the problem of climate change, according to a study released on Thursday.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake