Search - opinion

 
 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 22, 2013

Japan's 'helplessness' crisis

The biggest crisis in Japan's democracy today is that people know the prime minister is telling lies — intentionally or not — but they've given up even imagining alternative ways of politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2013

Far from declining, America is on the rise again

In the 1970s and late '80s, expectations of America's waning power were followed by periods of geopolitical resurgence. There's every reason to believe that cycle is recurring today.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

Nuclear arms wake-up call

Nuclear policymaking in Asia, as elsewhere, is trapped in the Cold War mindset in which too much reliance is placed on the utility of nuclear deterrence and not enough on the risks.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2013

Improving disaster responses

Although it was known early on that a powerful typhoon would strike Tokyo's Izu-Oshima Island, disaster plans stalled and the storm left 49 people dead or missing.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 19, 2013

Top-two primary systems could counter American extremist tendencies

The latest game of political chicken that drove Washington to a government shutdown and the very edge of the debt ceiling gave new life to the omnipresent complaint of elder statesmen and centrist wise guys: If only congressional districts weren't so gerrymandered in the decennial redistricting process,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2013

Civilizing academia's marketplace of ideas

History professor Niall Ferguson goes after liberal economist Paul Krugman, calling him the intellectual equivalent of a robber baron for the way he 'abuses his power' in the blogosphere.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2013

Missing the light at 'Roppongi Crossing'

I've always thought that the "Roppongi Crossing" exhibitions try too hard. They take themselves too seriously and usually end up missing the point. Held every three years at the Mori Art Museum, the shows bring together heavily curated selections of contemporary art in an attempt to take the artistic...
WORLD
Oct 16, 2013

U.S. spy court lists changes it forces in surveillance requests

A secret surveillance court that has been criticized for approving the vast majority of the U.S. government's applications to spy on suspected terrorists and other targets reported Tuesday that the government had revamped roughly one-fourth of its requests in the face of court questions and demands....
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 13, 2013

Abe faces tall order in extra Diet session

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get 53 days to pass a host of critical economic and defense bills when the extraordinary Diet session opens this week.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013

Keep the government out of the Redskins' name

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should get out of the business of determining what is and isn't offensive. There is no hope of settling on a precise standard.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

U.S. role in aiding Pinochet

To bomb or not to bomb? That is the question that has been exercising self-proclaimed liberal interventionists over the past two decades, from Bosnia to Syria. The argument that divides public opinion across the Western world is how far military means can be used to punish dictators.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 11, 2013

Camera Grandma's photos document Gifu village's demise

Izu Photo Museum in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, is exhibiting the work of late amateur photographer Tazuko Masuyama on the Tokuyama Dam in Gifu Prefecture, where a small village vanished under the waters of a reservoir decades ago.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 11, 2013

Social polarization dated back to Stone Age

Social polarization wasn't invented yesterday. Ask the scientists studying the bones of prehistoric Europeans. Hundreds of skeletal remains, many from a newly discovered cave in Germany, have produced a startling reminder of the power of social boundaries.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2013

Don't sell out Japan in TPP talks

The Abe administration's apparent rush to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks before yearend is disturbing given the lack of clarity so far on what Japan may be agreeing to.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2013

Tea party embraces a proven loser

Tea party-affiliated Republicans in the U.S. House are gearing up again, this time on a grander scale, to threaten action that will end up helping the other side.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2013

Death of a Vietnamese patriot: Vo Nguyen Giap

Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese teacher and journalist whose ragtag communist insurgency went on to defeat the the world's two most powerful armies, is dead at 102.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 6, 2013

Female novelist says pregnant women should quit work

The plight of Japan's working women is a subject that often pops up in the media. Female politicians and company executives voice the opinion that it would be good to harness the power of women in Japan, and that the garasu no tenjō (ガラスの天井, glass ceiling) needs to be smashed. But meanwhile,...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 6, 2013

Abe should consult father of economics for sage advice on sales tax

Three guesses on who said the following.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Oct 6, 2013

Hearing on the tax rise

An intensive meeting began on the 26th at the prime minister's office to examine economic and financial future trends. It will hear from 60 people composed of delegates from various fields, including economic specialists and experts, as to the raising of the consumption tax by the Abe administraion.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 5, 2013

Abe promotes secrecy, sidelining transparency and open government

Norika Fujiwara, a TV celebrity who serves as goodwill ambassador for the Japanese Red Cross, recently caused a media sensation when she came out against the government's proposed secrecy legislation, saying it would adversely affect citizens.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2013

Law school and bar exam reform

A government panel reviewing Japan's legal system seeks reform of the bar exam and the law schools established in the 2000s in order to improve the quality and availability of legal services.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

Rights to our body after death

I usually enjoy Ted Rall's opinion essays, but I didn't fancy his Sept. 27 article "Mandatory organ donation." Even though he writes as he usually does, provocatively and tongue in cheek, there are serious people among us who seriously propose this dystopian stupidity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 1, 2013

11 pieces of not-so-conventional wisdom on Obamacare

As we approach the Great Unveiling of Obamacare, Americans are going to see a lot of these talking points repeated as if they're facts. Most of the talking points are not dead wrong — they could be true. But they're considerably more uncertain than most pundits seem to think.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat