Search - author

 
 
A member of the Self-Defense Forces wipes away sweat as he conducts a search and rescue operation at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 11, 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Boiling Point
Aug 29, 2024

Can Japan handle a heat wave and natural disaster at the same time?

Recent typhoons and the Nankai Trough megaquake alert have put the spotlight on how the country would deal with a dual disaster.
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (center) and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Georgia, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 29, 2024

VCs want Harris to prioritize abortion rights and pro-tech policies

Of about 800 venture capitalists who signed an open letter of support, 225 detailed their reasons for endorsing Harris and the policies they favor in a survey.
Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, Bangladesh's army chief, arrives at Dhaka International Airport to receive Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Aug. 8 to lead the country's interim government.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 29, 2024

Will Bangladesh go the way of Pakistan?

The Islamist resurgence poses a serious law-and-order challenge in Bangladesh, as it has long done in Pakistan.
A protestor hold what they called a Stand up to Racism rally in Liverpool, England, on Aug 3. Savvy anti-populists should concentrate their rhetorical fire on populist leaders, rather than on their supporters.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2024

The counteroffensive against populism

One lesson from the past few months might sound like a truism: All parties that value democracy must unite to face down anti-democratic threats.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito (center) attends a session before a prefectural assembly investigative panel on Friday in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 30, 2024

Hyogo governor sidesteps accusations of workplace bullying

In the wake of the deaths of two prefectural officials, Gov. Motohiko Saito told an investigative panel that he may have been a "strict boss."
A protester against the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, near the French Embassy in Moscow on Aug. 25
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2024

Telegram’s hands-off approach to content faces a reckoning

The policies of Telegram, a popular social media platform, have allowed abuses to proliferate.
Cars are assembled at a Maruti Suzuki manufacturing plant in Manesar, India, in September 2023. Suzuki is one of the success stories for Japanese manufacturers trying to establish joint ventures in India, having become a household name in the country.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 29, 2024

For Japanese companies in India, local staff are an invaluable resource

The roots of Japanese investment in India go far back, to 1958, when the latter became the first country to receive official development assistance from Japan.
A woman uses her mobile phone while holding a placard reading "STOP 5G" during a protest against 5G technology, in Bucharest, Romania, in 2020.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 4, 2024

No link between mobile phones and brain cancer, WHO-backed study says

The findings even apply to people who make long phone calls or those who have used mobile phones for more than a decade.
Beyond losing the American market, China is losing some of its own manufacturing companies, which are shifting parts of their production to countries such as Vietnam and Mexico to avoid U.S. tariffs.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2024

The rise and coming fall of Chinese manufacturing

Despite China's significant investments in technology, the decline of its manufacturing sector seems inevitable.
Bangladeshi military personnel stand guard at an empty police station in Dhaka on Aug. 9. The U.S. and Western nations have sacrificed democracy for geopolitics, evident in Bangladesh’s chaos and violence after the prime minister was recently forced from power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 6, 2024

The Western world's stealthy assault on democracy

Elections alone — even if competitive — do not guarantee popular empowerment or adherence to constitutional rules, especially when the military holds decisive power.
Ukrainian men carrying a dead Russian soldier at a border crossing near Sudzha, Russia, on Aug. 12. The Ukrainian offensive over the border last month caught Moscow's intelligence agencies by surprise, experts say.
WORLD
Sep 7, 2024

Distracted and divided, Russian security service misses threats

The Ukrainian offensive over the border caught Moscow’s intelligence agencies by surprise, experts say. It wasn’t the first time that has happened during the war.
A small fire department vehicle makes its way to a disaster site during rescue operations following the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2024

Japan to deploy smaller rescue vehicles after lessons learned from Noto quake

Based on the experience, the agency plans to provide disaster response teams with smaller rescue vehicles capable of operating over rough and narrow roads.
Nuns walk past a banner on Saturday erected to welcome Pope Francis ahead of his visit in Dili, East Timor.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 8, 2024

Child abuse scandals hang over pope's East Timor visit

There are calls for the 87-year-old pontiff to speak out on child abuse when he lands in the former Portuguese colony Monday as part of his Asia-Pacific tour.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, accused of workplace bullying, testifies to an investigative panel in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 9, 2024

Nippon Ishin calls on Hyogo governor to resign over bullying claims

Nippon Ishin’s move is expected to be a politically fatal blow for Motohiko Saito, as he had the party’s support when he was elected as an independent.
James Earl Jones in the Broadway revival of "Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York in March 2012. Jones, once a stuttering farm child who became a voice of rolling thunder as one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career that plumbed race relations, Shakespeare’s rhapsodic tragedies and the faceless menace of Darth Vader, died on Monday at his home in Dutchess County, New York. He was 93.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2024

James Earl Jones, actor whose voice could menace or melt, dies at 93

He gave life to characters like Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King,” and went on to collect Tonys, Golden Globes, Emmys and an honorary Oscar.
Job-seekers take a Japanese class at an employment placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 11, 2024

Is Japan an attractive option for foreign talent from Asia?

The uptick in young foreign workers is driven by growing interest in Japanese society and culture and difficulty in finding jobs at home.
Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Will the AI revolution lead to greater prosperity?

Historical examples show that technological advances often lead to significant but gradual changes, sometimes accompanied by social and economic disruptions.
Belmarsh prison in London. The financial, political and social stresses around prisons — and the potential danger they pose to the U.K.'s fledgling Labour government — were vividly exposed by widespread rioting within weeks of Labour taking power.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 12, 2024

Overcrowded prisons force U.K.’s Starmer to take first big gamble

Apart from Scotland, England and Wales lock up a bigger proportion of their combined population than anywhere else in Western Europe.
Hokkaido's cuisine and the culture that underpins it get top billing in Tim Anderson's newest cookbook.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 15, 2024

‘MasterChef U.K.’ winner’s new cookbook puts Hokkaido cuisine on vivid display

Tim Anderson's cookbook covers a lot, but its strength is in presenting Japan’s largest prefecture as a detailed tapestry via straightforward recipes.
World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka attends the World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 12, 2024.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 13, 2024

Report clears WADA in doping case involving Chinese swimmers

The report's author, Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, said he found "WADA has done its work autonomously, independently and professionally."
While short-term disruptions like inflation are easing, the European Union faces long-term challenges including rising security risks, a widening productivity gap with the U.S. and an innovation deficit.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2024

Europe needs a new economic vision

The global economic shocks of the past few years have left Europe particularly vulnerable.
A protester holds a placard as she takes part in a march in Paris on Sunday, the second anniversary of a protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested for allegedly violating the dress code for women in Iran.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024

Iran two years after Mahsa Amini: Persecution and defiance

Even though a U.N. mission in March found that many of the violations in the crackdown amount to crimes against humanity, not one official has been brought to account.
A worker inspects solar panels in Gansu Province, China, in 2013.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 16, 2024

China’s U.S. solar plants undermine domestic push, report says

The report comes amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese investment in U.S.-based manufacturing of the solar tech key to the transition away from fossil fuels.
The first season of 'Shogun' wraps up just prior to the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara, where Tokugawa Ieyasu (Yoshii Toranaga in the TV show) faced off against Ishida Mitsunari (Ishido Kazunari) to determine the new ruler of Japan.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2024

The real-world inspirations behind 'Shogun' are a shinkansen away

“Shogun” has cleaned up at the Emmys, so why not pack a bag and see the real history behind the award-winning show?
Hiroyuki Sanada and the cast and crew of "Shogun" accept the award for best drama series at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 16, 2024

‘Shogun’ and the painstaking art of ‘getting it right’

The Emmys-sweeping period drama went to great lengths to achieve historical accuracy — but that's just one piece of a bigger puzzle.
The lapse of the historic U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, coupled with escalating tariffs and trade restrictions, has exacerbated economic tensions between the two countries and impacted global stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024

Resetting U.S.-China economic relations

To address global challenges, active cooperation between the two economic powers is indispensable.
In China, discussing feminism is apparently forbidden, as seen with the controversy over the maker of Black Myth: Wukong censoring feminist topics during streaming, despite its global success and praise for visuals and gameplay. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2024

Wukong makes equal rights for women a taboo topic

Women are increasingly active consumers in the gaming industry: The growth rate of new female gamers in Asia is nearly double that of males.
Bulk carriers float offshore from Singapore, on Feb. 19.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024

The shadow fleet transporting sanctioned gas for Russia

In the short term it could provide some wartime profit, but Moscow's ultimate goal is to triple LNG exports by 2030.
Chen Hualiang (right), his wife Mao Li (left), and children posing at their home in Shanghai. Chen takes on household tasks many Chinese fathers tend to leave to their wives, bucking a deep-rooted patriarchal tradition and even inspiring a hit TV show.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 19, 2024

China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms

Social norms in China have for centuries dictated that men are the breadwinners, while women take care of the household and children.
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman attends the annual Pride march in Budapest on June 22.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2024

What does America stand for? The world no longer knows.

Pressman argues that Orban is miscalculating by betting on Trump’s return to power and warns of a shift in U.S.-Hungary relations if Kamala Harris becomes president.

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