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July 19, 2024
 

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COUNTERPOINT

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 22, 2009
Ozawa's sermon hardly befitted the spirit of the mount he chose
On Nov. 10, Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, dropped a bombshell in a speech he made atop one of Japan's most sacred mountains, Mount Koya, in Wakayama Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 15, 2009
Children pay the price when parents put their own feelings first
It is hard enough for a child to be shuffled back and forth for scheduled stays like a puck over the ice that separates divorced parents. Difficulty turns to tragedy when one parent takes it into their head to abduct the child and keep it out of reach of the other.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 15, 2009
Children pay the price when parents put their own feelings first
It is hard enough for a child to be shuffled back and forth for scheduled stays like a puck over the ice that separates divorced parents. Difficulty turns to tragedy when one parent takes it into their head to abduct the child and keep it out of reach of the other.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 8, 2009
Reading between the lines of Hatoyama's far-sighted 'vision thing'
The prime minister's keynote policy address in the Diet affords the nation's leader an opportunity to present their overall thinking to the people — as its name in Japanese, shoshin hyomei (declaration of convictions), would indeed suggest.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 1, 2009
Japan's sea change should signal a new course for the media, too
The relationship between the government and the press in Japan has, during the past 50 years, been a volatile one of give and take: The government gives the press what it wants it to know, and the press gladly takes it. But this has not always been the case.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 25, 2009
'Mao's Last Dancer' inspires with his leaps and honest grounding
I was down in Sydney a few weeks ago and managed to catch the world premiere of Australian director Bruce Beresford's film, "Mao's Last Dancer." It is a beautiful story, beautifully told, in a film that combines the personal and the epic in an era of traumatic change for China.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 18, 2009
Obama exclusive: Soda-pop war looms in Americans' best interests
A couple of days ago I decided to bite the bullet and get in touch with U.S. President Barack Obama. It wasn't him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that gave me the audacity of hope to speak with him. It was an article in the Oct. 8 edition of the International Herald Tribune.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 11, 2009
Musical hails a messenger killed for exposing Japan's dread trinity
When the Special Higher Police, the dreaded Tokko, returned his body to his mother and brother, it was hard to believe their official report that he had died of "a heart attack."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009
Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming
As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009
Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming
As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 27, 2009
Is it better to end in 'beautiful madness' than quicksands of banality?
On the morning of Sept. 18, 1939, a man and a woman walked into a woodland that was then in eastern Poland. They took a cocktail of drugs. When the woman woke up several hours later, the man was dead. He was buried the next day not far away.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 20, 2009
Now suicide has become a political issue, how will Japan address it?
Without a doubt the grimmest statistic coming out of Japan today concerns the number of suicides, which have exceeded 30,000 annually for 11 years in a row — engendering indescribable tragedies for so many families.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 13, 2009
Tanikawa: A master of foreign ways and Japan's most accessible poet
"We must try to explain everything we think to children. . . . Words that are really rooted in the bones of the Japanese people: Those words are accessible."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 6, 2009
Nosaka's 'Dugout' captures war trauma through a child's eyes
No postwar work of Japanese literature expresses the pity and misery of war for children quite like Akiyuki Nosaka's story of a brother and sister left orphaned and homeless, "Hotaru no Haka" ("Grave of the Fireflies"). Published first in 1967, this novella, which won the prestigious Naoki Prize, was...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2009
Japan at a crossroads of government and of its citizens' values
Charles de Gaulle, the magisterial president of France from 1959-69, was inordinately fond of the phrase, "Moi ou le chaos" — "Me or chaos." It was not much of a choice.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2009
Obama hails Lincoln — but is he on course to fail the LBJ way?
"Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. . . . It was the government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible, and the job...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2009
Japanese attacks provoked a seismic 'me-too' shift Down Under
"On 27 December [1941], with his government a mere 12 weeks old, [Prime Minister John] Curtin stood Australian foreign policy on its head by declaring that the country now 'looked to America' for protection from the Japanese. Until this ringing pronouncement, Australia, in truth, barely had a foreign...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 9, 2009
Humor may be universal, but Japan's is largely its smut-free own
Swedes crack jokes about Norwegians, Poles knock the Russians, and though everyone likes a good Italian joke, they're less funny than they used to be thanks to the genuinely grotesque antics of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2009
Comparing and contrasting to plumb the heights of Japanese humor
Of all the absurd things that foreigners have said about the Japanese, the assertion that they are lacking in a sense of humor takes the cake.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2009
Comparing and contrasting to plumb the heights of Japanese humor
Of all the absurd things that foreigners have said about the Japanese, the assertion that they are lacking in a sense of humor takes the cake.
Triple whammy takes Japan bankruptcies to decade high
More Japanese firms have gone bankrupt in the first half of this year due to soaring costs, labor shortages and the end of pandemic-related support.
With eye on China, Japan deepens ties with Pacific islands at Tokyo summit
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Cook Islands' Prime Minister Mark Brown shake hands during 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting on Thursday in Tokyo.
Say cheese: Japanese scientists make robot face 'smile' with living skin
A researcher at the University of Tokyo shows a face mold covered in human skin tissue at its lab.
Rainy season ends in Tokai and Kanto regions
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district on Thursday. The rainy season appears to have ended in the regions of Tokai and Kanto, including Tokyo, on Thursday, according to the Meteorological Agency.
India’s envoy in Japan calls for boosted supply chain and defense cooperation
Indian Ambassador Sibi George says one of his main tasks in his post is to boost Japanese public and private investments the South Asian powerhouse.
After Tokyo Olympic disappointment, Nadeshiko Japan look for redemption
Japan's Hikaru Kitagawa dribbles past a defender during an Olympic qualifying match against North Korea at National Stadium in Tokyo in February.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

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