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July 19, 2024
 

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COUNTERPOINT

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 16, 2013
Nationalism, Tibetans and Uighurs in today's China
Nationalism arouses solidarity and generates identity politics that threaten ethnic and religious minorities. Defining the "we" also defines the "they" — and the latter is inexorably marginalized.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 9, 2013
Pan-Asian dreams: The Greater East Asia Conference
Seventy years ago, on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6, 1943, Japan hosted a meeting of Asian leaders in Tokyo, hub of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere — the name it gave its wartime empire under the guise of Pan-Asian liberation.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 2, 2013
Japan and Korea slide down gender-index ranking
The Swiss-based nonprofit World Economic Forum recently released its Gender Gap Report for 2013, in which Japan ranked 105 out of 136 countries — a plunge of 25 places from its ranking when the report was inaugurated in 2006. South Korea rates even worse, coming in at 111 in 2013, down from 92nd...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 26, 2013
Branding Japan: Not always onward and upward
Branding is not an exact science. Take for example the recent campaign by Fukushima Industries to launch a new consumer-friendly corporate mascot.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 19, 2013
Abe ought to show a red card to hate speech now
Last week I ended this column by noting that Myanmar (also known as Burma) can ill afford bigotry and intolerance. Neither can Japan. The outpouring here of hate speech targeting ethnic Korean residents is a disturbing development even if it is not representative. And certainly, it is encouraging that...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 12, 2013
Myanmar takes helm of ASEAN while sectarian violence persists
Myanmar last week took the baton from the Sultan of Brunei, assuming the rotating chair in 2014 of Asia's most important regional organization, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
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.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 28, 2013
Japan and Korea: Reconciliation and redress for wrongs remain elusive
On the eve of the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2020 Summer Games to Tokyo, Seoul's abrupt import ban on all fisheries products from Fukushima and seven other Japanese prefectures was clearly a response to public concerns about radiation spewing into the ocean.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 21, 2013
Rokkasho: nuclear white elephant or yen sucking black hole?
As one approaches Rokkasho, a small town of 11,000 on the remote, windswept coast of Aomori Prefecture at the very north of Japan's main island, Honshu, one sees dozens of power-generating windmills spinning away. Aside from this ambitious renewable energy project, Rokkasho also is the site for a national...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 14, 2013
National humiliation: China still vanquishing, suppressing ghosts of past
Sept. 18 is unofficially National Humiliation Day in China, a day when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) commemorates Japanese aggression and atrocities. It is a time for wallowing in the national obsession with a century of indignities inflicted on a weak China until the CCP came to power in 1949. But...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 7, 2013
Don't worry: Team Abe is tackling the nuclear crisis at Fukushima
Even if the public remains overwhelmingly skeptical about nuclear safety in general, and anxious in particular about the impact of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on the environment, there is reassuring news that we can now rest easy.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 31, 2013
Tepco's follies, reactor restarts and awkward plutonium stockpiles
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) is deservedly slagged as the Keystone Cops of nuclear power, and conjures up images of Homer Simpson, the iconic nuclear safety inspector in "The Simpsons." Perhaps it ought to adopt as its mascot Ocnus, the Greek god who personifies futility.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 24, 2013
Gay marriage in Japan? Only over the reactionary LDP's cadaver
Tokyo Disneyland is an odd place to make a political statement, but the theme park now hosts same-sex wedding ceremonies.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 17, 2013
Japan's China imperative: overcoming problems, repairing relations
There is speculation that quiet diplomacy may lead to a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China's President Xi Jinping. Certainly there are good reasons to expect no meeting of minds on some crucial issues that divide the two nations, but these need not prevent their leaders sitting down together...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 10, 2013
Aso's Nazi gaffe tarnishes Abe's agenda for constitutional revision
The other night at my local sushi bar conversation turned to Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso's comments about constitutional revision — specifically, his suggestion there is something to be learned from the way the Nazis revised the Weimar Constitution in 1933.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 3, 2013
Where's the love? Japanese feel unhappy, unloved and pessimistic
The results of a Pew Opinion survey released in July 2013 found that the public mood in Japan is improving but remains "mostly one of dissatisfaction." However, that dissatisfaction is 10 percent lower than the level registered in 2007 during Shinzo Abe's first spell as premier.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 27, 2013
Yasukuni Shrine: ground zero for unrepentant wartime remembrance
There is considerable speculation about whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to visit Yasukuni Shrine in mid-August. This is an especially sensitive time of the year as it coincides both with the annual Bon festival, when people honor their ancestors, and the anniversary of Japan's surrender in...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 20, 2013
Abe-power: Can premier deliver on promises and growth strategy?
Once the dust settles tonight, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party/New Komeito coalition will be in control of both houses of the Diet, promising an end to political gridlock.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 13, 2013
Kono Statement: Hit-and-run Abe vandalizes 20th anniversary
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pursuing dead-end diplomacy in East Asia at precisely a time when Japan most needs to shore up relations with neighbors so as to position itself well for China's ongoing rise. Alas, he doesn't grasp that regional reconciliation over history should be his calling card, not...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 6, 2013
Crime pays: Vampire squids wriggle free in wink-and-nod world
It seems the financial world lurches from scandal to scandal as if coated with Teflon, shrugging off demands for accountability.
Yen rally shakes markets, sending dollar to weakest level since May
The yen rose to the ¥155 range against the dollar, the highest in almost two months, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Cutting ties with JCP not easy for CDP despite Renho's defeat
When Renho (center) announced her candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election on May 27, the head of the Japanese Communist Party's secretariat, Akira Koike (far left), was also in attendance.
Trump's VP pick signals stronger focus on China
Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to his vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
Japan’s minimum wage might not budge much if corporate fears prevail
Unionists hold a rally in Tokyo in April. Households' real cash earnings have been falling year on year for more than two years, with the weakening of the yen making the situation only more difficult as prices of imported goods increase rapidly.
New uniforms to help protect athletes against secret photography
Members of Japan's women's Tokyo 2020 Olympic volleyball team. Along with table tennis and hockey, volleyball is set to be one of the sports at the 2024 Paris Games in which Japan's female players will don new uniforms that help protect them against secret photography while they compete.
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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