Tag - east

 
 

EAST

COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2014
East Asia should build resilience through disaster-relief cooperation
The president of Soka Gakkai International urges Japan, China and South Korea to take the initiative in building a model of cooperation that will serve to mutually strengthen regional resilience to extreme-weather events and other disasters.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 6, 2014
Kawasaki commemorates those lost on 3/11
Toro Nagashi, or "lantern floating" is a traditional custom involving the release of candlelit paper lanterns into a river to symbolize the guiding of the souls of the deceased toward peace.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2014
Europe's Mideast mission: neutral mediation
America's gradual withdrawal from the Middle East puts increasing pressure on Europeans to help foster peace in the region. Their starting point in states like Syria and Iraq is not to take sides.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2014
JR East train derails near Kawasaki
An out-of-service train derailed early Sunday on the Keihin Tohoku Line near JR Kawasaki Station after hitting a maintenance car, slightly injuring the motorman and conductor.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2014
Legacy of carnage and ruin
This is probably, but not certainly, the year that sees the end to the United States' three-decades-long effort to establish permanent American strategic bases in the Muslim Middle East and in Muslim Asia.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2014
Tsunami-hit shop has salty sweets
A confectioner whose shop was destroyed by tsunami from the March 2011 mega-quake off Tohoku is targeting the Valentine's Day market with a chocolate flavored by sea salt from the damaged area.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2014
John Kerry: a 'magnificent' U.S. secretary of state
The indefatigable U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been astoundingly discreet as a Mideast peace broker. Not a hint of what has been said in private has leaked into the public domain, yet there is almost no hope of a real peace deal.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2014
3/11 study stresses liquefaction risk
Soil liquefaction in the March 2011 earthquake was more widespread than previously thought and not restricted to areas of reclaimed land, disaster risk research shows.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 1, 2014
Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival
The title of "Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival" refers to an old Japanese proverb about making the best of a bad situation or transforming crisis into opportunity. Japan is no stranger to crisis, or to monumental "bending," but will the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 serve...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2014
Three more bad omens on Iran nuclear talks
As we get closer to the main negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, it's hard to find an auspicious sign in Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's recent statement that under no circumstances would Iran agree to destroy any of its centrifuges.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2014
Virginia textbooks to use Sea of Japan, East Sea
The Virginia Senate passed a bill Thursday that will require future school textbooks to carry both names used by the Japanese and South Korean governments for the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2014
Let Iraq, Afghan regimes look after themselves
What more than a decade ago was believed by Americans to be the omnipotence of the U.S. in the Middle East and Central Asia is today being replaced by a fear that the U.S. is responsible for why everything seems to be going wrong.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2014
The need for a peace narrative in the Middle East
A physician-writer wonders why a common narrative of shared commercial and cultural interests cannot be developed in the Mideast like the one that Jewish and Arab business owners had in his hometown in northern Argentina a half-century ago.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2014
Ambassador frets over Virginia's incursion into Sea of Japan naming row
Japan's ambassador to the United States expressed concern Thursday about legislation pending in Virginia that would require school books to use "East Sea" as well as "Sea of Japan" to name the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 4, 2014
Back and forward: Asia in 2013; predictions for 2014
Crystal-ball gazing is a notoriously inexact science, so before getting to that, let's lessen the potential exposure to ridicule by starting with a roundup of the last 12 months' key trends and events in Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013
A terrible year for Syria and Egypt
Even with the most optimistic assessments, the Syrian conflict is unlikely to be settled in 2014. As for Egypt, nearly 20,000 people have been sentenced or are now facing trials for belonging to or supporting the 'wrong' political camp.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2013
Bullet train bulldozes car in Yamagata, killing driver
A bullet train from Tokyo hit a car Sunday at a crossing in Takahata, Yamagata Prefecture, killing its female driver, the police said.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2013
U.S. state to debate Sea of Japan vs. East Sea dispute
The Virginia Legislature will open debate next month on three bills related to the Japan-South Korea dispute over the name of the body of water between the two nations, a state senator said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013
'Frenemies' in the Mideast
The recent interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 countries, led by the U.S., has provoked unprecedented criticism of U.S. policy from two of its strongest Mideast allies: Israel and Saudi Arabia.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 20, 2013
LDP wants Japan-China gas field issue taken to international courts
The Liberal Democratic Party proposes that the issue of China potentially deciding to develop gas fields in contested waters be taken to international tribunals.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals