A thatched-roof farmhouse together with the deep red-orange color of a ripe persimmon tree is an archetypal scene of late autumn in Japan. Such a view makes our country so beautiful and has a unique power of healing with a nostalgic feeling. I have ...
The American voters have spoken. Professionalism, dignity and respect are no longer valued. Instead of electing a president who stands as a moral leader, Americans elected an unqualified, childish man who uses nicknames and lies to attack those who oppose him. As an American ...
Electing Donald Trump might have been a gamble. He could potentially be one of the most controversial presidents in the history of the United States, but there have been presidents in the past, most notably Bill Clinton, who have been equally questionable. With the ...
Finally, the curtain has drawn on Donald Trump’s vaudevillian presidential run and, after nearly 600 days, the lights went down with a shocking twist: victory. While his detractors’ immediate shock will likely prevent them from having 20/20 hindsight, the Trump troupe’s success shows that ...
Is it existential denial or simple rejection of marines that is at issue in Okinawa? While Okinawa demands that the U.S. Marine Corps be withdrawn from the prefecture completely, the central government argues against it by saying military matters should be considered integrally as ...
Overfishing is a serious problem around the world. All major countries are responsible for the current state of fish decline, but Japan is the leader in consumption of many fish taken. A staggering 97 percent of the Pacific bluefin tuna population has been lost ...
I was very much interested in “Anthem refuseniks, and ancient legends” by Hiroaki Sato in the Oct. 23 edition. And I quite agreed with him. For a long time I was one of the Japanese who apologized for what prewar Japan did in China, ...
I was saddened to read of the suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, driven to depression by the culture of overwork, bullying and harassment at the Dentsu Inc. advertising agency. That a young, intelligent woman should be made so miserable that she would take her own ...
Frankly it is time for a backup plan. Even if Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States, as appears likely, she is not going to move on this for a year or two and it is extremely difficult to predict what she ...
Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize was a surprise, not because he didn’t fully deserve the honor but because he did and because the Swedish awards committee fully understood this. Dylan’s Nobel should remind us of Yasunari Kawabata, who won the literature prize in 1968. How ...
As the campaigning for the next American president reaches its climax, it resembles more a soap opera than a serious political occasion to elect the most powerful individual on the planet. For Donald Trump, it seems that the only aim has been to further ...
If we can see past the United States presidential campaign’s diversionary mudslinging and charisma (or lack thereof) we realize we all just want to be safe, and that starts with strength in our leadership. When feeling unsafe, it’s so easy to fearfully react with ...
