Jul 3, 2012

Show restraint over Senkaku Islands

As the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties on between Japan and China on Sept. 29, 1972, draws near, friction between the two neighboring countries is increasing over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Both sides must refrain from taking ...

Jul 1, 2012

Asia richer than ever — or is it?

Asian millionaires have surpassed North American millionaires for the first time ever, according to a study by Capgemini consultancy and the Royal Bank of Canada. The Asia-Pacific region now has 3.37 million so-called high-net-worth individuals, calculated in terms of the number of people with ...

Jun 30, 2012

North Korea needs a new direction

A half year has passed since the Dec. 17, 2011, death of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The “military first” policy is his legacy. North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, his youngest son, should pursue the path of giving priority to ...

Jun 18, 2012

Dousing the Flame

Reports of a new computer virus, dubbed “Flame,” have raised alarms about a new era of cyber threats. While countries are increasingly reliant on cyberspace for their very survival — it is now part of the social, economic and security infrastructure — it remains ...

Jun 15, 2012

Direct yen-yuan trade

On June 1, new currency markets opened in Tokyo and Shanghai for direct trading between the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. The direct trading of the two currencies has been motivated largely by the instability of the main currencies such as the U.S. ...

Jun 13, 2012

Signs of a slowdown in China

The People’s Bank of China on June 7 lowered banks’ one-year lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent and one-year deposit rate by the same margin to 3.25 percent — the first full-scale monetary easing by China since a similar move ...

Jun 9, 2012

Disappointing Baghdad talks

The most recent round of nuclear negotiations with Iran began with optimism. The previous round of talks appeared to make headway and there was hope that a breakthrough could be achieved when the seven parties — the five permanent members of the United Nations ...

Jun 5, 2012

The Houla massacre

The situation in Syria continues to worsen. While accurate information is difficult to acquire, all indications are that the country hovers on the brink of a civil war. The most recent atrocity is a massacre in the town of Houla that left at least ...