I like Tokyo Tower. I will get used to the Tokyo Sky Tree (public opening due May 22), but for now I feel more for the familiar graceful lines and the more humane proportions of the older tower. It is an architectural icon, and ...

Regarding the Feb. 10 Kyodo article “Iwakuni housing land sale in doubt“: Does the Japanese government have no honor? Is its word no good? First we had the interminable squabbles over moving the bulk of the 3rd Marine Division from Okinawa to Guam, and ...

If you ever wonder why Tokyoites are always sleeping on the train, a report at the 6th World Congress of the World Sleep Federation explains why: They’re not sleeping enough at home. Tokyo workers average 36 minutes less sleep every night than New Yorkers ...

“We are back in a danger zone,” says a top economist at the International Monetary Fund. Though an understatement, it captures the central paradox of this year’s annual meeting of the International monetary Fund and World Bank. Everyone is alarmed at the swift deterioration ...

Few things are as galling as being right too soon. Back in 1970, dissident Soviet historian Andrei Amalrik wrote a book boldly called “Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?” He predicted that it would not, which greatly annoyed the Communist regime. He was ...

Despite their long-established relations, at least on the official level, Egypt-Israeli affairs have never faced fatal threats as they do in 2011. Since signing their peace treaty in 1979 under the full support of the United States, Egypt-Israeli official relations have resisted all major ...

Hitherto unknown and self-styled “loach” Yoshihiko Noda must learn to swim in an ocean of problems as Japan’s new prime minister of the year. He has more than a plateful of domestic issues, but he should also realize, as his predecessors forgot, that Japan ...

Earthquakes rattle our psyches as well as our structures. We Californians can crack jokes about jumpy East Coast types, but the truth is, our blood pressure also rises precipitously when the Earth suddenly springs to life, without so much as a warning. Events such ...

August 3, 2011, will be remembered as a historic day in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak was put on public trial, together with his two sons and his ex-interior minister, General Habib el-Adly. The repercussions for Egypt, indeed for the entire Arab world, will ...

Economists like to talk about thresholds that, if crossed, spell trouble. Usually there is an element of truth in what they say, but the public often overreacts to such talk. Consider, for example, the debt-to-GDP ratio, much in the news nowadays in Europe and ...

A common sight seen throughout Japan these days are signs that read Ganbaro Nippon (translated “Don’t give up Japan”). It has become the battle cry among Japanese for dealing with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake-triggered disasters. In a country united by shared ...