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May 19, 2024
 

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Jeff Kingston
Jeff Kingston lives in Tokyo, teaches history at Temple University Japan and has been contributing to The Japan Times since 1988. "Contemporary Japan" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) is his most recent book.
For Jeff Kingston's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2014
Richard Katz on the failures of 'Voodoo Abenomics'
Richard Katz, editor-in-chief at The Oriental Economist, is the author of "Voodoo Abenomics: Japan's Failed Comeback Plan," an article published in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Katz went into more detail about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy in a recent email interview...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2014
Bear attack: Up close and way too personal
On Aug. 14, I was attacked by a black bear. It all happened suddenly and in a blur of fur, paws and gnashing teeth as the tsukiwaguma charged out of the trees 10 meters from me in a forested, hilly area in Gunma Prefecture in the Kamimoku district of Minakami.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2014
China's million-migrant march into Africa
The scramble for Africa is intensifying. In early August, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted 50 African leaders, signaling renewed interest in the continent.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 9, 2014
Prelude to WWII: Japan's Nomonhan debacle
There has been considerable media hoopla about the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. The subsequent slaughter of 16 million people was prompted by the assassination of an Austrian archduke and duchess, which activated the system of interlocking alliances intrinsic to the balance of power that...
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2014
Watergate: Forty years since Nixon's resignation
U.S. President Richard Nixon submitted his letter of resignation on Aug. 9, 1974 in order to save himself from the humiliation of being impeached and thrown out of office. Only two other presidents, Andrew Johnson (1867) and Bill Clinton (1998), faced impeachment, but both were acquitted in their Senate...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 26, 2014
Japan's brand is floundering under Abe
Attending the Association of Asian Studies conference in Singapore last week, I realized that Japan's global image is not what it might be. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan is back, but doubts are spreading about the version of Japan he is promoting. It appears that Abe's energetic regional diplomacy...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2014
Modi's upcoming Japan visit signals closer ties
India's newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Tokyo in August to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, signaling closer bilateral ties infused by personal chemistry and shared values. The Namo-Shinzo show will be an elaborately choreographed red-carpet extravaganza to highlight the two...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2014
Abe's constitutional putsch and U.S. security cooperation
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's putsch involves bypassing constitutional procedures to revise the Constitution because he lacks sufficient support to win two-thirds approval in both houses of the Diet and a majority in a national referendum. Instead, Abe achieved by diktat what he could not gain democratically,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 5, 2014
Battle of Saipan: beginning of the end
Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Army lost a pivotal battle over the Pacific island of Saipan, a defeat that put Tokyo within range of high-altitude U.S. B-29 bombing raids that could evade Japan's inadequate air defenses.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 5, 2014
Battle of Saipan: a brutal invasion that claimed 55,000 lives
'It's hard to dig a hole when you're lying on your stomach digging with your chin'
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 5, 2014
Shinjuku self-immolation act protests Abe's democracy hijack
Last week a man set himself on fire next to Shinjuku Station to reportedly protest Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bid to lift constitutional constraints on Japan's military forces. It was a gruesome spectacle captured on numerous smartphone videos and disseminated on social media. Good thing because the...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 28, 2014
Abe's nuclear renaissance ignores stiff opposition
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nuclear renaissance involves downplaying risks, restarting reactors, building new ones, and exporting reactor technology and equipment. A number of hurdles remain before he can rev up the reactors, but the summer of 2014 will probably be Japan's last nuclear-free one for decades...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2014
Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution
By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling...
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 14, 2014
Hadid's curse: Mammoth monstrosity threatens Tokyo's greenbelt
The government needs to pull the plug on the planned new Olympic stadium designed by the celebrity British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 7, 2014
Abe touts immigration, but refugees get shunned
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be considering letting down the drawbridges for 200,000 immigrants a year in order to offset Japan's declining population and boost the economy. At this year's Davos World Economic Forum, Abe stated that Japan needs more foreigners, but accepting enough to make a difference...
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 31, 2014
People's republic of amnesia: exhuming China's Tiananmen trauma
"Lies written in ink can't hide truths written in blood." — Lu Xun, writer
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 24, 2014
Tiananmen Square stokes patriotic education
Last week, I discussed the prelude to the Tiananmen Square uprising and the ruthless government crackdown on June 4, 1989. The slaughter of students and their supporters who gathered in Beijing in the spring of 1989 and occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks made the world recoil in horror and isolated...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014
Dying for democracy: 1980 Gwangju uprising transformed South Korea
As South Korea marks the 34th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, we examine the massacre's influence on national identity and the country's struggle for democracy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 17, 2014
Commemorating national trauma in South Korea
Memorials suggest neighbor has no inclination to forgive or forget colonial rule, a past Japan downplays
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2014
Tiananmen's silver year: from protest to massacre
Twenty-five years ago on June 4 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned on Chinese citizens in a ruthless display of violence, not for the first time, slaughtering many in the streets of Beijing to crush a pro-democracy movement lead by university students.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them
A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan passes bill to introduce 'blue ticket' fines for cyclists
A new system under which bicycle riders pay fines for minor traffic violations to escape criminal punishment is expected to be introduced in Japan no later than 2026.
Japan survey finds 30% of student interns experience sexual harassment
The proportion of recent graduates in Japan who have worked as interns have experienced sexual harassment during their internship was 30.1%, according to a labor ministry survey, up 4.6 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2020.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.

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