Kevin Rafferty - The Japan Times

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Kevin Rafferty

For Kevin Rafferty's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 1, 2008

Suharto puzzle still in play

HONG KONG — In death, Indonesia's former President Suharto was praised as a great and almost saintly ruler. At Suharto's state funeral Monday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono saluted the casket, one general to another, and declared "His service is an example to us."

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 24, 2007

Christmas letter to Pope Benedict XVI

HONG KONG — Until three years ago, you had a well-earned reputation as the fierce watchdog of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. You were nicknamed "God's Rottweiler."

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 16, 2007

Gored by a political truth

HONG KONG — He still has the same patrician manner — friends would say aloof, others might say pompous. He still carries a mountainous chip on his shoulder, believing that he was robbed of the U.S. presidency seven years ago.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 14, 2007

Shake up top financial clubs

HONG KONG — They trooped out for their five minute photo-op, gray men in gray suits — plus this time one woman, also in a gray suit — and then huddled again for their discussions and finally painted a rosy economic picture of a world of turbulence.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 1, 2007

Not so welcome to Japan any longer

HONG KONG — Japan is still purporting to celebrate "Yokoso Japan" or Welcome to Japan — just as it is preparing to inflict on every foreign visitor measures that are harassing, time-consuming, unnecessary, and would be illegal if done to Japanese citizens in Japan.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 10, 2007

A role for Japan in Myanmar

HONG KONG — If any good is to come from the murder of cameraman Kenji Nagai on the streets of Yangon, it must be that Japan recovers its moral voice. So far there has been a small stirring of conscience and murmurs that aid may be cut as a mark of dissatisfaction with the murderous Myanmarese military regime. This is a start, but is not sufficient.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 2, 2007

China can change Myanmar

HONG KONG — Buddhist monks, the most pacific of dedicated religious people, marched through the streets of Myanmar's main cities Yangon and Mandalay last week in protest against years of hardship, gross mismanagement and corruption inflicted on their long-suffering people.

Japan Times

LIFE / Lifestyle

Dec 5, 2006

There's no need to grit your teeth

It has all the elements of a nightmare. A masked person stands over you wielding a small mirror in one gloved hand and a needle-sharp probe in the other. A drill powerful enough to cut through bone in seconds sits idle on a table beside other implements of torture. You cannot see the masked face clearly because of dazzling lights above you, but your tormentor draws closer, eyes encased in goggles like a creature from outer space.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 20, 2006

Thaksin poses dilemma for Thai leaders

Thaksin Shinawatra, in exile in London, has given notice that he is still alive and very much kicking. Indeed, the deposed leader is playing a devilishly devious and clever, but potentially deadly, game for himself and for Thailand.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 12, 2006

Vatican places state of limbo in limbo

HONG KONG -- Theologians of the Roman Catholic Church are recommending the abolition of a special place that has existed for more than 2,000 years and enriched the world of literature and politics, as well as theology. Pope Benedict XVI himself has given his clear opinion, as an eminent theologian, that he agrees that limbo should be banished.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 25, 2006

Pope showed bias in misguided moment

HONG KONG -- What theological devil tempted Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month to make a byzantine reference to a long-forgotten Christian emperor who, under siege in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Muslim forces, made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad's instruction to spread Islam by fire and sword?

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 4, 2006

An uphill battle for Manmohan Singh

HONG KONG -- When Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, following in the footsteps of Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke from the great gateway of Shah Jehan's Red Fort to celebrate Independence Day, he looked like a tiny, almost insignificant figure, framed by gigantic red sandstone walls, as he looked down on the throng below.

CULTURE / Books

Jul 23, 2006

Taking people out of the boxes

IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE: The Illusion of Destiny, by Amartya Sen. Allen Lane, 2006, 215 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Amartya Sen once had trouble getting a hotel operator to understand the spelling of his family name. So he spelled it out letter by letter in this form: "S for somebody; E for everybody; N for nobody," an interesting play with words relating to the self, personal identity and perception of oneself, which is the focus of this interesting and important book.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 6, 2006

Thaksin best underscores fatal flaws of his kind of rule

HONG KONG -- Thailand's "democracy" is in limbo. Judges of the country's three top courts have decided that April's elections were unconstitutional, and new ones must be held. The Election Commission set October for new elections, but the judges said the commission has no power to set the date and its members must resign, which they have refused to do.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 6, 2006

U.S. is its own worst enemy

HONG KONG -- U.S. congressmen heartily congratulated themselves when -- after their outcry -- Dubai Ports World backed off and decided to relinquish control of the U.S. ports that were included in its takeover of P&O.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 21, 2006

Empire of debt has its limits

HONG KONG -- Recent news about U.S. current-account deficits with the rest of the world gives grim pause for thought from Beijing and Tokyo to London, and especially in Washington, for it shows the United States approaching the financial equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 15, 2006

Infamous English word is just an import

HONG KONG -- Apart from Thatcherism and the creation of the modern game of soccer, some cynics say that the major English contribution to modern international life has been the widespread promulgation of the dreadful "F" word.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2005

INEPT LEADERSHIP CONTINUES

HONG KONG -- A controversial plan to extend democracy in Hong Kong died Dec. 21 when the legislature failed to pass it by a big enough majority. Hopes of true democracy in the special region of China have thus been put into deep freeze, with recriminations reverberating from Hong Kong to Beijing and back.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 7, 2005

Mao was closer to seventy percent bad

An elegant Georgian terrace house in London's Notting Hill Gate, perhaps the most upmarket area for Britain's chattering classes now that Prime Minister Tony Blair and his friends have deserted Islington, may seem an unlikely venue for a counter-revolution against Mao Zedong's revolutionary claims. Yet this is the base for Jung Chang and her husband Jon Halliday's efforts to rewrite and right history.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jun 26, 2005

The Red emperor's new clothes

MAO, THE UNKNOWN STORY, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. Jonathan Cape, 2005, 814 pp., £25 (cloth). It is savagely ironic that just when China is viciously attacking Japan for trying to rewrite its history, here is a book that claims that the whole official history of the revered founding father of Communist China is a myth written to cover up the evil of a monster.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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