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Tom Plate

Tom Plate, a veteran American columnist and career journalist, is the Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His many books include the "Giants of Asia" series, of which book four, "Conversations with Ban Ki-Moon: The View from the Top," is the latest.

For Tom Plate's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Oct 7, 2002

Howard vs. Mahathir -- who's correct?

LOS ANGELES -- In the Asia-Pacific reEgion, there is no uniform view on the Iraq issue. Many support the Bush adminisEtration, while hoping that somehow the war clouds will pass. Only a few are speaking up loudly. From Australia, plain-spoken Prime Minister John HowEard is supportive and hopes for the best, while Malaysia's Prime Minister MahaEthir Mohamad, the warning voice of moderate Islam, fears for the worst.

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2002

China keeps its cool, and its national focus

LOS ANGELES -- When U.S. President George W. Bush won the last election, Beijing warmly congratulated the winner. This was remarkable, given his harsh campaign rhetoric, which was anti-China and pro-Taiwan. Yet, China avoided losing its cool and, as we have seen since, pretty much remained focused on pressing domestic priorities. No doubt its leaders figured that the Texan would in time grow up and govern diplomatically -- as did his father.

COMMENTARY

Sep 4, 2002

Asian stereotypes die hard in U.S. national psyche

LOS ANGELES -- One of the best reading experiences in the United States this summer is the thriller "Absolute Rage," certainly a rage among applauding reviewers from Publishers Weekly to the Los Angeles Times. The 14th in a series of crime thrillers, it tells a well-informed tale about America's brutal union politics, a bloody Waco-like showdown in the hills of West Virginia and the tensions and contradictions in the country's system of criminal justice.

COMMENTARY

Aug 14, 2002

Antithesis to rooted hate

HONOLULU -- Contrast the hellish visions of the Mideast, where different peoples seem only to want to kill each other, or South Asia, where Indians and Pakistanis seem rooted in a festering horrid past, with the real-world achievement of a multicultural society like Hawaii.

COMMENTARY

Aug 5, 2002

U.S. needs Powell now more than ever

LOS ANGELES -- The job of U.S. secretary of state requires skating on ice -- sometimes thin -- and dodging diplomatic bullets -- even if they later are found to be blanks. From this standpoint, could the United States do any better than Colin Powell?

COMMENTARY

Jul 5, 2002

No reason to bury 'sunshine'

LOS ANGELES -- Last Saturday's fierce 21-minute naval gun battle between the two Koreas was unfortunate and tragic for several reasons -- not just for the loss of lives on both sides. The deadly duel splashed cold water on South Korea's sudden place in the sun. Its soccer team had just completed its surprisingly successful 2002 World Cup run, and despite ominous predictions of temperamental clashes between Seoul and Tokyo -- not usually the closest of pals -- the two countries' management of the games had proved exemplary.

COMMENTARY

May 29, 2002

Guns alone won't bring victory in America's fight against terrorism

LOS ANGELES -- What do Irish rock group U-2's lead singer Bono and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill have in common with currency-exploiter and philanthropist George Soros? A major obsession: that, in the long run, poverty, deteriorating global public health and declining economic development can prove even more destructive enemies to civilized life than are terrorists.

COMMENTARY

May 23, 2002

U.S. idiosyncrasies on Cuba, free trade

LOS ANGELES -- Undoubtedly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's red-carpet reception in Cuba rubbed President George W. Bush the wrong way.

COMMENTARY

May 17, 2002

Iranians-in-exile mull return of the shah

BEVERLY HILLS, California -- These days the animated chatter in this storied city's sun-splashed cafes and deep-carpeted restaurants is not about the aftermath of 9/11, or the fall of Enron, or even the Middle East imbroglio. It's about the coming revolution in Iran.

COMMENTARY

May 15, 2002

Myanmar moves forward, China takes a step back

LOS ANGELES -- Fleeting images can become perceived realities. For example, images viewed positively by the American public allow U.S. political leaders to unlock foreign-aid funds -- and business leaders to go forward with ambitious foreign-investment schemes. From this perspective, Myanmar, long-spurned by American human rights groups, seems to have advanced one step forward recently, and China, long wooed by U.S. business, looks to have lost a troubling step.

COMMENTARY

May 8, 2002

World Cup could be a step toward peace on peninsula

LOS ANGELES -- Peace on the strategically vital Korean Peninsula still has a long way to go, but we may be getting there, step by halting step.

COMMENTARY

Apr 29, 2002

The virtue of keeping mum on Taiwan

LOS ANGELES -- From Beijing's perspective, the only acceptable U.S. public statement on Taiwan is no statement at all.

COMMENTARY

Aug 12, 2001

Indonesian failure not an option

LOS ANGELES --If Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had but one wish, it might be for the far-off West, especially the United States, to put itself in Australia's shoes for a second. Imagine, if you will, that north of the U.S. hovers not stolid and sensible Canada, which has a population barely a shadow of ours, but instead a sprawling colossus with more than 10 times as many people. Imagine, too, the horror if this northern giant, which had sometimes evidenced hostility toward you, were to come apart, struggling through its early days as a fledgling democracy, and expunge countless waves of refugees toward your borders, plunging the region into geopolitical overload. Now that would be a national-security nightmare.

COMMENTARY

Aug 6, 2001

Powell earns top marks on Asian tour

LOS ANGELES -- Colin Powell's first week in Asia as U.S. secretary of state broke what almost has become an unfortunate tradition. It was a success.

COMMENTARY

Jul 23, 2001

Creating enemies and losing influence

LOS ANGELES — In Moscow and Genoa this past week, the faint outlines of a reactive global containment policy toward America emerged.

COMMENTARY

Jul 2, 2001

A more active Japan would benefit Asia

LOS ANGELES -- Alarm bells will start sounding across Asia in August. That's when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit Tokyo's most famous Shinto shrine, Yasukuni, which honors not only Japan's war dead since the 19th century but also, inconveniently, convicted war criminals, including wartime Premier Hideki Tojo.

COMMENTARY

Jun 25, 2001

Montagnards still paying for Vietnam War

LOS ANGELES -- It's understandable. Now 85, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in his new book "Wilson's Ghost," is urging that America get involved in foreign crises only under the umbrella of multinational efforts. And you would take that view, too, if you had been the boss of the U.S. Defense Department under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and had led America into its Vietnam nightmare.

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2001

Hawkish China policy serves U.S. ill

LOS ANGELES -- The foreign-policy portfolio of the Bush administration is obviously a work in progress, but its increasing sourness toward China is beginning to alarm many Americans. Last week's Defense Department decision to back away from meetings and contacts between the Chinese and American militaries came across as provocative. And the tit-for-tat cancellation of future U.S. ships' calls to Hong Kong, after Beijing itself spiked the latest one, seemed only to add to the momentum of a relationship headed downhill already. Where will this deterioration stop, and how vicious will the chilly and risky volleying get?

COMMENTARY

Jun 5, 2001

America's diplomatic passage to India

LOS ANGELES -- While there was scarcely any American media coverage of the visit of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to India last month, the Bush administration's gesture, as well as the prior one made by Clinton, was intended to be profoundly significant. The Clinton state visit represented the inauguration of an American attempt to normalize relations with India after the diplomatic deep freeze that set in after New Delhi's May 1998 surprise nuclear test. India reciprocated with a return of visit by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee six months later.

COMMENTARY

May 28, 2001

Junichiro Koizumi: Can stardom become success?

LOS ANGELES -- Quality political leadership is so frequently conspicuous by its absence that even the slightest whiff of its sudden presence can electrify a political region. Is Japan finally experiencing the dynamic quality leadership it deserves? That's the question intriguing Asia.

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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