Tom Plate - The Japan Times

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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

May 3, 2001

Take the lead, Mr. Koizumi

LOS ANGELES -- Probably the great foreign fear that overhangs the Japanese -- and in some respects is more fearsome than their near-moribund economy -- is the looming dark presence of North Korea.

COMMENTARY

Apr 21, 2001

U.S. must seek three-way balance in Asia

LOS ANGELES -- China is about to get a new U.S. ambassador. But will it get a new U.S. China policy?

COMMENTARY

Mar 29, 2001

Time to act is running out

The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of honor. The French weren't so difficult, either; he just told them (though it wasn't true) that the Americans were insisting that men go first. The Germans were also a snap: the captain yelled, "Women and children first. That's the rule." And they all fell into line. The Americans went along, of course, a second after he asked them if they'd like to be heroes and save the world.

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2001

Two old allies, two visions

LOS ANGELES -- Remember how the senior George Bush, when he was president, admitted to having trouble with "the vision thing." Has that deficiency been passed on to his son?

COMMENTARY

Mar 11, 2001

Regionalism threatens global prosperity

LOS ANGELES -- Not many prominent Americans saw the huge cloud forming over globalization as early as did then-President Bill Clinton. After an address on the subject at last year's World Economic Forum in Davos -- in which he virtually pleaded with well-heeled corporate execs to put themselves in the position of those less heeled -- Clinton told me privately that if America failed to tamp down the insecurities created by trade liberalization, the price might be increasing protectionism and recession.

COMMENTARY

Mar 3, 2001

Two unloved bureaucratic behemoths

LOS ANGELES -- With the free-market Bush administration settling into power, what's to become of those controversial twin pillars of the world economic system, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank? Those two institutions -- both based in Washington, D.C. and sharing reputations for arrogance and secrecy -- are exactly what critics have their eye on when they discuss reforming the "global economic architecture."

COMMENTARY

Feb 21, 2001

Japan-U.S. ties: lost at sea?

LOS ANGELES -- The Japanese people are angry about a lot of things these days, not just their soggy economy. They are angry about the collision of a U.S. submarine with a Japanese fisheries ship off Hawaii. They are angry about their prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, who incredibly continued with a golf game last week even after aides had informed him of the tragedy. And they have been angry for months at Russia for acting in a dangerously petty, if not ugly and treacherous, way over something important to them: the return of the so-called Northern Territories. And to add to Japan's frustration, all these issues are related.

COMMENTARY

Jan 20, 2001

A good pick for key Asian-policy post

Nice guys don't always finish last. Soon after Gen. Colin Powell heard from President-elect George W. Bush that he was indeed to be nominated secretary of state, he picked up the telephone and asked someone he has known for years to join his team as the next assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs -- a difficult but important position. This means that, in the designedly decentralized new Bush administration, Powell will become the archbishop of U.S. foreign policy and nice guy James A. Kelly his vicar for Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 1, 2001

An Asia-Pacific checklist for Bush administration

George W. Bush's greatest foreign policy challenges over the next four years may well originate in the Asia-Pacific, where two-thirds of the world's population reside, and where probably two-thirds of the world's major geopolitical crises fester.

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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