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April 28, 2024
 

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Alan Goodall
For Alan Goodall's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2004
Howard, Latham doff gloves
SYDNEY -- Australians had hardly stopped cheering their Olympic champions in Athens -- the highest medal winners in the world on a national per capita basis -- before a general election was announced and the media again went wild.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2004
Trade wrangle lifts Latham
SYDNEY -- Sick, sick, sick. That's the only way to describe Australia's belated acceptance of a free-trade agreement with the United States. And if Canberra later gets indigestion from biting off more than it can chew in the deal, don't expect American drug companies to come to the rescue.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2004
Labor threatens golden FTA
SYDNEY -- Ah, such dilemmas in power politics. At last, after years of both sides giving concessions, Australia has gotten America to agree to a free trade agreement. And what does the Australian Labor Party do? Threaten to kill it before birth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2004
Australians sense vulnerability
SYDNEY -- How safe is sleepy Australia from terror within? Very unsafe, it seems, from the belated jailing of the first person convicted under Canberra's new antiterror laws. Moreover, if it takes four years after Australian police were warned about him to catch this convert to Islam and would-be bomber, how do we guarantee public safety in the future?
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2004
Labor is game but Howard forges on
SYDNEY -- It is fitting that an Australia-U.S. free-trade agreement should be signed the day Prime Minister John Howard celebrated 30 years in Federal Parliament. Both events mark historic steps in Australian politics and in a firm alliance with the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2004
Sugar dispute sours Australian politics
SYDNEY -- Who could have guessed that sugar would sour Australian politics? That's just what is happening as the Howard government gears up for its toughest national election yet.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2004
Collins affair rocks Australia
SYDNEY -- Punch-drunk is how one Canberra insider describes the current state of Australia's security intelligence services. Never before in their roller-coaster history have the government's spying and spy-catching bodies been held in such public disrepute.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2004
Australia awakening to threat
SYDNEY -- A test on how well Australians can cope with an increasingly expected Islamic terrorist attack showed last week how little we have learned from New York, Bali and Madrid.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2004
No sugar, but FTA still sweet
SYDNEY -- The cheering has died. Hardheaded businessmen are taking a second look. Suddenly the newly agreed Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement is looking distinctly one-sided -- and not in Australia's favor.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2004
Reliving the romance of nation-building
SYDNEY -- So you think your one-hour-plus commute into Tokyo each morning is agony! Pity passengers on Australia's newest train trip -- two days and two nights. And paying $12,000 for the privilege.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2003
Canberra's silly season of politics
SYDNEY -- Midsummer madness is already upon us. Australians can always tell when the silly season strikes by the antics of Canberra politicians. This time it's come early -- and they're playing their games with comic vengeance.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2003
Australia basks in afterglow of two high-powered visits
SYDNEY -- The world's two most powerful leaders stopped by in Canberra the other day. It was a neighborly visit, all smiles and trade deals. They're home in Washington and Beijing now, leaving behind the biggest bonanza for Australia since Japan came calling a generation or so ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2003
'Hansonism' alive and well
SYDNEY -- In Asia, her name smelled of White Australia. In Australia, she stirred up prejudice and division. More by accident than design, she got elected to Parliament. Today she languishes in prison.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2003
Aussies discover cost of being Big Brother
SYDNEY -- No good deed goes unpunished, says the cynic. And that's the way it's looking for Australia's efforts to bring peace and stability to the South Pacific.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2003
Howard aims for leading regional role
SYDNEY -- A weeklong diplomatic flourish through East Asia behind him, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has no time to pause for breath before the next push into Australia's newfound activism in regional security, the South Pacific's most chaotic young nation, the Solomon Islands.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2003
Australia takes on role as sheriff of the South Seas
SYDNEY -- South Pacific island states, led by Australia and New Zealand, are gearing up for an historic intervention in the internal affairs of one their distressed members, Solomon Islands. An armed "invasion" should land within weeks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2003
Hollingworth affair can frazzle Australia's royal links
SYDNEY -- Sex, religion, politics -- what an explosive combination to hit Australia! And just as everyone is welcoming home troops from the Iraq war and the economy is looking good.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2003
Coalition mates 'George and John' savor diplomatic bonhomie
SYDNEY -- Two good friends, George W. Bush and John Howard, were chatting as they walked the American president's Scottish terrier, named Barney, around the "Texas White House." Suddenly Bush said: "You know, John, you should get yourself a dog."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2003
Energy deal will fuel East Timor's growth
SYDNEY -- Southeast Asia's newest and poorest nation has done an oil deal that should bankroll its way to real independence.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2003
As U.N. dithers, Australian divide grows
SYDNEY -- A United Nations resolution of the Iraq crisis cannot come too soon for Australia. Each day of delay gnaws at the easygoing tolerance that marks the Australian lifestyle.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Ukraine is far from doomed
When comparing Ukraine’s military situation in 2024 to Europe’s in 1941, Russia’s defeat seems entirely possible.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

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

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability
Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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