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William Pesek
For William Pesek's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2013
New Zealand may have the fix for asset bubbles
As the world's biggest economies search for ways to let the air out of giant asset bubbles, they might find a fix that discourages leverage in tiny New Zealand.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 17, 2013
Japanese might just miss deflation when it's gone
As BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda tries to spur Japan's inflation rate, he faces a graying public that has learned not only to live with deflation but also to enjoy it.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2013
China's Net crackdown shows fear trumps reform
China's new government is threatening jail terms for Web comments deemed defamatory. But by Beijing's definition, 'defamation' could mean anything that any politically connected person doesn't want to see made public.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2013
Sexism, Jagger, Seinfeld color Oz election farce
Australia's current election campaign is proof that former Prime Minister Julia Gillard wasn't dispatched for her performance.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2013
Asia's real problem is boosterism, not Fed policy
Asia has come a long way since 1997. But rapid growth and its unquestioned success in surviving the global meltdown has revived a hubris that policymakers need to own and analyze.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2013
Japan's ¥1,000,000,000,000,000 debt no problem for BOJ chief Kuroda
Haruhiko Kuroda doesn't wear a wizard's hat when he arrives at Bank of Japan headquarters each morning. Once inside, I do wonder if he dons a cloak, waves a magic wand and concocts mysterious potions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2013
Fukushima replaces economy as Abe's legacy issue
orget the economy and attempts to rewrite the Constitution. History will judge Shinzo Abe on what he did, or didn't do, to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 28, 2013
Cheer over Reagan's arrival won't trickle down to most Japanese
The Ronald Reagan moment Japan investors have long fantasized about has finally arrived.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2013
Too early to talk about 'Likonomics' in China
Premier Li Keqiang's plans to overhaul the Chinese economy have hardly earned such a grand moniker as 'Likonomics' yet. Cutthroat politics lie ahead.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 17, 2013
Japan's voters set themselves up for a disappointing result
Japanese voters seem ready to hand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one of the bigger blank checks in memory on Sunday, but what's most noticeable is their silence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2013
Koreans find breaking up with chaebol hard to do
Park Geun-hye has one five-year term to undo her father's legacy in South Korea. Thus far her efforts to build a more creative economy lack teeth as well as creativity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2013
Japan's maverick entrepreneurs offer Abe lessons in growth
There's no shortage of pundits eager to tell Shinzo Abe how to shake up Japan's economy. Instead of looking to academics for advice, though, the prime minister should get into the trenches with some of the nation's more unconventional corporate heads.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2013
Abe's fixations threaten newfound unified approach on North Korea
Just as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatens to go rogue.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 20, 2013
'Abenomics' in a race against clock
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is headed for victory in July's Upper House election, yet the batteries to Abe's revival plan are running out.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2013
Strong yuan hurts China in more ways than one
A yuan that has strengthened by 10 percent during the Obama years means that Chinese companies could embark on an earthshaking U.S. shopping spree.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 5, 2013
Abe's economic revival runs into Japan's reality
Is the Bank of Japan creating the biggest pyramid scheme in history?
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2013
Abenomics stumbling over sexism
No one needs a Sheryl Sandberg-esque 'lean-in' movement like Japan's women. Lack of women in the nation's workforce is impeding economic growth.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2013
Bond vigilantes wake investors from voodoo 'Abenomics' trance
The bond vigilantes are getting antsy about Shinzo Abe's shock-therapy program, dubbed "Abenomics."
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 23, 2013
There are billions of reasons why Japan Inc. should reflect
The flood of cash the Bank of Japan has made available to Japan Inc. has not opened executives to new ways of thinking or ushered more women into the workforce.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013
Clock is running out for some key Asian reformers
Voters in the Philippines appear to have delivered a resounding victory to President Benigno Aquino in midterm elections. The son of former President Corazon Aquino looks set to control both houses of Congress, giving him a mandate to continue his reform policies. His biggest worry now is making them stick.

Longform

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