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May 05, 2024
 

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Leonid Bershidsky
For Leonid Bershidsky's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2019
Thomas Piketty takes aim at wealth inequality
The French economist's new book is meant to jolt the global left out of its ideological stupor.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2019
The seas are unsafe in a transactional world
As the recent spate of ship seizures show, tit-for-tat is the new normal.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2019
Why are Putin and Xi going soft on protest?
The Russian and Chinese regimes are doing something new: not escalating in the face of protest.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2019
Why is competitive running on the decline?
A marathon used to confer bragging rights if you managed to finish, but not so much now and that's hurting a $1.4 billion industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2019
Europe's populists don't look so healthy close up
Matteo Salvini's League aside, parties hostile to the European integration project performed about the same as in 2014.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2019
Court case challenges Facebook bans
A Polish group is suing Facebook for 'private censorship' in a potentially landmark case.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2019
Libya just one of Putin's many bets
The Kremlin doesn't have the luxury of choosing allies: It has to go with adventurers and risk-takers
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2019
Assange shouldn't be extradited to U.S.
Leave it to European courts to decide whether to treat him as a spy or an investigative journalist.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2019
What has Rammstein revealed about Germany's soul?
The hard-rock group's controversial new song explores national identity by confronting painful history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2019
Europe must do more than ban plastic forks
A new law outlaws some disposable products, but doesn't curb the EU's huge exports of waste.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2019
Treat far-right terrorism as the serious threat it is
White supremacists should finally receive the government attention they deserve
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2019
Trump is winning and Putin is losing in global arms sales
If you take arms sales as a proxy for influence, the U.S.'s global dominance looks to be resilient.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2019
Brits and Americans no longer own English
Now spoken at a useful level by 1.7 billion people around the world, the language doesn't belong to the Anglosphere anymore.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2019
The real threat to your children isn't Momo
What's fundamentally wrong with the hoaxes is that they establish a false link between internet use and suicide where plenty of real links exist.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2019
In Germany, the Green New Deal works
Don't use one of the world's most competitive economies as an argument against it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2019
Beware of cars with minds of their own
Self-driving vehicles powered by artificial intelligence might not have the same priorities as their human owners.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2019
Germans need their freedom to speed
Autobahn speed limits would reduce carbon emissions and save some lives. They should be rejected anyway.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2019
Putin doesn't have the clout to get a deal with Abe
Resolving a dispute from WWII would require giving up territory, but that would be deeply unpopular in Russia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2018
Putin had a bad 2018; next year will be worse
Russia's economy has been weakened by sanctions and falling oil prices, and the president's popularity is slipping.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 20, 2018
Japan and Russia could finally end WWII
Abe and Putin seem determined to reach a deal on decades-old territorial dispute.
Japan says Biden's description of nation as xenophobic is 'unfortunate'
The National Diet building in Tokyo
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Japan drops to 70th in press freedom rankings
A businessman reads a newspaper outside a train station in Tokyo.
Traders spooked by intervention risk trim record yen shorts
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan to prop up the currency.
'Monster' Inoue ready to tear down Luis Nery in title defense at Tokyo Dome
Naoya Inoue (left) and Luis Nery following a pre-fight news conference in Yokohama on Saturday, two days ahead of their super bantamweight title fight.
Debate on constitutional revision at a standstill despite Kishida's pledges
With less than two months left before the conclusion of the current session of parliament, any possibility that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can deliver constitutional reform before the end of his term as Liberal Democratic Party president in late September, as he has promised, appears remote.
Sapporo court ruling on Ainu fishing rights presents tough questions
A traditional Ainu preserved food called <i>satchep</i> (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25. The Sapporo District Court ruled last month that the Raporo Ainu Nation's rights as an Indigenous people did not extend to having an inherent right to fish for commercial reasons.
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.

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

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
By Stephen Mansfield

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