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October 19, 2025
 

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Brad Glosserman

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Brad Glosserman
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2007
Ending the nuclear threat
UNITED NATIONS — Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, security planners the world over have lost considerable sleep contemplating the prospect of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2007
And now to trilateralism
NANJING, China — How good are China-Japan relations today? So good that the museum here to commemorate the 1937 massacre by Japanese Imperial Army soldiers is closed for renovation. That's remarkable since this is the 70th anniversary of the massacre and criticism of historical revisionism of Japan...
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2007
Nuclear basics for the alliance
HONOLULU -- Nuclear strategy has become a core concern in the U.S.-Japan alliance. North Korea is the immediate trigger for Japanese anxiety, but similar uncertainties lie just beneath the surface when Japan contemplates China as well. U.S. assurances are needed -- both to Japan and to potential adversaries...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2007
Baseless threats of cold war
HONOLULU -- U.S. plans to deploy an antiballistic missile defense system in Europe have raised fears of a new Cold War. Russian responses to the proposal have been fierce: Moscow has warned countries that hosting interceptors would make them targets in the event of conflict. In fact, the planned deployments...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2007
Abe should be looking forward, not back
HONOLULU -- What was he thinking? That is the question most Japan-watchers grappled with following Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's fumbled questions about the imperial Japanese government's role in recruiting "comfort women" during World War II. His responses came close to undoing the progress he...
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2007
Abe's aggressive agenda
HONOLULU -- There is no mistaking Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's determination to transform Japan's foreign and security policies, and reassert itself in the world. Yet while he must seize opportunities as he forges this new role, he must also reassure doubters both at home and abroad that Japan will act...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 14, 2007
Asia's shift in global importance
Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asian Policy, by Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Bosworth. New York: A Century Foundation Book, 2006, 165 pp., $15.95 (paper). Slowly but surely, the United States is waking up to the profound changes afoot in the structure of global power. The rise of China is one sign...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 17, 2006
Economic power struggles in Asia
JAPAN IN A DYNAMIC ASIA: Coping With the New Security Challenges, edited by Yoichiro Sato and Satu Limaye. Lexington Books, 2006, 271 pp., 2006 (paper). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will pursue a more assertive foreign policy. That won't be easy, report the authors of this comprehensive survey...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 12, 2006
Sticking to the invective is less effective
NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN: North Korea Takes on the World, by Gordon C. Chang. Random House, 2006, 327 pp., $25.95 (cloth). Gordon Chang really can pick 'em. In 2001, as the world awakened to China's incandescent rise, he made a stir with "The Coming Collapse of China." Earlier this year he published "Nuclear...
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2006
Forget about Japan racing to go nuclear
HONOLULU -- Take a deep breath and repeat: "Japan is not going to develop nuclear weapons." Feel better?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2006
Shinzo Abe's twin challenges
HONOLULU -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to make Japan "a country that is trusted and loved" by the entire world. On the face of it, this should not be that difficult a task. After all, in the past 60 years, no nation has been more committed to peace and more generous to its neighbors...
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2006
'Sayonara Summit' saw the best of ties
HONOLULU -- The "Sayonara Summit" went well -- as expected. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's last visit to the United States as prime minister -- a "summit-cum-road trip," with a 19-gun salute and visit to Graceland -- set a new standard for intimacy on the diplomatic circuit. It was a fitting farewell...
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2006
A Germany not ashamed to wave the flag
BERLIN -- It was clear from the taxi ride into town from Hamburg airport that something was different: Most buildings had a German flag hanging from a balcony. More remarkable still were the cars with small German flags protruding from windows. By the time I got to Berlin, it seemed that every third...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2006
Whither the six-party talks?
HONOLULU -- It has been nine months since the fourth round of six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula concluded with a joint statement of principles. That statement now appears to be the high-water mark of the process rather than a baseline for future negotiations.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2006
Challenges, opportunities for the Japan-U.S. alliance
HONOLULU -- As its 55th birthday approaches, the Japan-U.S. alliance faces new challenges and new opportunities. Ironically, new security threats -- and new demands for cooperation -- provide the best opportunities to revitalize the alliance. The bilateral security relationship is in better shape than...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2006
Reshaping U.S.-ROK alliance
HONOLULU -- The U.S.-South Korea alliance is at a turning point. South Korea has become a modern, vibrant democracy and a dynamic economy with global reach. Despite the nuclear crisis with North Korea, inter-Korean reconciliation has taken root and South Korea feels confident enough to seek a more independent...
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2006
America missing out in Asia
HONOLULU -- The structure of global power is shifting, and Asia is finally emerging as one of the pillars of the international system. We have heard this talk before -- over a decade ago the "Asian century" was the story line -- but it is finally happening. The rise of China is part of this story, but...
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2005
Testing times for Japan, China
HONOLULU -- Taro Aso's recent comment in plain words about the "threat" posed by China's military modernization effort is as remarkable as the supposed threat itself. The readiness of a Japanese Cabinet official, and a foreign minister no less, to publicly acknowledge and criticize China's military buildup...
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2005
Seoul aims for leading role
PUSAN, South Korea -- South Korea, long considered "a shrimp among whales" in Northeast Asia, senses opportunity. Diplomatic developments in the region hold out hope of a transformation of relations among states, and South Korean strategists see their nation as uniquely positioned to lead this process....
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2005
A Koizumi promise not worth keeping
HONOLULU -- Last week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made his fifth visit to Yasukuni Shrine. There was the predictable response from other Asian nations, but it is clear that those protests fall on deaf ears. If the prime minister's determination is plain, so too are the consequences, and they have...
Why I chose Japanese citizenship over permanent residency
Jon Heese (second left) takes part in a 2024 New Year's nihonshu barrel opening ceremony.
Tokyo ordered to pay damages to South Asian woman over police response
The Tokyo High Court held that, “even taking the woman’s consent into account” for sharing her personal information, the officers breached their duty of care and acted unlawfully.
Former PM Tomiichi Murayama dies at age 101
Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama speaks during an interview in Tokyo in March 2007.
Japan's fractured politics could ensnarl Takaichi's economic plans
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of Japan's ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, attends a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Oct. 4.
Tokyo homebuyers split on purchase plans as living costs soar, survey shows
A survey showed that some potential homebuyers in Tokyo are delaying purchases while others are wary of missing out on opportunities posed by rising home prices.
What does Jimbocho think of its unexpected ‘cool’ status?
Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood is a haven for book lovers, its rows of secondhand bookstores spilling over with printed materials.
What you need to see at this year's Tokyo film festival
Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet"
New film explores how Japan and the U.S. found common ground through baseball
Masanori Murakami became the first MLB player from Japan when he made his debut with the Giants on Sept 1, 1964.
As they wrestle for power, Japan’s political parties must remember their base
Rengo's head Tomoko Yoshino speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Oct. 8.
Sumo is about to hit London and the West with a force previously unseen
Preparations advance on Monday for the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

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