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July 04, 2025
 

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Brad Glosserman

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Brad Glosserman
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...
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2005
Japan to go boldly backward for a while
HONOLULU -- No one predicted the size of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro's election victory last weekend. The landslide win has transformed the landscape of Japanese politics.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2005
'Third World' chaos hits home
HONOLULU -- The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the United States is proving difficult for Americans to comprehend. Casualties currently number in the scores, but the body count is expected to swell in the days and weeks ahead -- when the survivors can stop merely trying to survive and can...
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2005
Meeting China's 'challenge'
WASHINGTON -- In February 1946, George Kennan, then a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the State Department, warning about Soviet behavior. A little over a year later, a version of that telegram appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine, written by "Mr. X."
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2005
The beginning of empathy?
HONOLULU -- The strains in the Japan-South Korea relationship are far too deep-rooted for any single summit meeting to assuage. Rather, the objective of any summit should be setting the proper tone for bilateral relations. By this yardstick, the meeting Monday between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2005
Enough blame to go around
HONOLULU -- Deteriorating relations among Japan, South Korea and China underscore the failure of leadership in all three countries. Recent events have triggered a downward spiral in relations, but this shift hasn't occurred in a vacuum. All three governments share the primary burden to set a strategic...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2005
No exception for Pyongyang
HONOLULU -- No issue more clearly illustrates the chasm in public perceptions that has developed between the United States and South Korea than the issue of human rights in North Korea.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2005
Japan seizes the moment
HONOLULU -- Japan has put itself at the forefront of international relief efforts in the wake of the devastating Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami. Tokyo is acting both out of concern for the victims and to forward its own political-diplomatic strategy. Japan's reaction has demonstrated the role that Tokyo...
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2004
Mongolia's nuclear-free wish
JEJU ISLAND, South Korea -- Mongolia is a landlocked wilderness the size of Alaska. With a population of only 2.7 million, it is squeezed between two geopolitical giants, China and Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the withdrawal of Russian troops in 1992, leaving the country alone -- and...
COMMENTARY
Dec 11, 2004
At last, Asia is taking shape
HONOLULU -- For generations, East Asia has been identified as a geographical entity -- it was a region on a map -- but it lacked a coherent identity beyond that. That is changing. East Asia is laying the foundation for an international presence that will rival that of the European Union. Last month's...
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2004
Asia won't go back to being an also-ran
HONOLULU -- I am often asked why our think tank is located in Hawaii. Apart from the sun, sand, sea and surf, there is a very good reason: The world looks very different from Honolulu. We're parked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is a lot closer than Washington, D.C. When we look out over the...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2004
The alliance hasn't expired
HONOLULU -- Much recent U.S. strategic thinking about Asia has focused on China or the prospect of a nuclear-armed North Korea. These concerns have overshadowed important changes in Japan that have been influenced in part by developments in those two countries.
COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2004
Japan-China mind games
HONOLULU -- Two weeks in China have left me concerned about future relations between Japan and China. A smooth and cooperative Japan-China relationship is essential to regional peace, stability and prosperity. Yet increasing interaction at just about every level of the relationship has generated many...
COMMENTARY
Aug 3, 2004
Nuclear sword of Damocles
NAGASAKI -- The end of the Cold War didn't end the threat of nuclear annihilation. An increasing number of experts worry that the dangers posed by those weapons of mass destruction are increasing as the nuclear nonproliferation regime is increasingly stretched and frayed. The 2005 Review Conference of...
COMMENTARY
Jul 15, 2004
Prepare for post-Koizumi era
HONOLULU -- Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro took a beating in last Sunday's Upper House elections. While his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost seats, the real blow seems to be the prime minister's loss of rapport with voters. The magic is gone, and that means his leverage within the party is shrinking....
Magnitude 5.5 earthquake jars Tokara Islands amid flurry of seismic activity
A strong quake struck off the Tokara Islands on Thursday afternoon, with the island chain having recorded around 1,000 earthquakes since a burst of seismic activity first began on June 21.
Onosato's yokozuna promotion causes rare quirk in new sumo rankings
Newly promoted yokozuna Onosato holds a copy of the latest banzuke ranking in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, on Monday.
A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
Over 900 earthquakes strike Tokara islands in space of two weeks
A screenshot shows many quakes occurring in the Tokara islands over the past 30 days, in this image taken from the U.S. Geological Survey website.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.
As Southeast Asia heats up, a Japanese cooling giant sees a major opportunity
An employee of Daikin Cambodia explains the use of different tools during an air conditioner installation training session in Phnom Penh. Daikin is one of Japan’s oldest air conditioning companies, but as Japan’s population falls, the firm is keying in on overseas growth.

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