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May 05, 2024
 

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Lionel Laurent
For Lionel Laurent's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2020
Mark Zuckerberg has another answer to Bitcoin
As German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz put it, referring to Libra's name change, 'a wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2020
Emmanuel Macron has the same problem as King Louis XVI
French orders of the Pfizer vaccine run to about 45 million, which means around 22 million people can receive the two-shot course.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2020
Sweden’s second wave offers hard reality check
The country has highlighted the danger of thinking any government has found out how to beat the coronavirus.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2020
All aboard the billionaires’ Bitcoin bandwagon?
A surge of 1,000% in 2017 took Bitcoin's value to $19,000. A year later, it had dropped to less than $3,500.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2020
How to vaccinate a nation of skeptics against COVID-19
How to convince people to actually take the shot. Achieving herd immunity may mean at least 80% of people will need the vaccine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2020
What Bitcoin's new record means for Wall Street
Bitcoin won't be viewed as an existential threat to the banking system just because its price is soaring. But it won't be ignored either.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2020
French billionaires seize pandemic opportunities
France is the land of what writer Pascal Bruckner calls 'Bolshevism-lite,” where wealth is publicly hated but privately hoarded.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2020
Are hospitals ready For COVID’s second wave?
If ever there was a time to view health care as a benefit to society and the economy, rather than a drag on public finances, it's now.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2020
The race to replace the city of London begins
Nobody's saying that Paris or Frankfurt will suddenly replace London. But we're in a decentralizing phase where many centers can happily coexist.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2020
COVID-19 disobedience goes deeper than we think
While respect for mask-wearing and personal hygiene is broadly high, according to surveys of European countries, support for quarantine and self-isolation is wavering.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2020
The agonizing wait for better COVID-19 treatment
It's time to put renewed and coordinated emphasis on finding treatments for the novel coronavirus.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2020
Rich royals face a millennial COVID-19 reckoning
Former King Juan Carlos's self-exile from Spain is a warning to monarchs everywhere as the virus ramps up social tensions.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2020
What Spain is telling us about the coronavirus' second wave
Europe's new COVID-19 flare-ups are a serious test of governments' pandemic strategies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2020
For the EU, banning American tourists is the easy part
It's the thorny challenges to reopening the European Union's internal borders that show just how tricky living with COVID-19 really is.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine farce has tragic consequences
A rush to publish studies based on flawed science gets us no closer to a cure, and hurts public trust.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2020
Is the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic now behind us?
Fears of a flare-up in virus cases after lockdown haven't come to pass, though some caution is warranted.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2020
The 'Wild West' of COVID-19 antibody tests needs a sheriff
“Buyer beware” isn't enough when it comes to antibody tests, where small errors can have huge consequences.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2020
No, Sweden isn’t a miracle coronavirus model
The country's lockdown model is being lauded by the WHO, but it's a unique case whose death rate is much worse than its neighbors.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2020
Gap in U.K. virus count hurts
Sometimes a coronavirus death count can be much bigger than it initially appears.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2020
EU pandemic failure isn’t about money
This has been a crisis of health-care cooperation, not cash.
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.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
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.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
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.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
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.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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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