Noah Smith - The Japan Times

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Noah Smith

For Noah Smith's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 13, 2015

The hunt for the cause of recessions continues

While theories abound, economists still really don't know what causes recessions.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Apr 6, 2015

U.S.' best Asian friend deserves a trade deal

The Trans-Pacific Partnership represents the best aid the U.S. can give to Japan, a crucial ally that could use all the help it can get.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2015

Guess what's weakening the U.S. middle class

There are roughly three main hypotheses for why American middle-class wages have been falling: robots, unions and China. Evidence may point to the least favored answer as the right one.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Feb 23, 2015

Will Japan become Asia's next autocracy?

The LDP's draft constitution contains elements that would move Japan toward illiberalism and autocracy if it was adopted.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jan 23, 2015

Making babies makes a comeback in Japan

The slight rise in Japanese fertility since 2005 — despite the sharp recession and natural disasters that happened in the meantime — suggests there is hope that work-life balance will help to stabilize the populations of developed nations after all.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY / Japan

Dec 9, 2014

High-level disorganization still hobbles Japan

Although many Westerners think of Japan as a highly unified, hierarchical nation, it often more closely resembles a squabbling confederation of loosely affiliated gangs.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 7, 2014

Evidence suggests Keynesianism boosts GDP in recessions, but good luck explaining why

Casual evidence indicates that government spending during recessions (a pillar of Keynesianism) boosts GDP. But we don't have a satisfying macroeconomic model that explains why.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 6, 2014

Americans becoming fatter, sicker, poorer

The epidemic of fat in the United States is so great that more than one in five Americans is said to be too heavy to enlist in the armed services.

Japan Times

COMMENTARY

Nov 3, 2014

Only catastrophe can rob China of No. 1 spot

For China not to become the world's largest economy, it would take a collapse on a bigger scale than anything we've seen in recent world history, short of Zimbabwe or North Korea.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Oct 24, 2014

Give Abe a break on 'womenomics'

What matters for Japan — after two female ministers resigned this week from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet — is not the number of women in the Cabinet, but whether Japanese women get good jobs en masse.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 20, 2014

U.S. can cope with the next China slowdown

The U.S. economic boom in the 1990s even after the Japanese economy slowed dramatically suggests that the U.S. will cope with the next slowdown in China.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 9, 2014

China's PLA is getting more bang for the buck

The U.S. on paper may outspend all its rivals to ensure 'military dominance,' but China and Russia, for example, get more bang for the buck with lower salaries and fewer benefits for their soldiers and, in many cases, would pay much less to transport military personnel and equipment to a conflict zone.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 11, 2014

Obama is no wimp in the foreign policy game

Regardless of whether you think U.S. hegemony is a good thing or a bad thing, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the U.S. is doing very well at the international Great Game under President Barack Obama.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 17, 2014

Liberal values on gender are saving marriage

One view of American society surprisingly has the more educated people — despite being much more socially liberal than their less educated counterparts — espousing more traditional family values today. They get married more, get divorced less and pay more attention to their children.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2014

Dummies ignore perks of foreign brainpower

By keeping out high-skilled immigrants, the U.S. government is like a football quarterback running the wrong way and scoring a touchdown against its own team.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jul 1, 2014

Japan's status quo crumbles with an apology to a woman

When Tokyo city assemblyman Akihiro Suzuki bowed to assemblywoman Ayaka Shiomura and apologized for publicly heckling her over her unmarried status, some people caught their breath, convinced that they were witnessing something epochal in Japan.

COMMENTARY / Japan

Jun 13, 2014

Abe might be the world's best leader

An American finance professor who says he used to be a Shinzo Abe skeptic now calls Japan's prime minister the most effective national leader in the world right now.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 5, 2014

Forget self-driving cars, make me a cyborg

A finance professor and sci-fi fan thinks that the next big technology is 'cyborg technology' but that the press is ignoring it. It will include a number of health care technologies involving the integration of living tissue with engineered machinery.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 17, 2001

Co-opting new elites divides Communists

"The 'Three Represents' is completely elitist," Cabestan said, referring to Jiang's well-publicized formulation for making the party represent the "most advanced production technology, the most advanced culture, and the broadest interests of the people."

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

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

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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