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April 30, 2024
 

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Marc Champion
For Marc Champion's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2016
Stop thinking 'reformers vs. conservatives' in Iran
The rest of the world may be confused, but for Tehran's business community and cafe-loving urbanites, it's pretty clear who won Iran's recent parliamentary election: They did.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2016
Note to Baltic states: Israel is a tiny country, too
The Baltic states should draw defense lessons from Israel, which also faces an attack from a larger enemy, with little territory upon which to fight a lengthy defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2016
Oxford rejects political correctness, sort of ...
University students are free to speak out against whatever they wish, but not to erase history.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2016
Mustafa Koc, Turkey's beloved businessman
Turkish magnate Mustafa Koc was able to walk a fine line with a government that too often sees its secularist opponents as terrorists.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2016
Germany catches the North African disease
News that scores of women were sexually assaulted by young men of Middle Eastern appearance in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve will come as no surprise to women in North Africa.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2015
Europe has plenty of its own Donald Trumps
Populist bigotry about Muslims has already mainstreamed in Europe. Europeans haven't been outraged enough about that.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2015
Memo to Moscow: Syria is Turkey's Ukraine
Ankara is determined to make it clear that no solution for Syria can be reached unless Turkish interests are fully taken into account.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2015
Putin has misjudged his erstwhile ally Erdogan
Having already underestimated him once with deadly results, the best way for Putin to figure out how Erdogan will respond to any further Russian moves is probably to imagine how he himself would react. The two men have a lot in common.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2015
The reason why Russian jets are buzzing Turkey
Vladmir Putin is willing to sacrifice Russia's warm and profitable ties with Turkey if it means keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2015
Saakashvili for Ukraine prime minister?
Reform-minded Mikheil Saakashvili will need a miracle to effect much-needed changes in Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2015
Crimea's happy now, but for the persecution
Most of Crimea's inhabitants are happy, but for a minority the move to Russian control over the peninsula has been miserable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2015
Cameron is right about how to take in refugees
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a battering over his handling of Europe's refugee crisis, but his new approach is the right one.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2015
Want more heroes? Bring back the military draft
If the French train incident tells us anything useful about defending against terrorism, it is that ordinary people will sometimes be the only defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2015
A dangerous time for Russia-NATO relations
It is the early stages of a standoff between nuclear powers that are the most dangerous.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2015
Turkey's democracy is being quietly stolen
If President Recep Erdogan succeeds in using a rekindled Kurdish conflict to secure his presidential powers, it will be difficult for Turkish democracy to survive in any meaningful sense.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2015
Waterloo shows why the Brits need Europe
Just as Napoleon Bonaparte learned at Waterloo, the British may not want to risk being on their own, outside a resentful Europe that unites against it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2015
Greece's Tsipras isn't on the side of democracy
The question for Greeks today is whether they think the leftist policies of Syriza will give them a better future with default, capital controls and the drachma.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2015
Erdogan the conqueror
For Turkey's weakened democratic institutions to survive, and for it to remain delicately balanced between East and West, the Kurds and their new friends need to do well in Sunday's elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015
Tayyipism strikes a chord with Turkish voters
President Recep Erdogan's new Turkey is more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2015
Could Palmya be a turning point for Assad?
Syrian President Bashar Assad may have allowed Islamic State to take the World Heritage site of Palmyra, hoping an atrocity there would bring the international community to his side.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
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.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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

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

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima
Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

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