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May 19, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2010
Is open diplomacy possible or even desirable?
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, New Jersey — When the furor erupted over WikiLeaks' recent release of a quarter-million diplomatic cables, I was reminded of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's 1918 speech in which he put forward "Fourteen Points" for a just peace to end World War I.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
The Kremlin resets Russian foreign policy
By Tina Burrett
2010 has seen a change in Russia's relations with the West. The Obama administration came to office promising a "reset" in relations with Moscow, and in the past year, this new mood of cooperation has begun to deliver tangible results. Moscow and Washington are working together to reduce their nuclear...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
A force for good or evil?
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — Hero hacker or the world's most dangerous tattletale? No Australian has been so applauded and reviled as Julian Assange. Holed up in a London jail awaiting charges for extradition to Stockholm, then to a likely one-way trip to a ghastly fate in Washington, Assange has burst onto the world...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
Preventing a currency war
By Douglas Irwin and Barry Eichengreen
BERKELEY — Three years into the financial crisis, one might think that the world could put Great Depression analogies behind it. But they are back, and with more force than ever. Now the fear is that currency warfare, leading to tariffs and retaliation, could cause disruptions to the international...
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2010
The accusations against Julian Assange
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — The U.S. government is doing all it can to silence the WikiLeaks organization, including starving it of funds by getting PayPal, Visa and MasterCard to freeze its accounts. But has it also persuaded the Swedes to accuse Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, of raping two women, in order to...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 14, 2010
Splits, rumors of splits, and the hole if Kan splits
With its rate of approval dwindling fast, the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has fallen into a "lame-duck" status, and the resultant "political vacuum" is likely to linger on for some time to come, as there is no clear prospect as to what kind of political landscape will emerge in the event...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2010
Setbacks in Indonesia's antigraft policy
By Donny Syofyan
PADANG, West Sumatra — Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) every year. Based on 13 different expert and business surveys, the CPI measures and ranks public sector corruption in 180 nations.
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2010
Preparing the ground for the Egyptian heir
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — Egyptian elections are always highly predictable affairs, but the second round of this year's parliamentary elections on Dec. 5, was completely pointless. The first round on Nov. 28 showed that the regime was going to suppress even the marginal role permitted to prodemocracy parties in previous...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 12, 2010
Half the world's people are bilingual — but how many Japanese?
By Roger Pulvers
First of two parts
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2010
The dead weight on Taiwanese aspirations
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — The ruling party of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou — in an election carefully watched in Beijing — has managed to win three of five mayoral races in Taiwan, reversing a losing streak in legislative by-elections since Ma's presidential election triumph in 2008.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2010
Rising Asia must reject the power to waste
By Malavika Jain Bambawale
SINGAPORE — Our ancestors preached it. Our parents taught it to us. The West is adopting it. So why are we Asians abandoning it?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2010
Scariest WikiLeaks' tales show U.S. wandering in fog
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — Breakfast tea or coffee has suddenly become more interesting with the flood of tittle-tattle, gossip and serious political reporting pouring out via WikiLeaks. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the American right fulminate and wish to charge WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange with...
Nissan to solicit early retirements while eyeing plant closures in Japan
Nissan's Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, may be closed as part of the struggling carmaker's streamlining efforts.
Australian firm produces heavy rare earth, in first outside China
The Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Police arrest Chinese man in Saitama hit-and-run case
Police questioned a man who turned himself in as he closely resembled the driver recorded on the dashcam of another vehicle that happened to pass by the scene of a hit-and-run incident in Saitama Prefecture.
Wholesalers may be behind elevated retail rice prices
Wholesalers added ¥7,593 on average to their selling prices for stockpiled rice, far more than the ¥2,206 to ¥4,689 added for the 2022 rice.
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Agnes b. Japan CEO hopes to evolve the brand with focus on sustainability
Laurent Patouillet, the CEO and president of Agnes b. Japan, says the focus of its business is to remain independent, and evolve and adapt.
In Nintendo’s backyard, foreign indie game devs are thriving
Kyoto's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo's headquarters, but a contingent of foreign-born indie developers is also working in the gaming giant's shadow.
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
Nissan hoping to electrify home crowd as Formula E returns to Tokyo
Nissan's Oliver Rowland drives during qualifying for Miami E-Prix at Homestead Motor Speedway in Homestead, Florida, on April 12.
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
"Jinsei," which follows its protagonist over a century, probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch. The director, however, says he created the story without knowing where it would lead.

Podcast

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

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

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