Morearticles

 
Menu
Search
 
August 18, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

More Commentary stories

COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2009
Israel's response to Hamas' zero-sum game
By Fania Oz-Salzberger
MELBOURNE, Australia — Imagine your next-door neighbor — with whom you have had a long and bloody feud — pulling out a gun and shooting into your windows, from his own living room, which is densely packed with women and children. In fact, he's holding his daughter on his lap as he tries to target...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2009
Lessons of the credit crunch
By Hugh Cortazzi
The credit crunch and the deepening recession have provided church leaders, politicians, economists, journalists and armchair philosophers with a good excuse for moralizing and for expounding their views on what happened, why it occurred and what to do to prevent a recurrence.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2009
Managing fads, frenzies and finance markets
By Xavier Vives
BARCELONA — The financial crisis, credit crunch and ensuing economic downturn have severely damaged the credibility of financial markets, institutions and traders. More and more people are claiming that markets are characterized by irrationality, bubbles, fads and frenzies, and that economic actors...
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2009
2009 could fool the pessimists
By David Howell
LONDON — Deep gloom is predicted for 2009, with talk of deflation, shrinking economies and rising unemployment. Economists point to the huge drop in Japanese output, zero growth in Europe, dwindling world trade, collapsing financial institutions and the threat of worse to come.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2009
Prophet of world-culture clashes is dead
By Tom Plate
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — A giant died early last week. His name was Samuel Huntington, a Harvard professor whose gigantism was intellectual. His ideas left huge footprints on our intellectual landscape, the way giant storms impact the Earth. Minds were shaken, sometimes stirred, and never left untouched....
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2009
When Iran meets Obama
By Karim Sadjadpour
WASHINGTON — Since its Islamist revolution of 1979, Iran's hardline leadership has relentlessly painted America as a racist, bloodthirsty power bent on oppressing Muslims worldwide.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 4, 2009
A nation adrift cries out for new visions fired by anger and sorrow
By Roger Pulvers
Every era in the life of a country begs for creators to define it and give it momentum for its society to progress. Politicians, economists and bureaucrats seem to believe that culture rides on the wave of the economy — but the opposite is true. It is on progressive waves of culture that economic achievement...
COMMENTARY
Jan 3, 2009
China key to U.S. foreign policy success
By Frank Ching
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, asked about his foreign policy priorities when named Person of the Year by Time magazine, listed nuclear proliferation, climate change and global poverty as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the trans-Atlantic alliance, Russia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2009
Why does Germany's chancellor hesitate?
By Hans-Werner Sinn
MUNICH — "Where is Angela?" is the question The Economist asked when Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown and Jose Manuel Barroso met to prepare a European economic stimulus plan without Chancellor Merkel being present. Indeed, Germany is currently the spoiler in the competition to provide billions to prevent...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009
Will Obama's promise of change include U.S.-Japan relations?
By Hiroshi Nakanishi
The Jan. 20 inauguration of the U.S. administration of Barack H. Obama is not only of historic consequence for the United States in terms of his being the first black president as well as first chief executive from the post-Vietnam War generation, but it also has aroused extremely strong interest worldwide....
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009
Growing challenges to Asian stability
By Brahma Chellaney
NEW DELHI — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office at a time when a fundamental and qualitative reordering of power is under way in the Asia-Pacific, with tectonic shifts challenging strategic stability. The impact of such shifts on U.S. foreign policy is bound to be accentuated by America's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2009
Is Aso only postponing the inevitable?
By Norihiko Narita
The political news that will have the most far-reaching repercussions into the new year is the plummeting approval rating of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet, and his delay in dissolving the Lower House of the Diet for a general election.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
European leaders to join Zelenskyy for key meeting with Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived for a meeting on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
Hiker missing in Hokkaido after bear attack found dead
The Rausu mountain range at Hokkaido's Shiretoko National Park. A man in his 20s who went missing after being attacked by a bear while hiking on Mount Rausu has been found dead.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
Trump shifts stance on road to Ukraine peace after meeting Putin in Alaska
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on next to Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a news conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
Top MLB prospect Rintaro Sasaki is committed to doing it 'the hard way'
Rintaro Sasaki hits a home run during a game against Duke at Stanford's Sunken Diamond on March 16.
In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.
A seaside hotel built on competitive Japanese cycling
In a region more associated with art, Keirin Hotel 10 takes a decidedly more athletic approach to attracting tourists.

Podcast

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

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER