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August 16, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2008
Now it's food versus fuel
By David Howell
What is the next great global problem we have to fear? The answer is not climate change and global warming, but food shortage and starvation. Suddenly, and in ways largely unforeseen by experts, a serious shortage of food supplies, especially corn and rice, has crept up on the world. The result has been...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2008
U.S. candidates' top target: China
By Frank Ching
Ever since the Tiananmen Square military crackdown of 1989, China has become an issue in domestic American politics, usually with the party in power — either Republican or Democratic — being attacked by the opposition party for not being tough enough toward Beijing.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2008
Mixing sports and politics
By Dominique Moisi
PARIS — "Do not mix sports and politics!" That defiant cry from China's rulers to the threat of a boycott of this summer's Beijing Olympic Games does not stand the test of reality. Sport and politics have always been closely linked.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2008
New Delhi's dilemma with the Dalai Lama
By Shashi Tharoor
PRAGUE — As the world reacts to China's crackdown in Tibet, one country is conspicuous by both its centrality to the drama and its reticence over it. India, the land of asylum for the Dalai Lama and the angry young hotheads of the Tibetan Youth Congress, finds itself on the horns of a dilemma.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 21, 2008
Is Japan's bureaucracy still living in the 17th century?
The roots of both the Japanese and French bureaucratic systems can be traced to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who as controller general under "the sun king" Louis XIV was instrumental in ushering in mercantilism to Europe and exerted great influence over the government control of the private sector.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 20, 2008
'Bone Man' bears lifelong witness to the ugly brute of war
By Roger Pulvers
Tell me, where is the glory in war?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2008
What shape is America's recession?
By Nouriel Roubini
NEW YORK — Now that it is clear that the United States is in recession, the debate has moved on to whether it will be short and shallow or long and deep — a question that is as important for the rest of the world as it is for the U.S.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2008
A passport to peace in the Middle East?
By Cesar Chelala
TUCUMAN, Argentina — Daniel Barenboim, the noted Israeli musician, is no stranger to controversy. By recently accepting Palestinian nationality, although in itself only a symbolic act, he will only fuel the controversy about his role in the Middle East process.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2008
Agricultural neglect leaves millions trapped in poverty
By Noeleen Heyzer
BANGKOK — In the last decade, developing economies in Asia and the Pacific doubled in size, growing over seven percent on average. This growth has garnered much attention and plaudits. Yet, 641 million of the world's poorest — nearly two-thirds of the global total — live in the Asia-Pacific region....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2008
Have we finally achieved moral progress?
By Peter Singer
MELBOURNE — After a century that saw two world wars, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin's Gulag, the killing fields of Cambodia, and more recent atrocities in Rwanda and now Darfur, the belief that we are progressing morally has become difficult to defend. Yet there is more to the question than extreme cases...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2008
Caution still advised for resilient Brazil
By Glauco Arbix
SAO PAULO — Less than a decade ago, Brazil's economy faltered at the first sign of instability in international financial markets. Today, by contrast, the country seems immune from global market turbulence — or so Brazilian officials believe.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2008
What China and the world must do now
LOS ANGELES — Absolutely no one in the Western media is showing any sympathy at all for China in the current roiling mess over Tibet and the Olympic Games. But somebody has to do it, if only to try to achieve some balance and maturity of perspective. So we might as well make the effort here and now....
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong
J-pop idol Kenshin Kamimura leaves the West Kowloon Law Courts on bail in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after he was found guilty of indecent assault of a woman who worked as his interpreter at a restaurant in Mong Kok district in March this year.
Tens of thousands left stranded at Osaka Expo by train service interruption
Visitors rest inside the Osaka Expo venue early Thursday morning
Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
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.
Recent deaths of Japanese boxers underline importance of emergency action plans
The Japan Boxing Commission's safety protocols have been thrust into the spotlight following the deaths of Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa, who suffered fatal brain injuries while fighting on the same card on Aug. 2.
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Will Ishiba's critics be able to garner enough support for a leadership race?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's political survival likely hinges on whether a leadership race will take place within the Liberal Democratic Party following its decision to have its election committee canvass the opinions of party members and prefectural chapters on the subject.
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.

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

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