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COMMENTARY / World

Oct 25, 2011

A thousand prisoners for one

By A.B. Yehoshua

The celebrations in Israel over the release of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit come after the Israeli government concluded that diplomatic rarity, an agreement with Hamas. It is as if the government had brought back an Israeli who had been sent to Mars.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2011

Asian powers scrambling for regional space

By Joshy M. Paul

Asia is witnessing a jostling among its major powers — China, Japan and India — for regional strategic space, and a flurry of activity by these countries is focused toward the Southeast Asia region, once a stable region but now a potential area for conflict. China, which is already a permanent member...

COMMENTARY

Oct 24, 2011

Olympus case a black mark for Japan

By Hugh Cortazzi

The recent dismissal of the British chief executive of Olympus has once again drawn the attention of European media to peculiarities in corporate governance in Japan. Accounting practices and lack of transparency have aroused particular concern.

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Oct 24, 2011

Ill omens for Asian economies

Even though Asia is still perceived to be the global economic growth center, there are signs of potential dangers of the regional economy heading toward a collapse because of a vicious circle of inflation and wage increases brought about by huge sums of speculative money being poured into Asian countries....

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 24, 2011

Who will write Asia-Pacific trade rules for Asia?

By Peter A. Petri

In the last half century, world trade has grown twice as fast as output and helped to lift the majority of the world's people from poverty — a feat unimaginable a generation ago. When APEC leaders meet in Honolulu next month, they will represent countries that account for half of world trade. Can APEC...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 23, 2011

Post-Fukushima, 'they' can no longer be trusted — if ever they could

By Roger Pulvers

Every year when I was a child, my parents would take my brother and me from our Los Angeles home to Las Vegas on vacation. Back then in the 1950s, Vegas was still a family-oriented holiday destination. Dad would drop a few bucks at the crap table while the rest of us basked in the sun.

COMMENTARY

Oct 22, 2011

TPP key to America's future economic success in Asia

By Michael Richardson

The United States has engaged Asia for most of the time since the end of World War II with unquestioned economic strength as well as unrivaled military power. That has been changing in recent years, as China and other emerging Asian economies rise and their military clout increases.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 22, 2011

Al Jazeera: Qatar's promoter of the Arab Spring

By Khaled Hroub

During the 15 years that it has broadcast from Qatar, Al Jazeera has served as far more than a traditional television station. With its fearless involvement in Arab politics, it has created a new venue for political freedom, which has culminated in its unreserved support for Arab revolutions.

COMMENTARY

Oct 21, 2011

Peace in the Basque Country?

By Gwynne Dyer

Neither the Spanish government nor the ETA terrorists were there, but a conference in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian last weekend will probably lead to the end of ETA's long and violent campaign for Basque independence. "We believe it is time to end, and it is possible to end, the last armed...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 20, 2011

What is in store for Russian Asia?

By Andrey Borodaevskiy

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, a large number of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking and Russian-cultured peoples remained outside the borders of the Russian Federation — creating, in the short run, many acute and complicated problems but, in the long run, eventually facilitating a revival...

COMMENTARY

Oct 20, 2011

Chinese law reform may be a double-edged sword

By Frank Ching

Reform of the Chinese legal system is desperately needed but the draft of large-scale amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law shows that the current exercise in law reform is potentially a double-edged sword.

COMMENTARY

Oct 19, 2011

Our children's future no longer looks so bright

By Robert J. Samuelson

A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children's living standards would exceed their own....

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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