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August 25, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2011
All too familiar signs of state paralysis in Thai crisis
By Christopher Johnson
Like the Japan tsunami, flooding in Thailand will have a global impact on the supply and price of rice, cameras, computers and cars.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 31, 2011
Controversy is no stranger to Nobel Peace Prize
By Hiroaki Sato
Earlier this month, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision to award its annual Peace Prize to three African women — two Liberians and one Yemeni — Time magazine published online, on the same day, a list of the top 10 among "the most controversial moments in the 110-year history...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2011
Saudi Arabia's old regime grows older
By Mai Yamani, Fivb, Alastair Reed and Heather Scott
The contrast between the deaths, within two days of each other, of Libya's Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation for the Libyans and stagnation...
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2011
No escaping the noise at Nanny State Airlines
By George Will
You step onto an airport's moving walkway, a flat metal conveyor belt that conveys travelers down an airport concourse, sparing them the indignity of burning a few calories by walking a bit. And soon a recorded voice says: "The moving sidewalk is coming to an end. Please look down."
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2011
Global crises of democracy
By Ramesh Thakur
In 2000, at the first U.N. millennium meeting in Tokyo, Gallup presented interesting results of a global public opinion survey. Most people, even in the mature Western democracies, believed their government was failing to represent them — refusing to heed their voices, looking after their own and corporate...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2011
Neighbors warily eye a more muscular Turkey
By Shlomo Avineri
The recent surge in Turkey's military actions against the Kurds in northern Iraq is an indication that, somewhat surprisingly — but not entirely unpredictably — Turkish foreign policy has undergone a 180-degree turn in less than two years. The Turkish offensive is also an indication that these changes...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2011
Understanding the language of global protest
By Jan-Werner Mueller
The protest movements that have flared up across the West, from Chile to Germany, have remained curiously undefined and under-analyzed. Some speak of them as the greatest global mobilization since 1968 — when enragés in very different countries coalesced around similar concerns. But others insist...
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2011
Iraq war's lessons lost on U.S.
By Ramzy Baroud
In a White House Statement on Oct. 21, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged that his country would finally withdraw forces from Iraq. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," he said.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2011
A call for improved national crisis management policy
By Shinji Fukukawa
More than seven months have already passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. Industrial production in the affected areas has bounced back to pre-disaster levels, but the recovery of agriculture and fishery is lagging and nearly 70,000 people remain in evacuation facilities. On top of that,...
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2011
Echoes of Subcomandante Marcos' movement
By Cesar Chelala
I am sitting at a coffee place in San Cristobal de las Casas, a misty town in Chiapas, in southern Mexico. I am told that occasionally Subcomandante Marcos, the famed leader of indigenous people in the region, used to come here. I wonder if I will see him, although he has not made a public appearance...
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...
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Japan to boost support for joint ride-hailing services
Tatsuaki Igarashi, mayor of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, exits a ride-sharing vehicle at Tsukuba Station in January.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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