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August 21, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2010
Recalcitrant Indian state turns a corner
By Ramesh Thakur
WATERLOO, Ontario — Writing here on March 13, 2005 ("The deep end of Indian state democracy"), I noted descriptions of Bihar's first city Patna as the capital of hell on earth, its Hobbesian quality of life with large-scale kidnappings for ransom as the only growth industry, the destruction of infrastructure...
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2010
Beijing flubs art of ambiguity in Nobel affair
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — The value of ambiguity in international diplomacy has long been recognized and widely practiced by such proponents as Henry Kissinger and by Chinese leaders.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2010
Aims of Britain and Japan
By David Howell
LONDON — This is a speech delivered by David Howell, minister of state in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to the Japan Society of London on Nov. 18. Before being appointed to his current post, Howell was a regular contributor to The Japan Times.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2010
Trigger-happy Indian cops cut corners to deliver quick justice
By Gautaman Bhaskaran
CHENNAI, India — India's democracy is being increasingly tarnished by its police force, which uses brutally illegal methods to deal with crime. Some officers are staging incidents to murder people who have been arrested on suspicion of committing particularly heinous offenses.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2010
Airport security 'theater': dancing to terrorists' tune
By Kevin Rafferty and Sofia Horta e Costa
HONG KONG — With air travel peaking next month in Asia and Europe for Christmas and New Year after going into overload in the United States over the Thanksgiving weekend, governments should re-examine the costs and inefficiencies of security that add tens of billions of dollars to the cost of doing...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 28, 2010
It's time Japan shook off its past and stopped toadying to the U.S.
By Roger Pulvers
Allow me to introduce a Japanese word to those unfamiliar with it. It is the verb kobiru, which means "to flatter"; "to curry favor with"; "to play up to"; "to toady to." In more up-to-date parlance, it may be rendered as "to suck up to."
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2010
The Caucasus imperative in summit season
By Vartan Oskanian
YEREVAN, Armenia — Following the Group of 20 meetings in Seoul and the NATO summit in Portugal, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will hold its first summit in 10 years in Astana, Kazakhstan's spanking new capital city.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 28, 2010
Education profiteers and the public trough
By Hiroaki Sato
NEW YORK — A college or university, especially of a private variety, may not be "an eleemosynary institution," as Sen. Sam Ervin, of the Watergate hearings, might put it were he alive, but the American insistence on free-market notions has brought the matter to the other extreme in higher education....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2010
Dangerous myth of the hero entrepreneur
By Esther Dyson
NEW YORK — Earlier this month, I sat on a panel in Monte Carlo, a hot spot of the establishment, discussing the question, "Why can't Europe be more like the U.S.?" The formal name of the panel was "Silicon Envy: Will Europe ever build the next new media giant?"
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 2010
NATO's Afghan nightmare
By Brahma Chellaney
The agreement at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit meeting in Lisbon on a transition plan to help end the war in Afghanistan within the next four years raises troubling questions about regional security and the global fight against transnational terrorism. As the United States and...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2010
For a fairer, more unwieldy Security Council
By John J. Metzler
UNITED NATIONS — Reform and redesign of the U.N. Security Council has long been on the diplomatic drawing boards. Few countries will argue against the necessity for that, but most balk at the specific details.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 26, 2010
Highhanded prosecutors get judicial pat on the back
The arrogance and self-complacence of public prosecutors have been exposed with the acquittal of a high-ranking former welfare ministry official who had been indicted on a charge of forgery, and the subsequent arrest and indictment of two prosecutors accused of hiding evidence of data tampering. The...
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Schools get students involved in revision of unreasonable ‘black rules’
At Yawata Junior High School in Nagoya, there are no more rules on clothing and hairstyles. Students are free to wear either the school's uniform or clothes of their own choosing.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Japanese man suspected of ordering double murder in Manila
Two suspects arrested over the killing of two Japanese last week are held in restraints in Manila on Tuesday.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.
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.

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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