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August 21, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2010
'Made in the world' notion no answer to U.S. prayers
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, recently made an interesting and thoughtful plea for a new approach to trade, with the idea that "Made in the world" could often be a more accurate description than one that put a purely national label on a product.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2010
Is open diplomacy possible or even desirable?
By Peter Singer
PRINCETON, New Jersey — When the furor erupted over WikiLeaks' recent release of a quarter-million diplomatic cables, I was reminded of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's 1918 speech in which he put forward "Fourteen Points" for a just peace to end World War I.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
The Kremlin resets Russian foreign policy
By Tina Burrett
2010 has seen a change in Russia's relations with the West. The Obama administration came to office promising a "reset" in relations with Moscow, and in the past year, this new mood of cooperation has begun to deliver tangible results. Moscow and Washington are working together to reduce their nuclear...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
A force for good or evil?
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — Hero hacker or the world's most dangerous tattletale? No Australian has been so applauded and reviled as Julian Assange. Holed up in a London jail awaiting charges for extradition to Stockholm, then to a likely one-way trip to a ghastly fate in Washington, Assange has burst onto the world...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2010
Preventing a currency war
By Douglas Irwin and Barry Eichengreen
BERKELEY — Three years into the financial crisis, one might think that the world could put Great Depression analogies behind it. But they are back, and with more force than ever. Now the fear is that currency warfare, leading to tariffs and retaliation, could cause disruptions to the international...
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2010
The accusations against Julian Assange
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — The U.S. government is doing all it can to silence the WikiLeaks organization, including starving it of funds by getting PayPal, Visa and MasterCard to freeze its accounts. But has it also persuaded the Swedes to accuse Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, of raping two women, in order to...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 14, 2010
Splits, rumors of splits, and the hole if Kan splits
With its rate of approval dwindling fast, the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has fallen into a "lame-duck" status, and the resultant "political vacuum" is likely to linger on for some time to come, as there is no clear prospect as to what kind of political landscape will emerge in the event...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2010
Setbacks in Indonesia's antigraft policy
By Donny Syofyan
PADANG, West Sumatra — Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) every year. Based on 13 different expert and business surveys, the CPI measures and ranks public sector corruption in 180 nations.
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2010
Preparing the ground for the Egyptian heir
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — Egyptian elections are always highly predictable affairs, but the second round of this year's parliamentary elections on Dec. 5, was completely pointless. The first round on Nov. 28 showed that the regime was going to suppress even the marginal role permitted to prodemocracy parties in previous...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 12, 2010
Half the world's people are bilingual — but how many Japanese?
By Roger Pulvers
First of two parts
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2010
The dead weight on Taiwanese aspirations
By Frank Ching
HONG KONG — The ruling party of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou — in an election carefully watched in Beijing — has managed to win three of five mayoral races in Taiwan, reversing a losing streak in legislative by-elections since Ma's presidential election triumph in 2008.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2010
Rising Asia must reject the power to waste
By Malavika Jain Bambawale
SINGAPORE — Our ancestors preached it. Our parents taught it to us. The West is adopting it. So why are we Asians abandoning it?
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.
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.
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.

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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Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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