More Commentary Articles - The Japan Times

August 05, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 12, 2012

Japan's Russia diplomacy

By Mineo Nakajima

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for the first time during the June Group of 20 summit in Mexico. When Noda proposed holding substantive talks over the Northern Territories dispute on the basis of bilateral accords and documents as well as of the principle of law...

COMMENTARY

Sep 12, 2012

New ships give China's navy a stronger punch

By Michael Richardson

In the latest step in its naval modernization and expansion, China recently announced that it is accelerating serial production of an advanced destroyer. This will tilt the regional balance of power at sea in its favor and put it in a stronger position to enforce its sovereignty claims over Taiwan and...

COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Sep 11, 2012

Troubled waters, bad bridge

A South Korean journalist in Seoul warns that Japan should not make light of the recent series of tough actions taken by Seoul against Tokyo because they represent the beginning of a sharp turn in South Korea's policy toward Japan.

COMMENTARY

Sep 11, 2012

Let posterity see how the Iraq war was created

By Ramesh Thakur

When the Iraq War Inquiry Group (of which I am a member) issued a public call for an inquiry into the decision-making that lay behind Australia's participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, members of the then-Howard government dismissed it in effect as yesterday's news.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 9, 2012

Putin's siege-mentality Russia now firmly in the grip of a 'cold civil war'

By Roger Pulvers

There is an old Soviet-era Russian joke about two rival groups of archeologists who cannot agree on the age of a mummy discovered in Central Asia. At their wits' end, they call in the NKVD — the name of the dreaded KGB in Stalin's time — to settle the dispute.

COMMENTARY

Sep 8, 2012

Tokyo-Seoul: enough is enough!

By Ralph Cossa

Enough is enough! Obviously, the political leadership in Tokyo and Seoul never learned about the First Rule of Holes: When you find yourself in one, stop digging. Each side seems to be going out of its way to make a bad situation worse, even while providing private assurances that it won't let the situation...

COMMENTARY

Sep 8, 2012

Should Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes?

By Cesar Chelala

In what is the latest of many calls for the trial of former U.S. President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner has demanded that both leaders be tried for their role in the Iraq war. Given the tremendous loss of lives and the...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 7, 2012

Economists in denial as conventional tools fail

By Howard Davies

In an exasperated outburst, just before he left the presidency of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet complained that, "as a policymaker during the crisis, I found the available [economic and financial] models of limited help. I would go further: In the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 6, 2012

Where Obama and Romney differ on foreign policy

By Jackson Diehl

This presidential election will likely determine whether the United States and Russia undertake a major new reduction of nuclear weapons; whether U.S. arms are supplied to Syrian rebels; whether more U.S. troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan next year; and whether Washington renews pressure on Israel...

COMMENTARY

Sep 6, 2012

Nationalists making waves in Japan-China ties

By Frank Ching

Forty years ago this month, Japan and China established diplomatic relations. However, the two countries are clearly in no mood to celebrate because of a heated territorial dispute over tiny uninhabited islands called the Senkakus by Japan and the Diaoyus by China. They are under Japanese control but...

COMMENTARY

Sep 5, 2012

Obama earns mediocre marks on economy

By Robert J. Samuelson

President Barack Obama's economic report card is at best mediocre. I'd give him a C+, while acknowledging that presidents usually don't much influence the economy. It's too big and subject to too many complex forces, from new technologies to global conditions.

COMMENTARY

Sep 5, 2012

Nuclear edge to sea disputes

By Michael Richardson

The tug of war over the South China Sea is seen mainly as a struggle among rival claimants —China, Taiwan and several Southeast Asian states — for control of valuable fisheries as well as seabed oil, natural gas and mineral resources.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.

With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear

By Jason Coskrey

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports