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August 28, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2010
Is the Russian economy out of the woods?
By Irina Yasina
MOSCOW — Has Russia's economic crisis ended? That depends on who you ask. Ask Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or any official of his United Russia party, and you will be told, "Of course it is over." They will even produce proof in the form of an unemployment rate that does not rise, unprecedented increases...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2010
Cities robbing their people
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — When observing the chaotic growth of the modern city, the more erudite of urban planners will reminisce wistfully on how different it is from its ancient Greek counterpart, the polis, which Italian architectural historian Leonardo Benevolo once described as "dynamic but stable, in balance...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2010
India's quick-strike doctrine causes flutter
By Harsh V. Pant
LONDON — Recently the Indian Army chief, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, drew attention when he suggested at a training command seminar that India is preparing for a "two-front" war with Pakistan and China as it brings its war-fighting doctrine in sync with emerging scenarios to firm up its "Cold Start" strategy....
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2010
Nuclear plant construction up; South Korea challenging market
By Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE — Recent startups hardly provide much evidence of the vaunted "renaissance" in civilian nuclear power that promises reliable supplies of electricity without the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuels, especially coal.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2010
Heated politics of disbelief
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — Last November we had "Climategate," in which somebody hacked into the e-mails at the University of East Anglia and discovered that professor Phil Jones, head of the university's Climate Research Unit (CRU), had been trying to exclude scientific papers he regarded as flawed from being considered...
COMMENTARY
Jan 31, 2010
Stronger alliance is on the way
By Hisahiko Okazaki
The relationship of trust between Japan and the United States is in its worst state ever. After U.S. President Barack Obama refused to see Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Copenhagen and listen to his excuse over his mishandling of bilateral ties, the latter talked with U.S. Secretary of State...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 31, 2010
Dysfunctional hairs of a vaunted democracy
By Hiroaki Sato
NEW YORK — Three recent developments in a span of two days reminded me how dysfunctional and uncivil America's vaunted democracy has become.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 31, 2010
Checkmates and imbalances are derailing Obama's bid for change
By Roger Pulvers
When historians look back on the Obama administration, they may deem the senatorial election in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, 2010, to have been the pivotal event determining its destiny.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2010
Year of U.S.-China discord?
By Ian Bremmer and David Gordon
NEW YORK — In 2009, Forbes magazine named U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao the "world's most powerful people." In 2010, we will discover that neither has the power to keep U.S.-Chinese relations on track. That is bad news for those who believe that U.S.-China cooperation...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2010
A bully pulpit for Obama's financial reforms
By Barry Eichengreen
BERKELEY, Calif. — President Barack Obama has not had an easy first year economically. He inherited a financial system on the verge of collapse. He was bequeathed an economy in recession and an unemployment rate destined to rise. And he faced a Congress and an economics profession with a tendency to...
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2010
Building on Copenhagen
By Shinji Fukukawa
Last month the 15th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) closed by announcing the Copenhagen Accord drawn up by major participating countries. Although the process produced some positive results — such as calls for steps to hold the global temperature...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2010
It doesn't pay to appease China
By Ma Jian
LONDON — When former Czech President Vaclav Havel knocked on the door of the Chinese Embassy in Prague to demand the release of the writer Liu Xiaobo, I had an eerie sense of deja vu. Thirty-three years ago, Havel helped initiate Charter 77, the landmark document that crystallized the ideals of all...
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
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.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
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.
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.

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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