Morearticles

 
Menu
Search
 
August 26, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

More Commentary stories

COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2008
Ways of beating malaria without using DDT
By Cesar Chelala and Hasan Tuluy
NEW YORK — Malaria continues to be endemic in the developing world, causing more than 1 million deaths every year, mostly among children living in Sub-Saharan countries.
COMMENTARY
Aug 14, 2008
Growing energy disarray
By David Howell
The energy policies of European nations, and of Britain in particular, are in disarray. Admittedly the ferocious rise in crude oil prices has eased, but how long the present dip will last, with the Russians bombing one of the main oil transit pipelines from the Caspian region through Georgia and the...
COMMENTARY
Aug 14, 2008
China's slow march toward a normal society
By Frank Ching
In the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, there was much talk about the state of human rights in China. Some declared that human rights continued to deteriorate while others insisted that the situation had been improving for the last 30 years. Still others asserted that both sides are right and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2008
New hope for Aborigines
By Alan Goodall
SYDNEY — The richest man in Australia has come up with the first solid plan to get "lost" Australians off welfare dependence and into dignity-rewarding jobs. It's a breakthrough that has been 200 years in the making.
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2008
Beijing Games focus U.S. attention on Asia
By Tom Plate
There's one huge under-appreciated plus about the Summer Olympics Games in China. They will bring an important part of Asia into the American living room day after day and night after night.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2008
Water shortage: China's looming problem
By Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE — The Chinese government has made a huge effort to improve air quality and beautify Beijing for the Olympics. But it cannot apply a short-term "fix" to another problem that visitors to the Games will not see — the steady depletion of underground water supplies in northern China, where the...
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2008
Georgia's giant miscalculation
By Gwynne Dyer
The war in South Ossetia is essentially over, and the Georgians have lost. There may be some more shooting yet, but it is now clear that Georgia will never regain control of the rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that President Mikhail Saakashvili has handed Russia a major victory, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2008
Don't cry over Doha failure as the stakes were inflated
By Dani Rodrik
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Will they or won't they? Will the world's trade ministers eventually sign a new multilateral trade agreement that reduces agricultural subsidies and industrial tariffs, or will they walk away empty-handed?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2008
Disturbing reasons to put a nation to death
By Ian Buruma
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32 percent of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58 percent). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2008
Russia's convertible icon
By Nina Khrushcheva
MOSCOW — Prophets, it is said, are supposed to be without honor in their homeland. Yet Moscow has just witnessed the extraordinary sight of Alexander Solzhenitsyn — the dissident and once-exiled author of the "Gulag Archipelago" and "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" receiving what amounts...
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2008
Too many Israelis want to cling to a paradox
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — "I am proud to be a citizen of a country where the prime minister can be investigated like an ordinary citizen," said Ehud Olmert on July 30, announcing that he would resign as prime minister in September to defend himself against corruption allegations. He should be even prouder: Three of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 10, 2008
Engineering a historical oblivion for soldiers of the wrong wars
By Roger Pulvers
My dad was a lucky man. Born in 1903, he was just too young for service in World War I and a bit too old for the same in World War II. Not that he couldn't have volunteered for the latter. He certainly could have, but decided not to.
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.
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.
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
Man arrested in Kobe stabbing had been staying at hotel near victim’s home
Masashi Tanimoto arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in Kobe, is sent to prosecutors on Sunday.
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.
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.
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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER