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August 25, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2010
'Old' diplomacy needed now more than ever
By Kenneth Weisbrode
FLORENCE, Italy — There is much talk in the air — especially in Britain and the United States — about reinventing diplomacy for the 21st century. Both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the British Tories' leader, David Cameron, have spoken recently of a new synthesis of defense, diplomacy...
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2010
Why China kills a chicken to scare monkeys
By Tom Plate
It may be that Zhu Rongji is the most important Chinese political figure since the death of Mao Zedong's relatively enlightened successor Deng Xiaoping, I don't know. As China's previous premier (number two of the whole place) he was certainly the key technical engineer of China's audacious and epochal...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2010
A service revolution is sweeping South Asia
By Ejaz Ghani and Basit Mahmood
WASHINGTON — China and India are both racing ahead economically. But the manner in which they are growing is dramatically different. Whereas China is a formidable exporter of manufactured goods, India has acquired a global reputation for exporting modern services. Indeed, India has leapfrogged over...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2010
The pope's Easter mystery
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — As more than a billion Roman Catholics prepare to commemorate the most sacred mysteries of their faith culminating at Easter next Sunday, most eyes will be on the small elderly man in the Vatican palace to see whether he can steer the church through the turbulence tearing it apart.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2010
Can Turkey fulfill its trans-Atlantic promise?
By Kemal Kirisci, Nathalie Tocci, and Joshua Walker
WASHINGTON — The Turkey that German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits this week is a very different place from the Turkey that began European Union accession talks five years ago. For, with those talks seemingly going nowhere, Turkey has begun to broaden its international horizons. Indeed, Turkish foreign...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2010
Mutual understanding of history
Japanese and South Korean historians on March 23 issued a report on the second round of discussions on the shared history of the two nations. Objections to nationalistic content of a history textbook approved by Japan's education ministry led to the two countries agreeing in 2001 to launch the first...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2010
Tough times for pro sports
While sporting events like the Olympic Games attract a tremendous amount of attention globally, domestic sporting contests are of at least equal importance to society. Unfortunately, Nippon Professional Baseball and J. League are both in the midst of financial woe. It would be a great shame if these...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2010
Waste-cutting, second round
From late April, the Hatoyama administration will start a second round of scrutinizing expenditure, this time targeting government-linked public service corporations and independent administrative agencies. In November the administration scrutinized a raft of budget requests in full view of the public,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2010
Inherent conflict of interest
Calls from within the government for a revision of the Administrative Complaint Investigation Law — under which citizens can file complaints with administrative bodies or call for an investigation of their actions — deserve serious attention.
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2010
Drone dependency trivializing Afghan war
By Cesar Chelala
NEW YORK — Captain Ferguson (a fictitious name) gets up early in the morning, and has breakfast with his wife and children. At the office, he sits in front of a computer off and on for almost eight hours. At the end of the day he heads back home. Ferguson's wife is glad to see him as they discuss the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2010
India's budget boldly exempts toy balloons from excise duty
By Kevin Rafferty
HONG KONG — Which country is growing at close to 8 percent a year but has the potential for double digit-growth, is already in the world's top 10 industrial powers but should be in the top three or four, has the best demographic profile of almost all developing countries but faces immense social and...
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2010
Sound of street enterprise
Once upon a time, Tokyo's streets were filled with pushcart vendors selling every imaginable item. Those fabled days are making a comeback, with small startup companies and hardworking individuals plying Tokyo's streets selling food and small goods in many parts of the city. The resurgence of these vendors...
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
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.
Emperor emeritus and empress emerita visit postwar settlement
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko strolled through a cabbage field in Ohinata settlement in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Saturday.
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
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.
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

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