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July 23, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2009
Personifying 'evil' makes war so much easier
By Jeffrey A. Engel
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Equating war with individual evil has become ubiquitous — if not universal — in contemporary international politics.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 1, 2009
Japan's sea change should signal a new course for the media, too
By Roger Pulvers
The relationship between the government and the press in Japan has, during the past 50 years, been a volatile one of give and take: The government gives the press what it wants it to know, and the press gladly takes it. But this has not always been the case.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2009
Fighting corruption in Asia
When Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama likened the Democrat Party of Japan's takeover to the Meiji Restoration in last week's policy speech, he failed to mention an issue that fueled discontent with the Tokugawa Shogunate as it ended in 1867 — corruption. Though corruption did not get a specific mention...
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2009
More doubts about Copenhagen
The prospects for success at the United Nations meeting in December in Copenhagen to devise a global accord to fight global warming appear to be receding. Ironically, one reason for the growing pessimism is the bilateral agreement struck by China and India, two of the world's leading producers of greenhouse...
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2009
LDP makes its intentions clear
The Diet got down to business Wednesday with a plenary session in which party representatives posed questions to the government. Liberal Democratic Party leader Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former finance minister and now an opposition leader, led off by grilling Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in the Lower House....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2009
Is Indian 'soft power' in Afghanistan working?
By Harsh V. Pant
LONDON — In the second such strike in as many years, a suicide car-bombing outside the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul recently left at least 17 dead (none of them embassy staff) and scores of others wounded. India has long been developing its "soft power" strategy in Afghanistan, sticking...
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2009
Collision in Kanmon Strait
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's 5,200-ton helicopter destroyer Kurama collided Tuesday night with the oncoming 7,400-ton Carina Star, a South Korean containership, in a 700-meter-wide bottleneck of Kanmon Strait, between Honshu and Kyushu. Fortunately, the 5-inch gun ammunition compartment on the Kurama...
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2009
Significance of East Asia
By Kazuo Ogoura
There have been renewed debates over the pros and cons of forming an East Asia community ever since the Hatoyama Cabinet advocated its promotion. Such debates have triggered the argument in the United States (and among some Japanese journalists) that East Asia community building runs counter to U.S....
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2009
DPJ good times continue
Victories for the Democratic Party of Japan in Sunday's Upper House by-elections in Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures show that the party is still enjoying solid support some 40 days after the inauguration of the DPJ-led government. The elections were the first Diet-level elections since the Aug. 30...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2009
Reports of the dollar's death are exaggerated
By Barry Eichengreen
BERKELEY, Calif. — The blogosphere is abuzz with reports of the dollar's looming demise. The greenback has fallen against the euro by nearly 15 percent since the beginning of the summer. Central banks have reportedly slowed their accumulation of dollars in favor of other currencies. One sensational...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2009
Coaxing an employment boost
Although Japan's economy has come through the worst phase of the current crisis, the government's October economic report shows that the unemployment rate remains high. At 5.5 percent in August, the rate was only slightly better than the all-time high of 5.7 percent registered the previous month. There...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2009
Hiroshima beckons Obama
By John Einarsen and Sudhi Ranjan Sen
KYOTO — For the past 64 years the name "Hiroshima" has conjured a nightmare vision for all humanity: the unthinkable specter of instantaneous atomic annihilation. Only by personally visiting Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities that have experienced atomic bombing, can one begin to grasp the threat...
Japan and U.S. reach tariff deal with ‘reciprocal’ rate at 15%
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Japan on Tuesday, saying the agreement would create "hundreds of thousands of jobs."
Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, as PM's fate remains unclear
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a news conference at Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
Induction of Ichiro has Cooperstown fretfully preparing
Ichiro Suzuki will soon become the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
By Alex K.T. Martin

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