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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2017

The Trump era may be better for Palestinians

The Trump presidency could be the push that Palestinians need to liberate themselves from the weight of an overbearing, arrogant and futile U.S. foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2017

Democrats: Stop the fear and loathing of 2017

Democrats need to stop wallowing in misery and start planning on how to take America back.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 27, 2016

In visiting Pearl Harbor, Abe again shows his pragmatic side

Upon returning to power in 2012, Abe has demonstrated his pragmatism to governance numerous times by adopting positions that both appeal to, but also upset his conservative base.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2016

Spiral of xenophobic fear and violence further imperils Western societies, experts say

The rise of far-right politics across the world may hit already scant foreign aid, increase tensions between communities and countries, and lead to more people fleeing conflict, warn Nobel laureates, leaders and experts.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2016

Should South Korea be worried?

South Korea's domestic political turmoil is a bigger threat to its national security than U.S. foreign policy under a Trump presidency,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Dec 7, 2016

So you want to write about Japan?: the 10 essential tips

Having taken the daring — not reckless or avoidant — step of leaving your home country, you now have a million stories to tell.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2016

The first U.S. presidency of the post-literate age

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the media has worked itself into a panic about the rise of fake news on social media.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 3, 2016

What shape will populism take in modern Japan?

Populism isn't new. A wave of it generated democracy in ancient Greece, circa 500 B.C. Its modern form, born in America in the early 19th century, was a revolt against the planter aristocracy that had governed since independence in 1776. Andrew Jackson — said to be the first president born in a log...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2016

Fillon can beat Le Pen, but don't bank on it

Given pollsters' massive predictive failures elsewhere this year, no one should count on left-wing voters turning out to help defeat right-winger Marine Le Pen.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 30, 2016

Facing a crisis in democracy

Japan is facing the same risk as the U.S. in the sense that politics of hatred and division prevail as people's lives get worse.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2016

Hopefully the last of the charismatic totalitarians

With the end of Fidel Castro's life, we can hope to have seen the last of charismatic totalitarians worshiped by political pilgrims from open societies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 25, 2016

Expect closer Japan-U.S. ties

An alignment of long-term economic, political and security interests mean that Japan-U.S. relations will ultimately be driven by strategic considerations rather than personality politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2016

Vladimir Putin is winning the French election

Unless the Socialists can pull a rabbit out of a hat, France will get a Putin-friendly president next year.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2016

Did U.S. academia help elect Donald Trump?

U.S. institutions of supposedly higher education are awash with hysteria, authoritarianism, obscurantism, philistinism and charlatanry.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2016

Japan's top buzzword candidates for 2016 range from Pikotaro to 'the Trump phenomenon'

The 30 nominees for Japan's top buzzwords of 2016 were announced Thursday by the Jiyukokuminsha publishing house, covering a variety of new popular terms ranging from the "Shin Godzilla" film to the "Zika fever."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2016

Trump's to-do list in Asia

America's president-elect needs to do some damage control if he wants the U.S. to profit from the Asian century.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2016

Dysfunction goes deeper than the candidates

Regardless of who wins this bitterly contested election, the victor will face the same basic, daunting, task: reconciling the vast promises that have been made, both in this campaign and earlier, with the government's limited ability to meet those promises.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2016

Getting real on climate change

Mainstream politics, by definition, is ill equipped to imagine fundamental change. But last December in Paris, 196 governments agreed on the need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — an objective that holds the promise of delivering precisely such a transformation....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2016

Populism thrives off the automation revolution

The world is on the verge of massive change on the scale of the Industrial Revolution.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2016

Officials who changed plans at Tsukiji market replacement site tracked down

The Tokyo government identifies eight current and former officials believed responsible for the ever-spiraling safety woes complicating the relocation plan for the Tsukiji fish market.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 1, 2016

In oblique reference to Xi, top Chinese official says party has no set retirement age for leaders

A senior Communist Party policy official dismissed as "pure folklore" a retirement rule widely used to predict Chinese leadership changes, calling into question key assumptions about who will step down after President Xi Jinping's reshuffle next year.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2016

Surviving these troubled times

Our challenge, as individuals in this era of discontent, is to ensure that amid the madness, our own sanity endures.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 30, 2016

Iceland's Pirate Party makes historic breakthrough in election

AFP-JIJI
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Oct 24, 2016

LDP wins big, but is it enough for Abe to call snap election?

With Sunday's double victory in Tokyo and Fukuoka by-elections, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might be feeling relieved — but not exactly over the moon.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 11, 2016

By-election campaigns that may prompt Abe to call snap election kick off

Campaigning for two pivotal by-elections in Tokyo and Fukuoka get underway.Campaigning for two pivotal by-elections in Tokyo and Fukuoka get underway.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2016

Peres: no hero for Palestinians

For Palestinians, Lebanese and a multitude of others, Shimon Peres is just another war criminal who escaped any accountability for his countless misdeeds.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2016

Shimon Peres passes on

As the world remembers Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, it is important that his committment to peace not be forgotten or left unfulfilled.
JAPAN / History
Oct 1, 2016

Religious reflections: Pope John Paul II's enduring legacy in Japan

The iconic pontiff's visit 35 years ago may offer some insights into what we can expect from a possible papal stopover in 2017.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2016

Holding Pakistan to account

Pakistan's military must be brought under full civilian control and its links to all Islamist militants — including those directed against India and nurtured as such by the military-intelligence complex — severed.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2016

Thai monarchy could be heading for a crisis

The Thai monarchy is ill-prepared to cope with the uncertainties that will accompany the next king.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years