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COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2011

Global crises of democracy

In 2000, at the first U.N. millennium meeting in Tokyo, Gallup presented interesting results of a global public opinion survey. Most people, even in the mature Western democracies, believed their government was failing to represent them — refusing to heed their voices, looking after their own and corporate...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2011

A prisoner swap in Israel

The exchange of some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped Israeli soldier is a victory for humanitarianism in a region too often characterized by brutality. The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the deal goes against every one of his impulses, which were over-ridden...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Oct 16, 2011

Men marrying later, the new Diet building opens, grenade causes plane scare

100 YEARS AGOThursday, Oct. 26, 1911
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2011

Reformer for the delusional

The only vote that matters in Russia's 2012 presidential election is now in, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has cast it for himself. He will be returning as Russia's president next year.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2011

Spring for an off-road map to peace

As the Palestinians seek United Nations support for a state of their own, Washington has advanced two arguments to dissuade them: First, that taking the issue of statehood to the U.N. is a unilateral move away from negotiations with Israel; and second, that the effort will be counterproductive because...
Reader Mail
Sep 29, 2011

Ban this intolerable stock phrase

I hate the phrase "restore the public's trust." It is too much over-cooked gobbledygook and I'd rather eat nails than hear it one more time. Lamenting the threat to, or decline in, the public's trust in politics is one of those stock phrases that are rehashed whenever politicians write articles for the...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 26, 2011

Prime Minister Noda the no-sider can have no one on his side

So yet another Japanese prime minister comes out of the woodwork. One gets so tired of talking about revolving doors, merry-go-rounds, musical chairs and passing the parcel.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 25, 2011

Now is the time for a 'brand Japan' that creates and inspires

On Sept. 19, just as this column hit deadline, news outlets reported that a massive demonstration was taking place in Tokyo, rallying tens of thousands of people against nuclear power.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 25, 2011

Praise, where it's due, for Japanese fascism

Once upon a time men were proud to call themselves fascist. "I am convinced," wrote a leading Japanese reformist bureaucrat in the early 1930s, "that from now on the spirit of the civilization and politics of mankind is fascist ideology ... Before the iron laws of historical development, the downfall...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2011

Threats to the realization of India's potential

For all of India's many and weighty advantages and its present trajectory, a fatal stall cannot be ruled out.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2011

Checking the impulse to fight wars of choice

As the United States stumbles through its economic challenges at home, the pressure of world events will not subside. But America's ability to address them has changed. Its fiscal weakness limits its ability to act as global policeman.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2011

Political elite can't stand outsiders

Yoshio Hachiro's stint as the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the new Yoshihiko Noda administration was not the briefest cabinet assignment on record, but it was certainly one of the most controversial. News outlets reported that it was "public outrage" over two remarks he made which forced...
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2011

China plays hardball with Russia on energy deals

China's President Hu Jintao has a reserved demeanor. So it is hard to imagine him as a poker player. But in energy politics with neighboring Russia, he certainly is.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Sep 3, 2011

Foreign, defense picks disappoint analysts

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's choice of ministers for foreign diplomacy and security reflects an emphasis on fence-mending in his party rather than plans to address imminent diplomatic challenges, analysts said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2011

Safe choice, but wrong choice?

Former Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda is the new prime minister of Japan. Noda is something of an anomaly: one of those self-deprecating politicians — he likens himself to a "loach," a scavenger that is kin to the catfish — who commands respect for having a steady hand and even temperament. Some...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Sep 3, 2011

Fiscal, economic rookies concern analysts

Financial experts on Friday were quick to voice their concern over the appointment of Jun Azumi as finance minister, saying the rookie Cabinet member will allow Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to push his own fiscal policies and may lack the authority to command the ministry's bureaucrats.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2011

Contenders' backgrounds

Seiji Maehara Seiji Maehara represents Kyoto's No. 2 electoral district, a cultural cornucopia where in some ways he could be considered an outsider.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2011

A grand coalition for what?

Finance minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is expected to run for an election to choose the next chief of the Democratic Party of Japan to succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has called for the formation of a grand coalition between the ruling DPJ and the Nos. 1 and 2 opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2011

Obama risks 'junk status'

Standard & Poor's controversial decision to downgrade the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA-plus brought an instant angry riposte from President Barack Obama that "We've always been and always will be a Triple-A country."
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2011

The crisis that wasn't in Turkey

Turkey's military has long intervened in the country's politics, but a recent power play by leading military figures is remarkable — but for what did not happen. Turkey's top military resigned in a power struggle with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan late last month, yet that show of force did not...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2011

Making hay at the Ames straw poll

Being in politics, said Minnesota Democrat Sen. Eugene McCarthy, is like coaching football: You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it is important. The game of presidential politics is especially arcane in the cunning weirdness of the Ames straw poll, a quadrennial...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2011

Hosni Mubarak's last laugh?

August 3, 2011, will be remembered as a historic day in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak was put on public trial, together with his two sons and his ex-interior minister, General Habib el-Adly. The repercussions for Egypt, indeed for the entire Arab world, will be profound.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2011

'Financial repression' and other remedies

Early in the financial crisis, a major emerging-market investor told me: "This is not a global, but a semi-global financial crisis." He was right: it really was a crisis of the United States, Europe and Japan. Among emerging markets, only Eastern Europe was badly hit. Indeed, the crisis marks the emerging...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2011

Debt deal reveals empty toolbox

When President Barack Obama signed into law the bill increasing the debt ceiling to $16.7 trillion, Americans might have breathed a sigh of relief that the danger of default is over — for now (and probably until spring 2013).
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2011

News of the World scandal

The revelations of misdeeds committed by the British tabloid News of the World are horrific but should not be surprising. There have been suspicions about the paper's behavior for years but a perverse fascination with its reporting — like the inability to not watch a car wreck — and a casual refusal...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2011

Kissinger blighted millionsas U.S. jockeyed for position

Henry Kissinger has distilled many words of wisdom from four millennia of Chinese civilization, and several centuries of Western diplomacy, including almost half a century of personal experience at the sharp end of power politics. He has captured headlines and captivated some of the world's best commentating...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011

Rap artist Rumi stokes nuke fires

If you were in the Tokyo neighborhoods of Koenji on April 10, Shibuya on May 7, or Shinjuku on June 11, you might have seen (or more likely, heard) thousands of demonstrators weaving through the streets, waving signs and chanting slogans in opposition to Japan's atomic energy policies. In the past few...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 12, 2011

Those opposing Kan offer no clear reason he must go

The 2012 U.S. presidential election campaign officially started two weeks ago, when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced he would be a candidate for the Republican Party nomination. Romney chose as the setting for his momentous, though unsurprising, announcement a beautiful old family farm...
EDITORIALS
Jun 9, 2011

Groundless call for coalition

After Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence motion on June 2, Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Katsuya Okada started calling for the formation of a grand coalition between the DPJ and the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2011

Dial Mladic for mass murder

The old saying about the importance of justice appearing to be done as well as being done is perhaps even more relevant to international than national politics.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Descendants in Philippines denied Japanese citizenship
What would a ‘backup capital’ look like for Japan?
The Japan Innovation Party has long sought to get Osaka designated as Japan's backup capital.
Chinese national sentenced for hit-and-run that injured four children in Saitama
A Saitama district court sentenced Deng Hongpeng, a Chinese national and demolition worker, to two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years, for hitting a group of elementary school children with his car and fleeing the scene while driving under the influence.
As attacks surge, who can cull bears in Japan?
Police cars leave the Akita Prefectural Police headquarters to cull bears, in the city of Akita on Thursday.
Japan fully enters sports streaming era as fans face new dilemmas
Sports fan Tadashi Yokoyama streams basketball and fencing on three screens.
Tatsuya Nakadai: A masterful leading man and postwar icon
Tatsuya Nakadai had the look of a leading man in his youth, but his large and searching eyes suggested the pain and loneliness of an old soul.
As Japan’s female leader rises, can she cross sumo’s sacred line?
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (front center) delivers a speech on the first day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center on Sunday. Centuries of belief and tradition still underpin the all-male association's stance of excluding women.
Takaichi doesn’t mince words on Taiwan, but dramatic policy shift unlikely
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responds to questions during a House of Representatives Budget Committee session in parliament on Tuesday.
Florist Nicolai Bergmann flourishes outside the box
Florist Nicolai Bergmann shops for fresh flowers at the Ota flower market in Tokyo on Friday.

Podcast

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

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
By Yukana Inoue

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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