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November 14, 2025
 

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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2009

Discrimination claims die hard in Japan

As the United States welcomes its first African-American president, Japan is still struggling with prejudices that are preventing it from breaking ancient taboos and installing a minority as its leader, some say.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2009

Japan aims to be seated when Obama resets diplomatic table

Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th U.S. president may have gotten a new era for Tokyo and Washington under way, but the Japanese government is unlikely to be given the luxury of taking the relationship slow and easy.
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2009

Obama and the alliance

Under the Bush administration, the Japan-U.S. alliance has undergone a quiet but important transformation in the eyes of most Japanese people: It has become a global alliance instead of a regional or bilateral one.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2009

Watanabe resigns from LDP, cites rejected reform proposals

Making good on his threats, former administrative reform minister Yoshimi Watanabe resigned Tuesday from the Liberal Democratic Party.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2008

An oddly familiar year

Historians like to say that "history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes." That would explain the feeling of familiarity that many experienced throughout 2008. While there was one truly unprecedented event — the election of Mr. Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States — there was also...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2008

Hope for Thai democracy

HONG KONG — Abhisit Vejjajiva seems the least likely person to rescue Thailand from what commentators claim are the death throes of democracy. He is boyish-looking, physically slight, has no commanding military or police connections, no reputation for wheeling and dealing, and was foreign born and...
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2008

Japan's global invisibility

Friends of Japan abroad understand why Japanese politicians often assume a low profile in international relations. When they don't — as when paying much-publicized official visits to Yasukuni Shrine or taking a recalcitrant position on whaling — they attract criticism.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

30 Days in the Wilderness

What miracles will the incoming 44th President of the United States perform?
COMMENTARY
Nov 8, 2008

Domestic health-care issues to test Obama

The election of Barack Hussein Obama as U.S. president represents hope for the kind of transformational politics that can lead to a better, more secure world. It also suggests an end to the politics of divisiveness and a turn toward a political system more attuned to the needs of what both candidates...
EDITORIALS
Nov 6, 2008

Mr. Obama wins

The senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, made history Tuesday when he was elected the 44th president of the United States. The scale and sweep of his victory are nothing short of breathtaking: Not only did he win a landslide in the electoral college, but he rode a Democratic wave into Congress. He should...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Oct 19, 2008

Hear yea: 'This country is rotten!'

Barack Obama hasn't yet lived long enough to win the United States presidency; he has, however, influenced Japanese comedy television, where, true to his mantra — or perhaps because of it — "change we can believe in" has already occurred.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 12, 2008

Lack-of-rage rage is all the rage in apathetically raging Japan

A few weeks ago a Sydney radio station held a phone-in about rage. I was floored as I sat and listened to the people who called in to vent some spleen.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2008

In territory and war, it's hard to apologize

TROUBLED APOLOGIES AMONG JAPAN, KOREA AND THE UNITED STATES by Alexis Dudden. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, 167 pp., $40 (cloth) Alexis Dudden engagingly explores how the nexus of politics, war memory and apology shapes contemporary trilateral relations between Korea, Japan and the United...
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2008

Criteria for good leadership

The argument that in a time of crisis experience in government is a necessary qualification for high office has some appeal, but it is not a conclusive reason for choosing a leader. This question became a focus of Britain's two main political parties recently at their respective annual conferences.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2008

Opinions need to be challenged

Regarding Roger Pulvers' Oct. 5 article, "So you think U.S. democracy's dying? Well, you're probably right": I really enjoy reading articles by Pulvers on Japanese language and culture, but his most recent Counterpoint article appears to be one more example of a tired trend of ranting like a leftist...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2008

Aso goes on attack in Diet policy speech

Prime Minister Taro Aso kicked off an extraordinary Diet session Monday with a policy speech in which he challenged the Democratic Party of Japan to a political debate, consciously highlighting the ruling camp's rivalry with the largest opposition force.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 28, 2008

Did Koizumi and Bush really destroy Japan?

CURING JAPAN'S AMERICA ADDICTION by Minoru Morita, Chin Music Press, Seattle, 2008, 224 pp., $15 (paper) Minoru Morita is one of Japan's most prominent and respected political analysts. And he's mad as hell at what he believes are the social and economic crimes committed by former Prime Minister Junichiro...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2008

Koike's campaign stands for change, not just top job

Even as a long shot candidate for prime minister, Yuriko Koike is making waves in Japan, where women in high places remain rare.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2008

LDP looks to replicate media magic

The rules of the game are changing in Tokyo's Nagata-cho, the longtime epicenter of Japanese politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2008

Japan spinning its wheels

OSAKA — To lose one prime minister may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two in one year looks like carelessness. That paraphrase by Oscar Wilde aptly sums up the current state of Japanese politics, given the serial resignations of Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2008

How EU should engage a born-again power

SOFIA — The post-Cold War order in Europe is finished, with Vladimir Putin its executioner. Russia's invasion of Georgia only marked its passing. Russia has emerged as a born-again 19th-century power determined to challenge the intellectual, moral and institutional foundations of the order.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2008

Voters favor Obama for U.S., are fed up with Japan: poll

An overwhelming number of Japanese believe Barack Obama will win the United States presidential election in November and 90 percent are dissatisfied with Japanese politics, according to a survey released Thursday by the nonprofit Nippon Foundation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2008

Nepal's remarkable do-it-yourself peace

KATMANDU — Nepali Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as "Prachanda," has now been sworn in as the first prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, having won an overwhelming vote in the Constituent Assembly elected in April.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2008

Russia must change course

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has seemed that new rules were being established for the conduct of international relations in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The watchwords were independence and interdependence; sovereignty and mutual responsibility; cooperation and common interests....
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2008

Democracy failing in Thailand

Enough already! Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundarvej has been virtually under siege since taking office. His political opponents charge that he is a proxy for deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and demand his resignation. Mr. Samak has refused to give in and appears increasingly isolated....
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2008

Change-bent public pines for leadership

Perplexity, apathy and hopes for a strong leader.
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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