Search - politics

 
 
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 22, 2014

Okinawans reject Abe's base deal, but he won't listen

On Nov. 16, Okinawan voters sent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a clear message: Close the U.S. marine air base in Futenma and locate the replacement somewhere outside our prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2014

Moderate defense of what they call extremism

Few words are less meaningless in political discourse than 'extremism,' as people are extremists only in comparison to what is mainstream at the moment. Today's extremism becomes tomorrow's moderation under a different system.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2014

An imperfect Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a strikingly imperfect society in almost every respect: politics, economy, security and human rights. Nor does the two-headed potential monster of a government now being created in Kabul make it an entirely lost cause.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2014

Scotland stays in

Although last week's vote in Scotland preserves the U.K., expect the Union to be transformed as the Scottish people hold British politicians to their campaign pledge of giving the Scots more power over their own affairs.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

Race- and religion-based politics slows Asia's progress

How fitting it would be if, on his next return visit to Asia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry — on behalf of America's first African-American president — helped to push the region, including China, to move beyond the racial and ethnic stereotypes that are constraining economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2014

Australia flirts with messed-up American dream

It was fascinating to hear American economist Joseph Stiglitz take on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott for trafficking in the same economic ideologies threatening to turn the American dream into a nightmare of permanent haves and have-nots.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2014

Japan's status quo crumbles with an apology to a woman

When Tokyo city assemblyman Akihiro Suzuki bowed to assemblywoman Ayaka Shiomura and apologized for publicly heckling her over her unmarried status, some people caught their breath, convinced that they were witnessing something epochal in Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2014

Populist Hashimoto a true 'yankii'?

In Japanese politics, someone labeled a 'yankii' is something of a populist who disdains cosmopolitanism and intellectual elitism. But does that apply to outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2014

The deal breaks down in Bangladeshi politics

Since the restoration of democracy in 1991, Bangladesh has managed to avoid the political turbulence that haunted it during the first two decades of its existence. Until now.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2013

IRS rules on nonprofits foster debate on advocacy groups in politics

For the first time since 1959, American nonprofit advocacy groups face new Internal Revenue Service rules governing their political activities, an area of the tax code that has been crying out for greater clarity.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2013

Foley tribute has important lessons for Congress

The U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall last week became a lecture room for some lawmakers to learn about the secret of 'old school' success in bipartisan House leadership.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2013

Acting out in the Upper House

Upper House opposition parties played partisan politics in firing the chairperson of the Environment Committee. And the LDP's response was nothing to brag about.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2013

Top French officials disclose personal wealth

The wealthiest member of France's Socialist government, French people learned Monday, is Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who inherited a $7.8 million fortune from his family's trade in art and antiques. But Michele Delaunay, minister for the aged, also disclosed a comfortable stash: $7 million, mostly...
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2013

Gun control held hostage by politics

Gun-control measures that once seemed destined to become law after the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, are in jeopardy amid a fierce lobbying campaign by firearms advocates.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2012

The politics and insanity of the Cuba embargo

An open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama:
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 22, 2012

Hatoyama won't seek re-election

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama officially announced Wednesday he will not run in the Dec. 16 Lower House election and instead will retire from politics.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2012

Sexual policies and politics during the occupation of Japan

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan, by Sarah Kovner. Stanford University Press, 2012, 240 pp., $50.00 (hardcover) Love, Sex and Democracy During the American Occupation, by Mark McClelland. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 252 pp., $85.00 (hardcover) Six decades after the U.S. occupation...
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2012

The stubborn stench of money politics

The co-treasurer of the British Conservative Party, Peter Cruddas, a wealthy self-made businessman, made some revealing and highly embarrassing comments recently to journalists from The Sunday Times posing as potential donors to the Tories.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Serve the people, not politics: Noda to Diet

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda kicked off a new Diet session Tuesday by urging the opposition camp to stop playing party politics and join talks on raising the consumption tax.
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2011

The Song of Chu and Japanese politics today

"Song of Chu all around" (si-mian-Chu-ge) is an old Chinese saying that means "being besieged or deserted on all sides."
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 8, 2011

Victors bask after political hat trick

OSAKA — At an October reception in central Nagoya for delegates to the U.N. COP10 meeting on biodiversity, Mayor Takashi Kawamura seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. As he was leaving, his face flushed red, he suddenly broke into English, singing the gospel classic "We Shall Overcome" but giving...
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2011

Quality of local politics

In the Jan. 16 mayoral election in Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture, residents chose a newcomer over the former "autocratic" mayor. But it is uncertain whether the electoral results will bring back normalcy to the city soon.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 27, 2010

What's in a name? Politics as usual

When the Democratic Party of Japan indicated in its political manifesto that it favored voting rights for foreign permanent residents, the reaction from some quarters of the media was visceral. In early April, publisher Takarajima-sha produced a 96-page "emergency publication" titled "Gaikokujin Sanseiken...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2010

Australian politics heat up

SYDNEY — An angry advertising campaign over a proposed super-tax is pushing usually placid Australian voters toward one of the closest, most divisive elections in memory.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2010

New era for British politics

Five days after the inconclusive election May 6 — in which no party won a majority in the House of Commons — Conservative leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg brought a new era to Britain's politics by starting the first coalition government since World War II. At 43, Prime...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 21, 2009

'Alien' prime minister, new-look Cabinet bring change to old politics

Politics is not the kind of stuff you normally stay up to watch on the telly long into the night. Not unless scandals, drunkenness and other juicy activities are involved, of course.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2009

Historic day for Japanese politics

In a historic change in Japan's parliamentary political history, the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition in Sunday's Lower House election. The DPJ has captured 308 seats out of the 480 seats in the all-important chamber.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 14, 2009

For Hatoyamas, politics is considered birthright

Often compared to the Kennedy family for the impressive list of lawmakers and scholars hailing from its ranks, the Hatoyama clan is one of the nation's most prominent political dynasties.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 28, 2009

Priorities and politics 'must change fast' to head off global calamity

The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer declared: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

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