Search - opinion

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2015

U.K. election most unpredictable in generations

On May 7, British voters will go to the polls in the most unpredictable general election for decades.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2015

Pan-Arab military force — a good idea or bad?

The Arab League's decision to establish a joint military force is a major accomplishment for Saudi Arabian foreign policy, but comes with serious risks.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 4, 2015

Magazines fixate on the roots of poverty

The oft-seen expression ichioku sō-chūryū translates roughly as "the perception of 'the 100 million,' i.e., the entire nation, as belonging to the middle class."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 1, 2015

Battle over Shibuya park heats up as Tokyo Olympics loom

Mayor vows to appeal after the district court sides with his opponents over the treatment of Miyashita Park's homeless and a deal to grant Nike naming rights.
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Mar 31, 2015

Machida's move proves costly for Japan in the end

Japan came away from the 2015 world championships last week in Shanghai with two of the six singles medals after Yuzuru Hanyu and Satoko Miyahara both claimed silver.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2015

Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo as war victim

Recently I was asked to translate into English a short story that the Taiwanese writer Chou Chin-bo wrote in Japanese back in 1941. I was happy with this request. I was born in Taipei in 1942, but ever since my family was forced out of the island upon Japan's defeat in the war, in 1945, I have never...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 30, 2015

The Battle of Okinawa: America's good war gone bad

Seventy years after the final epic clash of World War II, has the U.S. betrayed the ideals its service members died fighting for?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2015

Call Cameron's 'gaffe' anything but guileless

There's been much debate over whether British Prime Minister David Cameron's shock announcement about his political future was just an unguarded slip — as he tried to look like a normal family man rather than a power-crazed politician on a soft-feature TV show — or a tactic.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 29, 2015

Reflections on war and childhood on a Tokyo train

It had been sheer chance that propelled the silver-haired woman and that young girl to those particular seats in that particular carriage on that particular Ginza Line train at that particular hour.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 28, 2015

Political obstacles stymie energy autonomy

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Japan earlier this month, local coverage focused on a joint German-Japanese statement about the Ukraine crisis and her comment that Japan should forthrightly address its actions during World War II. She said nothing about how Japan and Germany have diverged...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2015

Where political 'fox' LKY stands in Singapore history

The late Lee Kuan Yew showed the world that economic self-improvement in Singapore had to have public policies grounded in best-practice pragmatisms rather than in ideological schematics.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2015

Understanding the truth about medical consent

Obtaining patient consent is a vital but often overlooked skill for doctors.
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 24, 2015

Why did Matsui pick Yankees over Giants?

Former Yomiuri Giants star Hideki Matsui made news earlier this month with his decision to take a job with the New York Yankees. The move was seen as a curious one here for several reasons.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 24, 2015

America's bickering allies

After spending the last six decades defending South Korea and Japan, the U.S. has every reason to demand that its two longtime allies enhance their military cooperation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2015

Russia treading water in sea of red ink

Russia's troubled domestic front is now catching up to President Vladimir Putin and limiting his regional and global aspirations.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 23, 2015

Spain's Andalusia vote sets stage for sweeping change at national level

Leftist newcomer Podemos made spectacular inroads in elections in the Spanish region of Andalusia on Sunday, with the vote splitting over the political spectrum in a foretaste of the upheaval likely in national elections later in the year.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 23, 2015

Okinawa governor threatens to pull plug on landfill work for Futenma replacement

Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga tells the Okinawa Defense Bureau to suspend 'any act that changes the status quo of the seabed' and warns he may revoke permission for land reclamation unless the bureau stops the work within a week.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 23, 2015

Spare a thought for the Western men trapped in Japan

Japan can be the best place in the world for some, but for others it can be a trap — especially for Western men.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2015

Redouble efforts to close the EU-Turkey gap

Never have the European Union and Turkey needed one another more, and yet rarely have they been so distant.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 23, 2015

Britain's Conservative Party suspends candidate over far-right plot claims

Britain's ruling Conservatives have suspended a Muslim candidate in a key seat following allegations he plotted with the far right English Defence League (EDL) to stir up racial tension to help win votes in May's election.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2015

Dangerous nuclear rhetoric

President Vladimir Putin's recent disclosure on a television program that he was ready to put Russia's nuclear forces on alert during the Crimea crisis in 2014 could end up thwarting nuclear disarmament efforts worldwide.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2015

Kono urges Abe to erase doubts over war history

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must erase doubts — sparked by his own words and deeds — that he wants to water down accounts of Japan's wartime wrongs, according to a former leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2015

Taxpayers shouldn't fund war on Asahi Shimbun

The Abe administration's 'kulturekampf' against Asahi Shimbun makes it look like the Chinese Communist Party in its hostility to a free press.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan