Search - commentary

 
 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2014

Rising hope for nations with falling birthrates

The lamentations of some economists in the advanced economies would have us believe that a shrinking population is a bad thing. In fact, the benefits of demographic stability, or even a slight decline, outweigh any adverse effects.
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
Aug 12, 2014

Obama can't afford to wage another Cold War

The U.S. may not be facing a new Cold War, but it will only weaken its position in the world, and especially against Russia, if it fails to heed the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 12, 2014

China has more than 150 economic fugitives in U.S., daily says

More than 150 people suspected of economic crimes from China remain at large in the U.S., the China Daily said Monday, as officials pledge to step up efforts to hunt down those who take their ill-gotten gains abroad.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 11, 2014

No optical illusion: Obama balances world crises with golf, time off

President Barack Obama gave Americans an update on U.S. military strikes in Iraq on Saturday from a podium on the White House lawn with Marine One, the presidential helicopter, parked in the background.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 2, 2014

A deeper look at Hayao Miyazaki's nature

'The Art of Princess Mononoke' — a deeper look at Hayao Miyazaki's nature
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 30, 2014

Mitani brings new life to a love-suicide

If there's one thing I never expected to see in a bunraku play, it was a disco ball. Similarly, a scene in which the leading lady has her nails done by a bevy of kimono-clad attendants.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jul 25, 2014

New games to keep you occupied in the summer

These warriors rule
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

Enemy

Very few directors have picked up the gauntlet thrown down by David Lynch's films such as "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Drive." These are films steeped in mysteries so deep that Lynch himself is positively daring audiences to wrap their heads around them; they are the cinematic equivalent of an M.C....
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 16, 2014

Gaza fighting becomes a lethal reality show for rocket-weary Israelis

Sitting on a leather sofa in flip-flops and shorts, smoking and eating snacks, a group of middle-aged Israeli men look like they are watching a soccer match on TV, but they are perched atop a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip watching a very different kind of contest.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 1, 2014

China's military calls for unity after top level graft bust

China's military called on Tuesday for unity and loyalty to the ruling Communist Party after one of its most senior former officers was accused of corruption, the highest-ranking official to date felled in a battle against pervasive graft.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2014

T'ora! Tora! Tora!'

Director: Richard Fleischer
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 9, 2014

Western democracy brings only chaos, China's top newspaper says

China's top newspaper on Monday warned against aping Western-style democracy just a week after the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, pointing to Thailand and Ukraine as examples of the kind of chaos the system can bring.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

The Tank Man's defiance

Chinese Communist authorities largely spared the student protesters of Tiananmen Square 25 years ago, though many leaders went to prison. It was ordinary citizens like the famous man who stood down the tank — along the streets to the square — who suffered the most.
LIFE / Digital
May 30, 2014

13 years on, the true cost of Windows XP is only just emerging

One evening a few years ago, I found myself at a Christmas party in London. The event took place on the eighth floor of a building in the heart of the City and, at one point, seeking an escape from the chatter, I took my drink and ventured out on to the balcony.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2014

Taking aim at Japan's gender problem

Media coverage of the rise and fall of Japanese scientist Haruko Obokata illustrates the problem with the third arrow of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy — and its otherwise laudable goal of expanding the participation of women in positions of power.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2014

A memorial to horror and honor

More fitting than any commentary about Memorial Day, just celebrated in the U.S., is the description of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox to Ulysses S. Grant, which ended the Civil War.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 23, 2014

Superbug threat requires urgent world action: scientists

Superbugs resistant to drugs pose a serious worldwide threat and demand a response on the same scale as efforts to combat climate change, specialists on infectious diseases said on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014

Forgetful of history amid today's territorial tiffs

For all China's stern injunctions to Japan to remember wartime history, its recent bumbling aggression in Southeast Asia suggests it also could use a refresher course.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2014

Biologists invent new DNA letters for life's alphabet

Scientists have taken the first steps toward writing the blueprint of life in an alphabet unknown to nature, they have reported in the journal Nature.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2014

Ending Asia's zero-sum games

Perhaps if Asia's leaders viewed East Asia's rapid economic transformation, geopolitical dynamics and historical animosities like a recenlty arrived space alien, they would see what they need to do to halt the dangerous trends.
Reader Mail
Apr 16, 2014

Don't judge Malaysia by tragedy

I worry that William Pesek's April 12 commentary on Malaysia, titled"How Malaysia can limit harm from lost Flight 370," is encouraging international readers to view the nation's strengths and weaknesses through the tiny prism of the lost Malaysia Airlines flight. Certainly let's call this situation what...
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2014

Congress top obstacle to TPP deal

Failure by Japanese and U.S. negotiators to reach a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is making headlines across Japan and raising concerns about the implications for U.S. President Barack Obama's trip here later this month.
Reader Mail
Apr 2, 2014

Right response to soccer banner

Kudos to the Urawa Reds soccer team for taking action against the "Japanese Only" banner displayed at the team's first game played at home this season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 22, 2014

The Ise Stories

Before there was "The Tale of Genji," the "The Ise Stories" ("Ise Monogatari") presented ancient Japanese audiences with a titillating series of loosely connected episodes of love that are believed to be based on the romantic encounters of the poet and aristocrat Ariwara no Narihira (825-880).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2014

Kaidan Nobori Ryu (Blind Woman's Curse)

Director: Teruo Ishii
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 18, 2014

Jackson certain to win in New York like everywhere else

Kobe Bryant for five championships played for Phil Jackson. In his seven seasons playing for coaches other than Jackson he got none.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 13, 2014

Write off bitcoin if you like, but digital currency is here to stay

If I had a bitcoin for every person I've met in the past six months who told me that bitcoin is a scam, I'd be a rich man. Or a poor one, depending in which day of the week we're talking about.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 12, 2014

The many reinventions of Masamu Yanase

If ever an artist was in a constant state of reinvention, it was Masamu Yanase (1900-1945), now the subject of a full-scale exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama. "Yanase Masamu: A Retrospective 1900-1945" brings together more than 500 of the artist's works, large and small, for a comprehensive...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami