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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 26, 2016

Trump brands Cruz-Kasich alliance to derail his candidacy 'weak, pathetic'

Facing a potential wipeout in U.S. presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, Republicans Ted Cruz and John Kasich teamed up against Donald Trump, setting off a barrage of new attacks from the front-runner who denounced them as desperate, weak and pathetic.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2016

What's up with U.S. black voters?

Unlike Sanders, Clinton has consistently supported policies that have had a devastating impact on African-Americans — yet most black voters support her.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2016

Domestic policy in the West transformed by Islamic State

For the past half century, Western policy in the Middle East has been straining under the weight of its own contradictions.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2016

Teens stepping up to the plate

Japanese teens are increasingly taking an active interest in politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2016

Why Sanders can triumph

In a troubling time for America, Bernie Sanders offers a clear and passionate vision that could propell him to the White House.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Nov 14, 2015

Will Tokyo become Hashimoto's Wonderland?

"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 24, 2015

Assessing Japan's rightward shift at the top

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is Japan's most ideological postwar prime minister, pushing right-wing policies on numerous fronts that trample on postwar norms and values. He has been able to do so because he has the Diet in his back pocket, but how did this tectonic shift in Japanese politics happen?
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 16, 2015

LDP to solicit would-be candidates in online campaign aimed at drawing youth vote

The Liberal Democratic Party is attempting to reach the youth vote ahead of next summer's Upper House election.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2015

Welcome moms at assemblies

In a democracy, attending political deliberations and assembly meetings should be a right for all citizens, including mothers with babies.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2014

Thai crown prince causing the elites anxiety

Beneath the celebration of the Thai king's birthday lies unease among the elites over the eventual royal transition of the Crown Prince, now said to be in the first stage of divorcing his third wife.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2014

Thai regime hunts for legitimacy in Myanmar

Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha visits Myanmar, of all places, to try to add a layer of legitimacy to his regime following the military coup last May.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2014

Netanyahu's talks with Kerry will be critical

Support for an independent Palestine alongside the state of Israel is not a constant. An odd tension in public opinion exists on both sides: The desire for the two leaderships to negotiate a settlement is set against a much weaker conviction that they are capable of doing it.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2014

Fragmented Asian loyalties

Across Asia, the authority of older political, economic and military elites is being challenged and often overthrown. Fresh social networks and NGO-style activism are defining an alternative way of doing politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2014

Villagers transforming Asian cities

The election of engineer Arvind Kejriwal as the new chief minister of the urbanized Delhi region adds an Indian dimension to the worldwide phenomenon of political newcomers challenging entrenched elites.
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2013

Why is work a zero free-speech zone?

If a reality TV show star, or any American for that matter, can be fired for expressing him- or herself when at work — or not at work — then the right to free speech is a meaningless abstraction that applies only to the tiny fraction of super-rich Americans who don't have to worry about getting fired.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2013

U.S. may scale down its global policing: experts

Political, demographic and diplomatic changes in the U.S. during the past decades suggest the country will probably continue to be polarized into Democrat and Republican extremes, and the superpower will probably continue to rely on immigrants for economic growth and will likely play the global policeman...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

Hope amid Mideast turmoil

No one put the chances of reviving the Israel-Palestine peace process at more than minimal. Yet it has happened. Now is not the time for despair in the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2013

Dispute over Preah Vihear Temple is taken up, threatening to revive Thai nationalistic fervor

The Cambodia-Thailand dispute over the Preah Vihear Temple has been taken up by the International Court of Justice, threatening to reignite nationalistic tensions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 12, 2013

Disaster did little to shake up status quo, expert says

Disappointing expectations that the megaquake and tsunami two years ago — and subsequent nuclear calamity — would trigger a rebirth of politics and government, Japan's key policies remain largely unchanged, says Richard Samuels, director of the Center for International Studies at Massachusetts Institute...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2013

The Iron Lady's lasting legacy

Margaret Thatcher was the woman who began the shift to the right that has affected almost all the countries of the West in the past three decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

The movie exposing the lies at the heart of U.S. capitalism

In one sense, "Inequality for All" is absolutely the film of the moment. We are living through tumultuous times. The economy has tanked. Austerity has cut a swath through our lives.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2012

Arab leaders ignore crowd dynamics at their peril

In 1896, the social psychologist Gustave Le Bon warned his contemporaries of the dangers of crowds, writing that, "It is necessary to arrive at a solution to the problems offered by [crowds'] psychology, or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them." As spontaneous protest overtakes organized political...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 22, 2012

Shisaku

Shisaku is a homophone meaning essay, a meditation upon a subject, a policy or measures a government takes. A fitting title for analyst Michael Cucek's blog which provides insight and opinion on Japanese politics, with a distinct hint of satire. In the eight years he's been writing the blog, Shisaku...
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2012

Unnerving year for Northeast Asia

While 2011 was "the great unraveling," 2012 holds out the prospect of equally consequential changes for Asia, but the inflection points are visible well ahead of time. The most notable feature of the calendar will be elections that are scheduled to be held throughout the region this year, each of which...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2011

Vaclav Havel's life in truth

Long before Czechoslovakia's communist regime collapsed in 1989, Vaclav Havel was one of the most remarkable figures in Czech history — already a successful playwright when he became the unofficial leader of the opposition movement. Though he hoped to return to writing, the revolution catapulted him...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 6, 2011

LDP: fall of Japan's political machine

THE RISE AND FALL OF JAPAN'S LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions, by Ellis S. Krauss and Robert J. Pekkanen. Cornell University Press, 2011, 318 pp., $26.95 (paper) Japanese politics is in a sad state these days with the media likening Diet debate to flatulence. Voters' expectations...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2010

Labour's left foot forward?

New party leaders never want for advice. Since his election as leader of the British Labour Party last month, everyone has words of wisdom for Ed Miliband. This frenzied fight to mold the Miliband message is hardly surprising; a series of poor policy and presentational decisions when Labour last lost...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2010

DPJ, like voters, too flighty: Kabashima

Kumamoto Gov. Ikuo Kabashima feels what is lacking in politics is patience, both by the Democratic Party of Japan and voters.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 25, 2010

Looking East as British system goes south

In the months preceding the Lower House election last year, an ambitious Ichiro Ozawa, destined to become Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) secretary general, headed to Britain to study the "Westminster system." His aim was to bring Japan's politics closer to that of Britain, to weaken the power of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2010

Mika Tsutsumi: Spotlight on the States

Mika Tsutsumi is a spirited journalist and writer whose work turns a spotlight on the widespread hardships and poverty caused by official policies and the behavior of businesses in the United States.

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