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Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Sep 1, 2014

Pragmatism, charm are Tusk's hallmarks

Donald Tusk relied on a mix of charm and pragmatism to rise to the top of Polish politics and stay in power longer than anyone since the Cold War. Being the European Union's president will test the extent of those talents.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2014

A climate of fear in Thailand

Despite claims by the Thai military, the May 22 coup has restored neither peace nor order to the country. Instead, a climate of fear has replaced the pre-coup political uncertainty.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

Ukrainian coup is not a revolution

In a real revolution, the core mission and organizational structure of a country's military are radically altered. The leadership changes in Ukraine and Egypt don't signify revolutions.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2014

Internet wiz courts offbeat vote

A Tokyo gubernatorial candidate with an offbeat platform surfaced Wednesday, just one day before applications to run in the Feb. 9 election have to be filed.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2014

Old LDP nemesis rides comeback trail to Tokyo

Morihiro Hosokawa, the former prime minister who rocked and transformed Japanese politics in the early 1990s, is back, this time as a leading candidate for Tokyo governor, running as an anti-nuclear crusader seeking the abolishment of all atomic power plants.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2014

Thai protesters see last chance to save interests

The fact that a member of Thailand's royal family — a daughter of the king — has gotten caught up in politics would seem to guarantee that the current political strife will go on for some time.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2013

Can Christie lead GOP back to White House?

Since Chris Christie's landslide re-election as governor of New Jersey earlier this month, which has seen him confirmed as an early favorite for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the question of the precise nature of his political personality, and its appeal, has loomed as large as the man...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2013

China has its own political gridlock to worry about

The U.S. and Chinese governments share a significant problem: how to align their political systems to enable the vital structural economic changes their countries desperately need.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2013

Deep political divisions at root of U.S. shutdown

The government shutdown did not happen by accident. It is the latest manifestation — an extreme one by any measure — of divisions long in the making and now deeply embedded in the country's politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2013

Expect the call of Islamism to endure in Egypt

Contrary to what the Facebook liberals proudly boast on Tahrir Square, the game is far from over in Egypt. We should expect the popularity of Islamism to endure.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2013

Returning to Egypt's preferable state of tyranny

Former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi knows neither Thomas Jefferson's advice that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities" nor the description of Martin Van Buren as a politician who "rowed to his object with muffled oars." Having won just 52 percent of the vote, Morsi pursued...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 6, 2013

Hashimoto is Horie's kind of guy

Takafumi Horie, 40, the recently paroled founder of Internet firm Livedoor Co., said Wednesday he wants embattled Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto to become prime minister one day, citing his "ability to challenge" and "alter the status quo" of politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2013

Lessons on moderation from an 18th-century British conservative aren't applied easily today

The political career of Edmund Burke was mediocre. Still, his 18th-century perspective offers a way to understand modern currents of ethnic/ideological alliances.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 3, 2013

Can Republicans take lessons from Cameron's struggles in Britain?

Three years ago, newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron was seen as a possible model for Republicans looking to update their party after losing the 2008 presidential election. Today, he provides an object lesson in the stumbling blocks that can lie in wait.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2013

Democracy votes to kill in Indonesia, Pakistan

The recent slaughter of Shiites in Pakistan is another grisly reminder of the perilous condition of its minorities. Indeed, in Pakistan and Indonesia, the two largest Muslim countries, both of which are in the midst of a fraught experiment with electoral democracy after decades of military rule, murderous...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2013

Greater disclosure can feed conspiracy theories

One of the most troubling outcomes of the global financial crisis has been a collapse of trust in democratic politicians. What good has transparency done?
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2012

China's military crossroads

At a time when China's economy and society are under considerable strain and the country is embroiled in increasingly tense border disputes with its neighbors, the relatively peaceful once-in-a-decade political transition in Beijing has helped deflect attention from the underlying turbulence in the Chinese...
COMMENTARY
Jul 20, 2012

Italy's curse of the undead: Berlusconi to 'bunga' again?

Abraham Lincoln was right: You can fool all the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Unfortunately, his dictum is irrelevant to modern Italian politics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 19, 2012

China and Japan: A 40-year friendship worth singing about

Forget allegations of spies and economic intrigue. Put aside the controversial Senkaku Islands and celebrate as the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing unites with the New National Theatre in Tokyo to commemorate the 40th anniversary of normalized relations between Japan and China. Two...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2012

Britain's endangered breed

British parliamentary democracy has developed over the centuries and is often seen as a model for other countries. At its best, the system works for the public good, curbs corruption and prevents tyranny by the executive.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2012

Political training schools catching on with disaffected

Kenyu Ito always thought there were better ways to contribute to Japan than becoming a politician. The medical doctor saw his primary care services for the people in Sanya, the day laborers' district in Taito Ward, Tokyo, as his way to help society from the bottom up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 16, 2012

Clowning around in Tohoku to help children

The Japanese entertainment world is supposed to be a very hard one to crack for foreigners in these lean years of economic doldrums. Once in a while a few people manage to carve out a niche for themselves through a combination of talent, perseverance and luck.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 1, 2012

Naohiko Jinno: Master of public finance brings life to numbers

Born the grandson of a once-prosperous textile manufacturer in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, Naohiko Jinno says that when he was growing up he was told by his mother, over and over again, that money was not important.
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2012

Hamas' perilous maneuvers

Despite all of Hamas' assurances to the contrary, a defining struggle is taking place within the Palestinian Islamic movement. The outcome of this struggle — which is still confined to polite political disagreements and occasional intellectual tussle — is likely to change Hamas' outlook, if not fundamentally...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2012

Back in Russia: peeling, meeting and shopping

In mid-December, while trying to understand what was happening in Russia, I checked Twitter and found a tweet that somehow signified everything.
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 7, 2011

Prestigious school seen as ticket to rise to the top of political ladder

Newly appointed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may compare himself to a "dojo" (loach), but in reality he is an elite politician with a diploma from the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, better known as Matsushita Seikei Juku.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 24, 2011

Unraveling the evolution of modern Japan

ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF JAPANESE CULTURE AND SOCIETY. Edited by Victoria and Theodore Bestor with Akiko Yamagata. Routledge, 2011, 325 pp. (hardcover) This is a tremendous book and should jump the queue of all those books on contemporary Japan you have been intending to read. The editors deserve kudos...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 19, 2011

Japan's leadership desperately needs some sex appeal

What a pity Aristophanes died c. 388 B.C: That classical Athenian comic playwright knew politics and politicians. They kindled his comic wrath. "O, thou that shavest close thy passionate arse!" he wrote of one politician. Of another: "Noisome was the stench that issued from the brute as it slid forth,...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2011

Don't count Ozawa out until he is

Over the decades he's been dubbed the "shadow shogun," "the destroyer" and "the backroom fixer" for his powerful influence in the political arena and penchant for shaking up governments with his "strong hand."
CULTURE / Books
Jun 5, 2011

Can we all just get along?

THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC REGIONALISM, by Kevin G. Cai. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 196 pp., $80 (hardcover) CHINA, JAPAN AND REGIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EAST ASIA, by Christopher M. Dent. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010, 311 pp., $50 (paper)

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