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COMMENTARY
Mar 23, 2011

Nuclear power no solution

NEW DELHI — Just when nuclear energy had come to be seen as part of the solution to energy and global-warming challenges, the serial reactor incidents in Fukushima have dealt a severe blow to the world nuclear-power industry, a powerful cartel of less than a dozen major state-owned or state-guided...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2011

Japanese lessons on reducing disaster risk

MANILA — The March 11 earthquake-tsunami is the worst natural disaster to hit Japan in modern times. Nobody who has watched the events of recent days can fail to be moved by the unprecedented scope of the tragedy and its toll on human lives and property — a toll that continues to climb.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2011

U.S. foreign aid hinders more than it helps

SEATTLE — The United States will run up a record $1.65 trillion deficit in 2011. Yet Washington keeps subsidizing foreign governments. House Republicans have targeted foreign aid. This year the State Department would lose 16 percent of its budget; humanitarian aid would drop by 41 percent.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2011

Interfaith tolerance challenges Indonesian Islam, democracy

BEPPU, Oita Prefecture — During the heat of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, which successfully toppled the respective autocratic regimes of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, some incidents in Indonesia appear to have dimmed the prospect of democracy on this side of the Islamic world....
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2011

Good sense of the Arabs

They wouldn't do it for al-Qaida, but they finally did it for themselves.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2011

The politics of an unanticipated revolution

DURHAM, N.C. — In setting himself ablaze following a humiliating encounter with the police, the university-educated Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi triggered a wave of protests across the Arab world. Several Arab dictators who had held power for decades have already been ousted or forced...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 6, 2011

Yang Sok Gil: Writing about wrongs at home and abroad

Yang Sok Gil is renowned for his novels describing, with remarkable humanity and humor, people's wanton desires and the problems they cause, often from the viewpoint of minorities in Japan or elsewhere.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2011

The strange rebirth of American leadership

FLORENCE, Italy — At the recent annual meetings of the American Economic Association, there was widespread pessimism about the future of the United States. "The age of American predominance is over," declared one economist. "The U.S. should brace for social unrest amid blame over who was responsible...
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2011

Universal values do matter

NEW DELHI — With a Nobel Peace Prize to his credit, U.S. President Barack Obama was widely expected to advance universal values. Yet he has signaled that promotion of human rights is a tool to be used only against the small kids on the global block who hold no major economic benefits for the United...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2011

New National Theatre, Tokyo, hopes 'Yuzuru' will help Japanese opera soar

Imitation may be a form of flattery, but it is also an important first step for creative genesis. The 1952 premiere of "Yuzuru" by Ikuma Dan — half imitation of Western operatic traditions and half Japanese creative innovation — marked a milestone in the development of opera in Japan.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jan 6, 2011

Zaccheroni equipped to make winning start to new era

No sooner than one soccer year ends, another one begins.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2010

Obama's seven headaches

HONG KONG — Supporters of U.S. President Barack Obama are greatly cheered by notable victories in the final days of Congress before Christmas: the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" law concerning homosexuals serving in the military, and the ratification of the New START treaty with Russia to curb...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 25, 2010

Tevez meets his match in Man City's owners

LONDON — And the prize for the climbdown of 2010 goes to . . . Carlos Tevez, who has been left eating so much humble pie he will need to diet.
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2010

Tree studies link climate change to calamity

SINGAPORE — Extreme weather, from heat waves and drought to snowstorms and floods, is nothing new. The big question is what are the causes. Are they natural or man-made, or a combination of both?
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2010

NATO's new look

Every 10 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reassesses the world and its place in it and forges a new mission statement that tries to align the institution, its members and their desire to create a more peaceful and stable world. This year, that effort has yielded a "new strategic concept"...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2010

Senator playing politics with nuclear accord

WASHINGTON — Soon after U.S. President Barack Obama came to office, he delivered a speech in Prague in which he said, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." He said America has a responsibility to act and to lead....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2010

Erasing the stigma for sufferers of leprosy

At its 15th session, which ended at the beginning of October, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution encouraging governments to eliminate discrimination against people affected by leprosy — and their family members. As the World Health Organization's Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2010

Seoul's opportunity amid economic change

SEOUL — Hubris usually gives birth to disaster. The root cause of the current global crisis was intellectual hubris in the form of the blind belief that markets would always resolve their own problems and contradictions. Thirty years after the Reagan-Thatcher revolution, the ideological pendulum has...
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2010

Biodiversity and small mercies

Sometimes we have to be grateful for small mercies. The deal on biodiversity that more than 190 countries agreed to in Nagoya last Friday was, as these things usually are, "a day late and a dollar short," but it's a lot better than nothing. It's even better than most people expected.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2010

Why can't Japan be more like South Korea?

Countless commentators both here in Japan and abroad have deplored the insularity of Japanese society. They lament the paucity of Japanese venturing abroad to study, teach or work. Japan's multinational corporations are regularly criticized for failing to internationalize their corporate management....
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2010

The West's Mideast obsession

LONDON — The media in the Middle East carry a lot of Middle Eastern stories, of course, but why do most of the other media in the world do the same?
JAPAN / U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN
Oct 14, 2010

Suddenly, U.S. alliance is back in vogue

Only a few months ago, the Japan-U.S. military alliance — considered by both nations as the "cornerstone" of peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region — was in crisis.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2010

Japan's loss, America's gain?

WATERLOO, Ontario — At the inaugural Singapore Global Dialogue on Sept. 23-24, there was a sharp exchange between retired Chinese and Japanese officials. In response to a question after his opening keynote address, former Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan admonished Japan for its inexplicable stance...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2010

Latin America's commodity dependence

WASHINGTON — In 1672, Potosi, Bolivia, was one of the largest and richest cities in the world. Located at the base of Cerro Rico, Potosi was a hotbed of Spanish silver mining. Its operations were so prolific that "potosi" became synonymous for great riches.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 28, 2010

COP10 to take on genetic, indigenous issues

From Oct. 18 to 29, the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity, known as COP10, takes place in Nagoya.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 18, 2010

Konno adjusts as FC Tokyo fights relegation

Relegation was not a word Yasuyuki Konno expected to hear much when spring ushered in the new J. League season back in March.
OLYMPICS
Sep 12, 2010

Old thinking and alliances endanger G20

MADRID — The world financial crisis has served as a quick and efficient catalyst for the Group of 20 economies. The first three G20 summits of chiefs of state — in Washington, London and Pittsburgh — will be remembered for advancing multilateralism and coordinated global action.

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