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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2011

Challenges for Indonesia's diplomatic ambition

Indonesia has been busy recently in a number of international events. First, Jakarta hosted the East Asian World Economic Forum from June 12 to 13. Second, the incumbent President Yudhoyono attended the International Labour Organization Conference in Geneva on June 14 and delivered a keynote speech on...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 25, 2011

When every card's a joker

Once — a dozen years or so ago — I yawned my way past a politician giving a "stump" speech to the early morning commuters at my station. In fact, I had to side-step him on the narrow walkway.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2011

Election season comes early in the Kremlin

In the highly controlled environment of Russian domestic politics, there are few surprises. Russia is a managed democracy in which political changes and election outcomes are carefully orchestrated by the Kremlin.
Reader Mail
Jun 9, 2011

Politicians are losing the people

News about whether Prime Minister Naoto Kan will retire or not has been reported every day. There is a big gap between the government and the people. What politicians are discussing goes against the will of the people. Politicians have to notice that people are moving away from government. People are...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 3, 2011

Kan buys time but cedes advantage to opposition

Prime Minister Naoto Kan handily prevailed over an opposition-backed no-confidence motion Thursday, in part because he compromised with foes within his Democratic Party of Japan to step down in the near future after he feels he has accomplished his disaster-response duties.
CULTURE / Books
May 22, 2011

Power play in the Far East

CHANGING POWER RELATIONS IN NORTHEAST ASIA: Implications for Relations Between Japan and South Korea. Edited by Marie Soderberg. Routledge, 2011, $125, 188 pp., (hardcover) From mid-March until mid-April, South Korean charities raised over $52 million for earthquake relief in Japan, a record sum that...
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2011

The Thai-Cambodian battle of the temples

The military skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia that have claimed more than two dozen lives, caused scores of injuries, and displaced tens of thousands of people since February are primarily attributable to domestic politics in both countries. Rooted in ancient enmities and the legacy of the colonial...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 3, 2011

Sojourner of the mystical realm

THE PASSING SUMMERS, The Japanese Mystique: Charm and Consequence, by Ivy C. Machida. Printed Matter Press, 2010, 280 pp., $20 (paper) The 21st century has seen a proliferation of memoirs entering the book market — from James Frey's memoir-fiction "A Million Little Pieces" to the slew of ghosted celebrity...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

Activist fighting for LGBT rights

Harvey Milk is part of U.S. history but Japan has yet to see anyone like him 32 years after his assassination, according to Taiga Ishikawa, an openly gay candidate running for the Toshima Ward Assembly in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2011

The morning after in Ireland

Once again, while the world has been transfixed by events in the Arab world, legal but no less revolutionary change has been occurring elsewhere. For there is no word other than "revolutionary" that fits the Irish voters' rejection of Fianna Fail, the party that has dominated Irish politics since independence,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2011

Deciphering Russian aims

The Russian prime minister's surprise visit to the Northern Territories and subsequent Russian hard position on the territorial issue have triggered a series of reactions in Japan, which in turn have hardened the Russian position and thereby spoiled Japan-Russia relations.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2011

Kawamura, Omura win in elections

OSAKA — Riding a wave of populist support and local voter discontent with party politics, Nagoya voters returned former Mayor Takashi Kawamura to office Sunday night and elected his ally Hideaki Omura as governor of Aichi Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2011

Moment of truth nears

Former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa, on the advice of his attorneys, turned down a request Tuesday to submit to interrogation ahead of his expected indictment on allegations of falsely reporting political funds. The request had come from lawyers appointed by the court to act as prosecutors...
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2011

Experts worth listening to

Each of the government's ministries and agencies has its own deliberative council. Before the fiscal 2001 ministerial reorganization — on April 27, 2000 — the government adopted the basic plan for abolishing and integrating these councils and the like. (The expression "and the like" was added because...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2011

Setting a new democratic agenda for Russia

MOSCOW — When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly, I was struck by the fact that his speech seemed intended for an advanced, prosperous country, not the real Russia of today.
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2010

First step for Myanmar?

There are two ways to look at the parliamentary elections held Nov. 7 in Myanmar, the first such vote in that country in 20 years. The first is that the vote is a cynical exercise designed to provide a veneer of legitimacy to a corrupt and brutal regime. The other sees the ballot as the first step in...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2010

Looking back at 'Japan as No. 1'

Since the best-selling book "Japan as Number One" came out in 1979, the country has suffered through a diminished global presence and been beaten out in international business competition, according to experts who gathered to look back and evaluate the intervening decades.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Oct 26, 2010

LDP by-election win may be slap at DPJ but little else

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Nobutaka Machimura's victory Sunday in the Lower House by-election in Hokkaido for the Hokkaido No. 5 constituency has dealt another blow to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which suffered a huge setback in the July Upper House election.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2010

Kan must rediscover Japan

HONG KONG — The looming indictment of Ichiro Ozawa for false reporting of political funds leaves Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a tricky spot about what to do about the still powerful shadow shogun of Japanese politics.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2010

Don't count Thai Prime Minister Abhisit out

BANGKOK — For a man who has faced seemingly endless efforts to oust him by both parliamentary ballot and by bullet, by the slippery devious machinations that are meat and drink to Thai politicians and by street protesters who took over the commercial heart of Bangkok for more than two months, Prime...
COMMENTARY
Oct 11, 2010

Is Japan's disease curable?

Since the 1990s, often called Japan's "lost 10 years," many parts of Japanese society have been disintegrating. Japan's influence has been in decline in the international community and on the global economic scene.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2010

Kenyans at crossroads with constitution

WATERLOO, Ontario — Earlier this month, Kenyans went to the polls to vote on a new constitution that will replace the current one when signed into law, marking a turning point in the country's history.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2010

Aussies facing a rocky ride

SYDNEY — An electoral rout of both major political parties, Labor and Liberal, has left Australian voters confused and angry. After decades of economic growth the uncertainty could not come at a worse time as the United States appears to slide into a double-dip recession threatening world markets....
COMMENTARY
Jul 6, 2010

'A tall poppy is cut down'; Gillard could bloom awhile

Strange things happen to Australian prime ministers. One (Harold Holt, 1966-67) disappeared while swimming near a Melbourne beach; speculation says he may have been eaten by a shark.
JAPAN / DECISION 2010
Jun 25, 2010

Showdown could reshape political scene

The last House of Councilors election in 2007 heralded a change of regime, with the then ruling Liberal Democratic Party losing control of the chamber. That loss was followed by the swift resignations of two LDP prime ministers, before a crushing defeat in the House of Representatives poll last August...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 22, 2010

How do you think the Japanese government could improve?

Charlotte Warren, 32Translator (British)The politicians all seem faceless and interchangeable. The project started by Junichiro Koizumi to reform the nation needs to go further. Politicians like Yuriko Koike need to take a more active role.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2010

Is Japan going loopy in a world so alien

"Loopy," "hapless," "embarrassing" — such is the world's, and Japan's, verdict on the short unhappy prime ministership of Yukio Hatoyama. In retrospect, this 21st-century Japanese Don Quixote seems to have been doomed to failure from the start. What he attempted was honorable, but impossible. What...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2010

Kan front-runner to replace Hatoyama

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan is expected to win the Democratic Party of Japan presidency, get voted in by the Diet as prime minister, then form a new Cabinet — all on Friday.
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2010

Inspirational voice from the land of Gaza: What if postwar Japan had a similar history?

Beginning in a Gaza Strip refugee camp with the author taking tearful leave of his home to travel to the United States of America, this "untold story" is a double memoir/biography charting the lives of Ramzy Baroud's father and relatives and the history of the Palestinian people and Gaza.

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