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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2015

Erdogan the conqueror

For Turkey's weakened democratic institutions to survive, and for it to remain delicately balanced between East and West, the Kurds and their new friends need to do well in Sunday's elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015

Tayyipism strikes a chord with Turkish voters

President Recep Erdogan's new Turkey is more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 30, 2015

A media circus surrounds Japan's animal acts

The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums has voted to stop buying dolphins captured during drive hunts conducted by fishermen in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture. For the past decade, the town has received a great deal of negative publicity because of its dolphin slaughter, and the World Association...
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2015

Could Palmya be a turning point for Assad?

Syrian President Bashar Assad may have allowed Islamic State to take the World Heritage site of Palmyra, hoping an atrocity there would bring the international community to his side.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 16, 2015

Language of science key to wisdom

Today I'm going to try something a little different — at first, anyway. First, let me tell you a bit about my job.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2015

Cameron has only himself to blame for tight race

British Prime Minister David Cameron's agenda for the last two years before the election has been dominated by Europe and immigration, but many voters care more about the economy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2015

Canada's climate change conundrum

A recent announcement that Canada won't match U.S. emission-reduction targets offers a fresh look at Canadians' enduring bipolarity on climate change.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 3, 2015

Blame Abe's bad history on diplomat George Kennan

U.S. diplomat George Kennan was instrumental in reversing U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's efforts to liberalize Japan's economy and society.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2015

Gallipoli and Armenian genocide shouldn't mix

All political leaders manipulate history, but the decision by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to shift the 100th anniversary commemoration of the allied landings at Gallipoli forward 24 hours to April 24 — the same day as the anniversary of the Armenian genocide — was unusually crass.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2015

Call Cameron's 'gaffe' anything but guileless

There's been much debate over whether British Prime Minister David Cameron's shock announcement about his political future was just an unguarded slip — as he tried to look like a normal family man rather than a power-crazed politician on a soft-feature TV show — or a tactic.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2015

Ukraine needs to realize it can't beat Putin

The longer Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pretends to his people that Ukraine can seize Donestsk and Luhansk back from Russia by force, the more lives, sovereignty and wealth Ukraine will lose.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 26, 2015

Japan's media grapple with free speech, faith and immigration after Charlie Hebdo attack

What does the Japanese media have to say about the recent events in France? The weeklies have got something for everyone.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2015

Erdogan's reinvention of Turkey isn't funny

As Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminds Turkey of its roots through cosplay, the continued purging of judicial institutions as well as the jailing and intimidation of journalists in that country make the debates in France over free speech look quaint by comparison.
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2015

U.K. Muslims' 'special burden'

Do Muslim minorities in Britain and other European countries have a special burden to help track down Islamic extremists?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015

Charlie Hebdo's cartoons aren't the issues

Those news outlets that chose not to publish Charlie Hebdo's cartoons — after 12 people were killed — might have done so out of principle rather than fear, but if so, their news judgment was off.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2015

Toronto traffic validates carbon tax opposition

For opponents of a carbon tax, traffic in the Greater Toronto Area, which includes fast-growing suburbs, offers plenty of ammunition.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 5, 2015

Why Japan should embrace Angelina Jolie's 'Unbroken'

The attacks on Angelina Jolie's just-released film 'Unbroken' — which is much less about Japanese brutality against an American POW than the resilience of the human spirit — appear part of a revisionist recrudescence under the Abe administration.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2014

America's gun culture and the manly virtues

As growing economic autonomy among American women reshapes breadwinning and gender roles, it's getting tough out there for tough guys. So it doesn't take much imagination to grasp the appeal of holding a gun to some men.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014

U.S. soft power takes a hit in wake of report

It's a testimony to U.S. soft power that Washington persuaded so many allies to take part in a policy of torture that they must have known would one day blow up in their faces.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2014

Why reuniting territories would benefit Russia

Russia could serve its own interests by encouraging some of the territories that helped break away from neighboring countries to rejoin them.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2014

Is Putin losing Ukraine by stoking a war?

Russian President Vladimir Putin risks alienating ethnic Russians living in Ukraine by fueling war there.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2014

Putin's defense of Hitler pact should worry all

The fact that — in 2014 — Russian President Vladimir Putin is openly prepared to defend the 1939 Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact — an archetype of cynical, totalitarian politics — should concern us all.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2014

Is Ukraine's crisis the U.S. and Europe's fault?

The question at the heart of the Ukraine crisis remains whether Russia should have special right to determine the policies and governments of its neighboring countries.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2014

Only catastrophe can rob China of No. 1 spot

For China not to become the world's largest economy, it would take a collapse on a bigger scale than anything we've seen in recent world history, short of Zimbabwe or North Korea.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2014

Why Russian jets are testing NATO's airspace

The danger of the new Cold War is that there is complete disagreement between Russia on one side and the U.S. and EU on the other as to the dividing lines. For most Russians, the borders created by the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 aren't a given.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2014

Pyongyang uses live bait to lure Washington

For new talks to succeed with North Korea, the U.S. must expend more energy getting South Korea and Japan, barely on speaking terms, to get along, and end its policy of doing nothing while the North becomes more dangerous.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2014

China outsourcing its dirty work to U.S. military

There's little that the Chinese government likes less than the projection of U.S. military power, yet Beijing offers grudging support for U.S. efforts to safeguard Iraqi sovereignty with airstrikes against Islamic State jihadists.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 11, 2014

Polling shows voters unclear about Article 9 reinterpretation: expert

Media polls' perplexing results on the public reaction to Japan's collective defense drive raise questions about media practices and residents' knowledge of the issue.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 19, 2014

Hong Kong democracy 'referendum' set to rile Chinese rulers

Hong Kong holds a controversial "referendum" on democracy on Friday, a prelude to an escalating campaign of dissent that could shut down the former British colony's financial district and further anger China's Communist Party leaders.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 14, 2014

Hadid's curse: Mammoth monstrosity threatens Tokyo's greenbelt

The government needs to pull the plug on the planned new Olympic stadium designed by the celebrity British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji