Tag - counterpoint

 
Menu
Search
 
May 19, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

COUNTERPOINT

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 30, 2015
The geopolitics of coping with a rising China
Last week I examined the logic and consequences of the "Abe Doctrine," whereby Japan has beefed up its alliance with the United States by agreeing to expand what it is prepared to do militarily in support of U.S. global security operations. This is not a settled issue domestically as few Japanese support...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 23, 2015
The 'Abe Doctrine' transforms security policy
The ink was barely dry on the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation, which were unveiled during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Washington last month, when Sen. John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a wake-up call to the Japanese people. He said he...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 16, 2015
Are forces of darkness gathering in Japan?
Certainly it's worse in China, South Korean security recently beat demonstrators and Spain faces a blanket gag rule, but are concerns about the anti-democratic forces of darkness in Japan unduly alarmist? How bad can it be if protestors in Hibiya Park can carry placards depicting Prime Minister Shinzo...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 9, 2015
Academics fail Abe administration on history
...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 2, 2015
Foreign media feels the heat from prickly government minders
Last month, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalist Carsten Germis wrote about the Japanese government harassing him just for doing his job. In his view, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is overly sensitive to criticism, especially reporting about what Germis calls "a move by the right to...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 25, 2015
Abe primed to shine in Washington's limelight
The bar is set low for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's April 29 speech at a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says everyone will be "looking to see if Mr. Abe can put history behind him." In his view, the key is speaking sincerely rather than repeating...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 18, 2015
History problems cast a shadow over Abe's Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dogged by history problems largely because he courts controversy with his revisionist views and efforts to rehabilitate Japan's wartime past. It's not only moderates and leftists who worry about this: Liberal Democratic Party Vice-President Masahiko Komura has also urged...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 11, 2015
Abe gets negative reviews ahead of U.S. visit
At the end of this month Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Washington, D.C. He can expect the red carpet treatment because he has ticked more boxes on the Pentagon's wish list than all his postwar predecessors combined.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 4, 2015
America's memory wars and the Vietnam debacle
April 30 marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, as Americans remember it — the day that the North Vietnamese army captured the capital of South Vietnam and reunified their country.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 28, 2015
China benefits from Washington's bumbling diplomacy
The surge of nations agreeing to participate in China's new development bank — the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — marks a stunning success for Beijing, which has overcome U.S. opposition and arm-twisting to lure key American allies.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 21, 2015
Celebrating 50 years of antipathy, recriminations
On March 1, South Korean President Park Geun-hye renewed her call for Japan to come clean on its colonial and wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of women. Her speech was delivered on the anniversary of the anti-Japanese uprising by Koreans in 1919 and in a year when South Koreans will...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 14, 2015
Indonesian preview for pending Abe statement?
Next month Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend the 60th commemoration of the 1955 Bandung Conference of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 7, 2015
Centennial lessons for Abe from the '21 Demands'
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and fellow revisionists prefer to think that Japan's 20th century imperialist aggression has been misunderstood. But on this score they are isolated not only from the international community, but also within Japan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 28, 2015
China inadvertently promotes Islamic extremism
March 1, 2014, was China's 9/11. That was the day Islamic Uighur terrorists slashed their way into the collective consciousness of the country's ethnic Han majority.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 21, 2015
Militant monks rabble-rousing in Myanmar
With the people of Myanmar heading to the polls later this year, there are troubling signs that some extremists are intent on stirring up trouble.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 14, 2015
Japan's public diplomacy is expensive and errant
Global understanding does not come cheaply. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has budgeted ¥70 billion — yes, that's more than $500 million — to help get the word out about Japan and ensure that China and South Korea aren't the only ones controlling the narrative.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 7, 2015
Abe acts quickly to exploit Japan's 'nightmare'
On adjacent televisions at my gym, I watched breaking news on the beheading of journalist Kenji Goto by the Islamic State group next to a "One Piece" anime segment in which fresh-faced youth defended their boat from marauding pirates. The kids routed them in a jiffy and suffered no casualties, a metaphorical...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 31, 2015
Diplomatic blundering on hostages and history
Japan's latest hostage crisis has exposed shortcomings in Japan's public diplomacy and raises questions about the advice Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received in publicly announcing $200 million in humanitarian aid to help those displaced by conflict with the Islamic State group.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 24, 2015
Can the DPJ reinvigorate Japanese democracy?
Columbia University's Gerald Curtis recently wrote, "It is a sad commentary on Japan's politics that after nearly 70 years of democracy a competitive party system has all but disintegrated."
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 17, 2015
Sri Lanka votes against fear and kleptocracy
The stunning ouster of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Jan. 8 was good news for that island nation of 20 million, and further evidence of a universal yearning for good governance.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them
A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan passes bill to introduce 'blue ticket' fines for cyclists
A new system under which bicycle riders pay fines for minor traffic violations to escape criminal punishment is expected to be introduced in Japan no later than 2026.
Japan changes law to allow joint custody after divorce
Legislation that allows the option of joint custody of children after divorce is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Friday.
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi
Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER