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September 10, 2024
 

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JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA

COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 21, 2003
Cultural powerhouse needed
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Sustainable globalization needs Japan to be actively involved, if only because of the size of its economy. For its part, Japan stands to contribute a great deal to globalization. The Japanese establishment, however, has hobbled the country with gerontocratic governance, obsolescent...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 20, 2003
Intellectual alienation spawns hazy polic
WASHINGTON -- The main purpose of my visit to Washington at the beginning of 2003 was to carry out discussions on U.S. perspectives, policies and strategies for the Doha Development Round, in particular, and global economic policy in general. Meetings were held with U.S. government departments, foreign...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 6, 2003
Atavistic racism: greatest impediment
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A central argument of many observers of Japan, myself included, is that there has been very little change and no leadership. The two are interwoven: leadership is required to generate and manage change. The Japanese system that was quite appropriate, dynamic and robust in the...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 23, 2002
Bleaker times may await the grandkids
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In four weeks this series will have run for a year, and it will be time to bring it to an end. These last four articles, therefore, will constitute a combination of conclusions and parting thoughts.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 16, 2002
Sicily's sobering message for grandparents
SYRACUSE, Sicily -- Sicily is an ideal place to ponder the fate of civilizations and to reflect on the future. This island off the boot of Italy, with a population of 5 million, has been a crossroads of civilizations for almost three millennia. The Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Catalans, French,...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 2, 2002
Women's creativity waiting to be tapped
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Several months ago, I mentioned I would be addressing the gender question in a future article. I received several letters urging me to do so. A couple of correspondents, however, argued that the question of women is a purely domestic affair and not relevant to the theme of "Japan...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Nov 18, 2002
Benefits of opening up to foreign labor
HONG KONG -- In the previous article in this series, I asked whether capitalism would be sustainable into the 21st century. In the article before that, I emphasized that never had the world seen so many democracies, but warned that there were risks that the conditions for maintaining the momentum of...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Nov 4, 2002
Contributing to the crisis of capitalism
YAOUNDE, Cameroon -- During a conversation at a dinner in Shanghai recently with some Chinese friends, the comment was made that Japanese businessmen in China were now known quite willingly to accept various forms of bribes and kickbacks. The man who was making this comment, who knows Japan quite well...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 21, 2002
Contributing to the spread of democracy
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In a recent editorial, the Financial Times admonished the European Union and its member states, "(for) having consistently failed to grasp the broad historic significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly 13 years ago." It is in fact an awesome event, the significance of...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 14, 2002
Acute case of linguistic 'disconnectivity'
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- One of the best terms of the 21st century is "global connectivity." Composed of three elements -- (1) entrepreneurial and energetic individuals, (2) the Internet and (3) the English language -- global connectivity serves not only to exchange information and ideas but also to...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 7, 2002
Brainstorming to bring positive change
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In an article on the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington last month entitled "A Washington gathering of incompetents," Gerald Baker, while lambasting policyma- kers in the United States and the European Union, handed the first prize for incompetence to Japan. "Every time it...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 23, 2002
Youth must lead creative destruction
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The turn of the century is an important opportunity to engage in questioning and re-evaluating some of the global community's basic tenets, assumptions, policies and directions. On these matters we are being well-served by some excellent books.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 16, 2002
Foreign experts are part of the problem
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- One of Japan's problems in the global era arises from foreign academic experts on the country. The key qualification to be a foreign academic expert on Japan, or a "Japanologist," is to command the spoken and written language. Thus the late Professor G.C. Allen, who wrote some...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 11, 2002
Japan and Asia: facing the troubled past is a prerequisite to forging a better future
In two previous columns I quoted from one of the writers whom I most greatly admired, referring to him as the "late Shigeto Tsuru." It has been drawn to my attention that I was misinformed, as Mr. Tsuru, I am embarassed but really delighted to report, is alive and well. I offer my most sincere apologies...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Sep 2, 2002
Revival depends on openness, immigration
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The late Shigeto Tsuru's "Japan's Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond," which I referred to and quoted in my Aug. 26 column, urged Japan to "work hard, through both aid and trade, to wipe out the poverty that plagues the Third World."
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 26, 2002
Emphasize the beauty for grand objectives
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The best book on the modern Japanese political economy is the late Shigeto Tsuru's "Japan's Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond," published by Cambridge University Press in 1993. Tsuru holds to the great original tradition of economics as a sub-branch of moral philosophy,...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 19, 2002
Raze the barriers to inward investment
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The 21st century has not gotten off to a particularly brilliant start. Greed, corruption and dishonesty are pervasive. Scandals are rocking the world of business and politics in America and Europe. The chances of the Bush/Cheney administration becoming paralyzed by investigations...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 5, 2002
'Sick man' of the intellectual community
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In the 1980s and early '90s, there were efforts on the part of Europeans and Japanese to strengthen their bilateral relationship. Europeans were conscious that they had neglected Japan, while the Japanese were seeking to expand their international networks at a time when the...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jul 22, 2002
'Domesticists' rule amid idea drought
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- I do not live in Japan, although I first set foot (a rather small foot at 4 years old) on Japanese soil in 1949 and knew the country throughout the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s, when I either lived there temporarily or commuted frequently. My visits this century have been far fewer...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jul 8, 2002
Great country; pity about the institutions
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- My good friend Philippe Pons, the Japan correspondent for the leading French daily Le Monde, wrote an excellent article, "Au Japon, la crise n'est pas ce que l'on croit" (In Japan, the crisis is not what people think), for the newspaper's June 19 edition. Pons rectifies many...
Small Hokkaido town ranked most comfortable place to live in Japan
Asahidake in Daisetsuzan is located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido, which ranked as the most comfortable municipality in 2024.
After U.S.-South Korea nuclear drills, North girds for ‘long-term’ faceoff
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits O Jin U Artillery Academy in the country on Friday.
Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s prayer for peace lives on in Hiroshima
Maestro Seiji Ozawa (center) lays flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in October 2005.
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
Panasonic ready to start making next-gen EV cells at Japan plant
Panasonic’s 4680 cylindrical lithium-ion cell
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
‘When I die, I would like to come back as a rice ball’
Few in Japan may be more passionate about the 'onigiri' (rice ball) than Yumiko Ukon, owner of an onigiri specialty shop in Tokyo's Otsuka neighborhood.
No talking, no eating, no standing: Inside sumo's ring purification ceremony
A sumo referee performs the dohyō matsuri, or ring purification ceremony, in January 2017 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.
Demand for Calrose rice rises amid Japanese rice shortage
Shuzo Fukushi, who heads Rice Meister Kojimachi in Tokyo, shows a bag of Calrose mixed with domestic rice at his store on Thursday.
Pasocom Music Club returns to the pure pleasures of the dance floor
Pasocom Music Club’s “Love Flutter” marks an important moment for Japan’s electronic community as project members Aoi Shibata (left) and Masato Nishiyama step into a role other artists once held for them — scene veterans who are inspiring the next generation.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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