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May 15, 2024
 

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POLITICS 3

EDITORIALS
May 15, 2014
Short-circuiting Thai democracy
Thailand's opposition may be successful in its rear-guard battles against a democratically elected government, but these 'victories' are Pyrrhic, resulting in economic instability.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 13, 2014
Activist seeks to tap power of youth for political change
The world's top economies and financial watchdogs have repeatedly warned Japan to take action against its snowballing debt, but it's the younger generations of Japanese who stand to be most affected by the repercussions as a shrinking and rapidly aging population bleeds social security dry.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 10, 2014
The Sewol tragedy: for whom the bell tolls
South Korea is a nation in mourning, sharing the unfathomable grief of parents who lost their teenage children on what should have been a festive school trip. It is a nation experiencing collective depression, where many are tormented by the heartbreaking and endless grim news about the students who should never have died. Around the globe the Sewol ferry tragedy forces us to imagine what it must be like as a parent to have your drowned child's mobile phone returned and to discover pictures and videos of their last fearful moments. One is at a loss for words thinking of the mothers and fathers who received final phone messages from their children expressing love and alarm as the ferry tilted further and further toward oblivion.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2014
Populist Hashimoto a true 'yankii'?
In Japanese politics, someone labeled a 'yankii' is something of a populist who disdains cosmopolitanism and intellectual elitism. But does that apply to outspoken Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto?
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2014
Plug political funding loopholes
The fact that a question even exists on whether Your Party former chief Yoshimi Watanabe broke the law when he personally borrowed ¥800 million from a cosmetics company chairman ahead of elections points to the inadequacy of current laws on political funding transparency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 27, 2014
Politicians running in place
Today, there's not so much political competition in Japan between the ruling and opposition camps as there is among opposition parties seeking to ally themselves with the ruling camp. Have individual lawmakers become less willing to take risks by speaking up?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 21, 2014
Is Japan a 'normal' country simply trying to stick out?
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's apparent aspirations for Japan to become a 'normal' country again are undermined by the government's attempts to impose conformity and limit freedoms.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014
India's status quo is riskier
The political party that proudly led India into independence has been reduced to a self-serving coterie of sycophants, courtiers and court jesters. Is the status quo more risky than the 'Modi alternative' in the current election?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 19, 2014
Team Abe's alternate-reality Kool-Aid
Japan's relations with China and South Korea are in tatters, there has been no progress on dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons program, strains with Washington persist, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are at an impasse, whaling got harpooned and hopes for a deal with Russia on the northern territories seem to have evaporated in Crimea. There are also growing concerns that "Abenomics" is unsustainable as there has been little progress on structural reforms, employers did little to boost wages and business sentiments have tanked. Moreover, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is showing signs of internal dissension over a range of issues from Abenomics to security and national energy policy, and has festering problems with coalition partner New Komeito. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe complains that U.S. President Barack Obama doesn't know who his friends are and that he should be getting more credit for making progress on security issues Washington has long lobbied for. Mr. President, welcome to "Abe Land."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2014
Frustrated Russia pushes back against the U.S.
From the Russian perspective, the toppling of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was was the latest and most outrageous step in a systematic U.S.-led policy of incursions into the heart of Russia's historic core security zone.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014
Recep Erdogan's pyrrhic victory
The triumph of Turkey's beleaguered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party in last week's local elections is unlikely to ameliorate the country's internal conflicts, much less revive its tarnished international standing.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014
Voters do not deserve blame for low turnout
There was a time in America when political activitists used to say that a candidate whose main strategy was to talk about how rotten the other side was wasn't worth a vote. Can the today's voters who share that sentiment be blamed for not voting on Nov. 4?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2014
Don't let Cold War warriors reboot their dated thinking
The hundred think tanks that bloomed, and the thousands of mediocre academics and pseudo-experts who found easy employment in the universities and the media, feel obliged to make themselves relevant and important again after Russian President Vladimir Putin's land grab. Don't let them reboot the Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2014
French polls show extreme right moderating
The French municipal elections held late last month have demonstrated that the extreme right is not a threat in today's Europe.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2014
Gulf widens between Qatar and its neighbors
Saudi Arabia's recent decision to withdraw its ambassador from Qatar has revealed the gravity of the crisis in the Gulf Cooperation Council, composed of Saudia Arabia's most immediate neighbors. Gulf politics is shifting.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 30, 2014
Kaoru Yosano, liberal patriot
Some people's traits are not recognized for a long time even by those close to them. One such person is Kaoru Yosano, a 75-year-old former Lower House member — and a liberal politician full of patriotic fervor.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2014
An economy resilient to political dysfunction
Recent analysis shows there is little correlation between America's highly publicized political dysfunction and its relative economic performance in serveral dimensions.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2014
Putin's Crimean prize
Even if Russia does not send its military into any other parts of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin retains the threat of future action, if only 'reluctantly,' and will be able to keep Ukraine, and the rest of central Europe, on the defensive.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 17, 2014
Conservatives' insular mindset doesn't fit today's global reality
Japan has moved well beyond its islands, but in many respects, it has retained elements of an island mentality that is no longer compatible with its modern reality.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2014
Singh: missing for a decade
It would be interesting to know just what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — in office for a decade but rarely in power during that time — thinks the job requires beyond being a sycophant toward the first family.
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.
Yen’s fragility raises specter of a new currency war in Asia
Suspected intervention to drag the yen off a 34-year low against the dollar is already seen as unlikely to have a lasting effect if Japan continues alone.
Online booking for Mount Fuji climb to open on May 20
Visitors climb the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak at 3,776 meters. From May 20, climbers will have access to a new online booking system for Mount Fuji's most popular Yoshida trail in Yamanashi Prefecture.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
Japan's logistics firms seek partnerships to cope with driver shortage
Japan Post CEO Tetsuya Senda (right) and his Seino Transportation counterpart Satoshi Takahashi announce their companies' agreement on joint long-haul truck operations, in Tokyo on Thursday.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.

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