A herd of elephants cross a road in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 12, 2017. REUTERS China’s ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative has taken the world by storm and forced everyone to sit up and take notice. Most Asian countries have jumped on to the OBOR bandwagon, while New Delhi […]
Megumi(center) and her little brothers before she was abducted Hello, Megumi. Here in Japan we have been having one really hot day after another. What are the summer days like where you are? Your mother and father are getting on in years and the summer heat and sun are ever more of a […]
Yoko Mada (“Random Yoko”), a Japanese YouTuber widely popular with viewers both inside and outside of Japan, sat down recently with Hidetoshi Ishii, a Japanese expert on the politics and history of Asia. Active in his field for more than two decades, Ishii has a broad network of fellow activists and intellectuals, giving […]
On August 17, the final “big class” competition for the 10th All-Japan High School Super Cup Dance-Off was held in Yokohama City. Hosted by the Sankei Shimbun and sponsored by Acecook and Otsuka Holdings, the event picked the top high school dance team in Japan. For the first time in 4 years, the […]
(1st of 3 Parts) As China continues with its policy of expansionism in the region, combining military intimidation and economic inducements toward its neighbors, we publish in 3 parts an instructive interview by the Sankei Shimbun’s Washington bureau chief, Yoshinari Kurose with Dr. Toshi Yoshihara. Yoshihara is a senior fellow at the Center for […]
The famous Kaguraden adjacent to Izumo Taisha As I learned on my most recent trip, the pleasure of rural Japan is that you’ll never know who, or what, you’ll bump into next. I took a three-day trip to Izumo, home to Izumo Taisha, one of Japan’s most prominent Shinto shrines. Morning […]
One of United States President Donald Trump’s current international security objectives is the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile. In a recent series of talks at the G20 in Hamburg, Trump expended much energy on this subject, and stressed heavily that Chinese pressure on Pyongyang would be necessary to accomplish nuclear disarmament. However, his […]
“China’s high speed rail technology is already far better than the Japanese Bullet Train, Shinkansen.” That was how, six years ago, Wang Yongping, head of the Chinese Railway Ministry’s advertising department, refuted allegations of intellectual piracy. In an interview with China’s state news agency Xinxua on July 7, 2011, he said that Chinese […]
From early morning, and under cloudy skies, on August 15th, the 72nd anniversary of the end of World War II, visitors continued to gather at the Yasukuni Shrine grounds in Kudankita, Tokyo. Ahead of the 6 am opening, more than 200 people had queued up in front of the shrine gates, which were embossed […]
The city buses in Seoul started carrying plastic replicas of the “comfort women” statues On August 15th, as part of the National Liberation Day ceremony commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese control, President Moon Jae-in touched upon the issue of conscripted laborers, saying “the suffering continues of […]
Could Abenomics carry on without the man whom it is named after, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? That is the question confronting investors as they observe the sudden slide in Abe’s poll ratings and the critical backlash from the now emboldened opposition. In the Japanese context, “opposition” does not refer to the minority parties […]
Preliminary figures released by the Cabinet Office on August 14 indicated that the seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.0% after adjustment for inflation compared to the previous period. If this pace continues for a year, it will lead to an annual growth rate of 4.0%. Growth has continued […]
