Japan

Alice B. Lloyd on the homespun magical realism of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, ‘Killing Commendatore.’

A volcanic island in South Korea has become a hotbed of the migration crisis.

Christopher Atamian on how Takashi Murakami unites kitsch, mockery, and tradition.

And Kudlow pulls back from TPP tease.

It’s almost as if a tight labor supply helps workers.

The Vienna Philharmonic is in the United States this month, performing in New York and Florida under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. As a New Yorker who attends concerts on a regular basis, I never miss a chance to hear the orchestra’s performances at Carnegie Hall. Two years ago I even had the…

In a nuclear world, nuclear weapons are needed to deter major attacks, but who should possess these instruments of deterrence? The United States has long been committed to stemming nuclear proliferation by both potential adversaries and friends. Today the challenge of keeping nonnuclear states from…

What happened to Trumpism? Sure, we still get the oh-so-Trumpy tweets, but many of the issues that Donald Trump ran on have been cast to the wayside in the 11 months (it hasn’t even been a year yet!?) of his presidency.

Noting the universally negative coverage that he garners from the national media, Donald Trump recently declared that he loves “regional media.” At this point, he probably loves South Korean media as well.

What have we learned from the first day of marking up the House Republicans’ big tax reform bill? There’s a long way to go, with lots of tweaks and alterations to be made to the bill House Ways and Means chairman Kevin Brady released last week. There are plenty of factions in the House GOP…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, associate editor Ethan Epstein talks with host Eric Felten about the Japanese leg of the president's Asia trip.

Among the industrialized nations, Japan has been notably resistant to immigration. Only 2.3 million foreigners reside in the country of 126 million—less than 2 percent of the total population. (By contrast, about 13 percent of U.S. residents are thought to be foreign-born.) And in Japan, the vast…

The architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, once warned his superiors, "In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of…

Tokyo

The 19th-century Irish-American vagabond and travel writer Lafcadio Hearn opened the first of his many books on Japan by quoting an English professor whom he met in his first days there. "Do not fail to write down your first impressions as soon as possible," the old scholar said. "They are…

The 19th-century Irish-American vagabond and travel writer Lafcadio Hearn opened the first of his many books on Japan by quoting an English professor whom he met in his first days there. "Do not fail to write down your first impressions as soon as possible," the old scholar said. "They are…

On this week's episode, the Substandard is turning Japanese, we think they're turning Japanese, we really think so. Actually they're discussing Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. Sonny rates ScarJo—in multiple categories. JVL and Vic get deep into Star Blazers while Sonny tweets at them in…

Kamakura, Japan

The House of Representatives will vote Thursday on the American Health Care Act, a bill President Donald Trump has enthusiastically endorsed and what the administration considers its best and perhaps only chance to repeal and replace Obamacare. It's the first and possibly biggest test so far of…

The Gideon Bible it isn't. At a chain of mid-tier hotels in Japan—roughly equivalent to the Holiday Inn—guests are treated to another form of bedtime reading. Each room includes a book, penned by the chain's founder and CEO, that claims, among other things, that the Nanjing Massacre was "fabricated…

In late December 2015, Japan and South Korea reached an agreement regarding Korean sex slaves taken during World War II—the thousands upon thousands of rape victims whom the Japanese imperial forces euphemistically referred to as "comfort women." After decades of denial, obfuscation, and…

President Barack Obama is set to meet with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Hawaii on Tuesday, where the two men will honor American war casualties at Pearl Harbor. The encounter is expected to be the president's last meeting with a foreign head of state before departing office next month.

CNN reports:

The world, and especially the nation, remembered Pearl Harbor last Wednesday. December 7 is, indeed, a day that has lived "in infamy." So the president and the man who will follow him into the White House both issued appropriate statements. A moving ceremony took place at the scene of the attack,…

The world, and especially the nation, remembered Pearl Harbor last Wednesday. December 7 is, indeed, a day that has lived “in infamy." So the president and the man who will follow him into the White House both issued appropriate statements. A moving ceremony took place at the scene of the attack,…

The photo posted on Akie Abe’s Facebook account on August 22, showing her paying her respects at the USS Arizona Memorial to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is worth far more than the proverbial thousand words. This was the first visit to the site by the wife of a Japanese prime…

It can hardly be a coincidence that just as the emperor of Japan hinted at abdicating his throne this past weekend, the island nation’s greatest baseball player ascended to a kind of diamond royalty. Ichiro Suzuki, a 42-year-old outfielder with 16 major league seasons under his belt (Seattle…

At a fraught time—with Beijing blundering through the South China Sea, despite a Hague panel smacking down its bogus territorial claims, and North Korea firing ballistic missiles into Japanese waters, for example—it might behoove Japan to embrace a more conciliatory stance towards the other great…

Tokyo

President Obama's decision to be the first sitting U.S. President to visit the ground zero site of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on May 27th as part of a G-7 Summit visit to Japan comes as no surprise. Advancing the cause of nuclear nonproliferation has been a hallmark of the Obama presidency and…

John Kerry has become the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the Hiroshima Peace Park, ground zero to the first atomic bomb. He recognized the victims of World War II, saying he was there in part to "revisit the past." As part of that history, a prisoner of war of Imperial Japan, I hope that…

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is nothing if not consistent. His incompetent (and unremittingly cruel) leadership extends not only to his miserable domestic record. Kim is proving to be a disaster on the international scene as well.

Kyoto

It’s good news, of course, that the Japanese government has agreed to acknowledge the plight of the comfort women; the tens of thousands of women, many of whom who were Korean, who were forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military in the first half of the twentieth century. Japan has now…

A lame duck President Obama, released next year from any lingering political constraints, will make a likely final official visit to Asia to attend the 42nd G-7 summit of leaders of the world’s leading economies. The summit is scheduled to be held in May 2016 in central Japan, not far from…

Many of my friends think Hiroshima was an unjustifiable atrocity. My usual course in atom-bomb disputes is to refer the belligerent to Donald Kagan’s brilliant 1995 piece in Commentary, “Why America Dropped the Bomb.” The reaction is consistent, and surprising: My friends do not challenge any of…

Advertisements in Japanese for handbags, backpacks, running shoes, and more began showing up on the website of the U.S. National Archives this week. Hackers managed to compromise a subdomain of the site, eisenhower.archives.gov. Below are screen captures of just two of the unauthorized pages:

Unlike Scandinavia, where the police procedural form has been wedded to socio-political activism and pessimism since at least the 1960s, and unlike the United States, where different variations of the native hardboiled school continues to sell, the traditional mystery story is still alive and well…

The statement of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second World War was the focus of profound anticipation throughout Asia. The prime minister was in an extremely delicate position, seeking to balance the need to express contrition to Imperial…

Seoul

John Kerry’s visit to Asia this week – like Ashton Carter’s last month – is designed to offer reassurance that America’s commitment to the region remains unwavering in the face of increased Chinese aggression. Yet despite these visits, leaders in the region have profound doubts whether the United…

Americans have long been skeptical of the liberal arts. Frequently this takes the form of a discussion of whether a degree in history or literature is “worth it” in a purely economic sense. Annual reports highlight the top-earning college majors, subtly encouraging students to forgo a class in…

South Korean President Park Geun-hye may have avoided walking into a potential minefield in postponing her recent Washington visit due to the MERS outbreak in her home country. Following the highly successful Washington visit of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, there is a growing sense of “Korea…

Even as it becomes ever more clear that last week’s Amtrak horror in Philadelphia had nothing to do with, as the refrain goes, “America’s Failing Infrastructure,™” many in the media and lobbying spheres have continued to demand greater spending on rail. As part of that campaign, this week, a New…

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe did not go into his line of work to make friends. Since regaining the premiership in 2012, Abe has made a habit of insulting Japan’s neighbors and allies. He’s denied, in the face of copious evidence, that the Imperial Japanese Army used hundreds of thousands of…

Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

The Japanese, seemingly stuck in political doldrums, sluggish economic growth, and waning international influence, are pushing past those frustrations with a new government-led campaign to sell the world—and their own children—on their country’s distinctive traditional cuisine.

Sherman marched right into it. At an event in Washington on Friday, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, held forth on the subject of the prickly relations between South Korea and Japan -- and did so in a way that seemed to blame the victims in the situation.

Over at Reason, Pete Suderman has a great piece about how Japan is looking to robots to help care for its geriatric citizens. It’s funny and creepy and you should totally read it.

As the prime minister of constitutionally pacifist Japan, Shinzo Abe cannot sound belligerent notes—even when his citizens are beheaded by ISIS, as occurred this past weekend. Still, the Financial Times (note: I'm a subscriber and a big fan) may have been overstating the case a bit with its choice…

President Obama confirmed and condemned the death of a Japanese man at the hands of the Islamic State in this statement:

Japan’s government is running out of time, writes Adam Pasick at Quartz:

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will "express remorse" for World War II, the Associated Press reports.

America’s “pivot” to Asia is rapidly going nowhere, but diplomatic challenges in the most economically vibrant region of the world still cry out for attention. These include the brash assertiveness of a rising China, the emergence of an erratic, nuclear-armed young North Korean leader, and the…

A foolish optimism about human nature can’t withstand even a nodding acquaintance with history. If you’re of a certain age you may well remember seeing this photo. It was published years ago in Life magazine, among other places. And once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The Scrapbook retrieved the…

In 2007, during his first term as Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe penned a work titled Toward a Beautiful Country, My Vision for Japan. The recent re-examination of the 1993 Kono Statement on the Imperial Japanese military’s use of “comfort women” during World War II (a euphemism for sex…

In a March 28 speech at the Körber Foundation in Berlin, China’s president, Xi Jinping, called for historical truth-telling. He had in mind the Rape of Nanking, the massacre carried out by Imperial Japan’s forces in 1937-38 during their occupation of the then-capital of the Chinese Nationalists…

President Obama spent only one night in Japan last week on his current swing through Asia, but the State Department estimated total "lodging nights" required by the president and his entourage could run around 2,172, and the use of "functional rooms" (presumably conference rooms and the like) could…

President Obama will leave Japan without a vital trade deal. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was supposed to be wrapped last autumn, and the president’s spring trip to Asia—the one he’s currently on—was supposed to be the victory lap.

President Obama met some Japanese robots and didn't like it. "I have to say that the robots were a little scary, they were too lifelike. They were amazing," Obama said at a technology display while visiting Japan.

President Obama is in Japan meeting with the emperor -- and talking about his gray hair.

In 1916 London faced a dilemma. The British were hoping to bring American reinforcements to assist them and their beleaguered French allies in the trenches of the First World War. Woodrow Wilson, however, seeking to become the first Democratic president to win reelection since before the Civil War,…

Much good news is emanating from Japan, one of America's most important allies, though some of it comes with an unnecessary taint. After decades of economic stagnation and foreign policy reticence stemming from its postwar legacy of pacifism, Japan is back as a strong and confident alliance…

In recent days, the new U.S. ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, took to Twitter to express deep concern about the practice of a local Japanese tradition.

You would guess that an agreement between the United States and Japan to move a Marine air base from one location to another on Okinawa would be good news. And it is, for three reasons. First, because there has been opposition to relocating the base on the island, and negotiations had stalemated.…

While Washington and the world have been focused on the nuclear agreement reached with Iran last week in Geneva, on the other side of the globe, one of the parties to that deal, China, was at the very same time making the peaceful resolution of its dispute with Japan over a group of small islands…

Vice President Joe Biden says that women are not "kinder and gentler" in the work place than men. 

Tokyo

Tokyo

Enough is enough. That isn’t a bad shorthand description of Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s new economic policy. Enough of lost decades, enough of deflation, enough of an over-valued yen, enough of wage stagnation, enough of the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) “timidity.” More printing of money, more…

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will be nominated to be the next ambassador to Japan, the Washington Post reports.

Canberra 

All of the fuss by the G-7 and the G-20 at their meeting this week about whether Japan should be condemned for attempting to end decades of stagnation by easing monetary policy, with the effect of driving down the yen, makes for good copy. Especially since the various G-7 spokesmen put on a…

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi defended violent video games today on Fox News Sunday:

Just before Christmas there was a lot of public concern about America’s declining birthrate, which closed out 2012 at its lowest point since 1920. But in trying to understand why American fertility is on the wane, it’s important to understand that fertility decline is a global phenomenon.…

The New York Times has finally discovered that fiscal cliffs aren’t the only thing that menace the modern nation-state. There’s a demographic cliff, too. A couple weeks ago, the Times’s Ross Douthat wrote a column about America’s bleak demographic future and suggested that the reason we aren’t…

Japan's presumptive prime minister, Shinzo Abe, "told business chiefs he had been speaking to "President Bush" after a phone call from Barack Obama," according to the Japan Times.

Relations between China and Japan, never particularly placid, have reached bona fide crisis proportions over the past several months—and could get worse.

Though every generation dutifully brings forth its crop of visual artists, some harvests are more blessed and bounteous than others. And while few have been as sparse as those of recent date, we can all take some consolation in the Whitney’s retrospective of Yayoi Kusama. Any age that engendered…

Sometimes an uninhabited island chain is just an uninhabited island chain. But that’s never the case in East Asia, where territorial disputes often involve fishing rights, energy supplies, and, perhaps most importantly, the re-litigation of historical grievances.

Ron Paul’s aversion to monetary expansion in the middle of an economic crisis is a fringe libertarian idea—and also widely held in America’s political mainstream, including by some Fed officials. This wave of thinking seems to foreshadow a worrisome trend: the ongoing Japanization of the West.

After Japan’s tsunami a year ago, about 20,000 people either drowned or were lost along the country’s northeastern coast. The same tidal wave overwhelmed nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. But no ill-health effects from radiation have been reported to date. 

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper is reporting that the Japanese government is close to settling on the F-35 Lightning as the much-needed replacement for its F-15 fighter.  That’s exceptionally good news for a program that’s both key to preserving American military preeminence and at a lot of risk due…

A Sensitivity to the Seasons

In Western Europe, Fukushima’s power reactor disaster has produced a loud round of anti-nuclear power reactions. Germany says it will phase out atomic power by 2022, and the Swiss insist they will shutter their reactor fleet by 2034. Earlier this month, the Italian public rebuked Prime Minister…

The Washington Post reports:

The Los Angeles Times reports that radioactive water is now being dumped into the Pacific Ocean from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan:

The catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is being regarded as the atomic power equivalent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which set back offshore oil drilling just as it appeared on the brink of a substantial expansion. This means we’ve now come…

The situation with the Japanese nuclear reactors, which were badly damaged as a result of the devastating 9.0 earthquake earlier this month, seems to be getting worse. The New York Times reports:

According to CNN, "Japan's national police say 8,928 people are confirmed dead after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami March 11 pulverized entire towns, leaving broken wood beams and massive piles of rubble where organized neighborhoods once stood."

The disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and the upheavals in the Middle East are the sort of events that send economists back to their forecasters’ drawing boards. As usual, there is a tendency to confuse the long-run and the short-run, and to blame developments that were due to…

"How Obama turned on a dime toward war"

Forget Wisconsin, Miami's mayor is recalled by voters angry about tax hikes.

The New York Times reports:

Hundreds have already been confirmed dead, following the earthquake that struck Japan. The quake measured an 8.9 on the Richter scale. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Oh, Almighty Google Machine--I kid! We know you're not evil. You're the most benevolent algorithm ever. But every once in a while, Google (which owns YouTube) drops a little data point about how it sees the world.

As the secretary of the extreme left-wing group Socialist Forum during her student days in the mid 1980s, Australian prime minister Julia Gillard put her name to pamphlets advocating the end of the ANZUS alliance with the United States and the scrapping of the U.S.-Australian Pine Gap military…

On September 7, a particularly aggressive Chinese fishing boat captain, Zhan Qixiong, rammed his vessel, the Minjinyu 5179, into two Japanese patrol boats after he refused to heed warnings to leave disputed waters in the East China Sea. The incident occurred around the islets and rock outcroppings…