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East Asia
Winner’s bucket list
Here are five suggestions for what our new President has to do during his or her five-year term. 1) Don’t be ambitious but be ambitious The late former President Roh Moo-hyun once observed, “The fact that I became president,” when asked what he thought was his biggest presidential achievement. Roh didn’t…
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Fear of Japan’s regression
LDP’s return to power must not undermine peace Dark clouds are gathering in Northeast Asia as Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power Sunday. The party’s hawkish former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead Japan after his one-year stint from 2006 to 2007.…
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East Asia
Japanese election and Korea
The results of the general election in Japan on Dec. 16th have left Koreans uneasy. The establishment Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that ruled Japan almost unbroken from 1955 to 2009 returned to power in a landslide victory. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which took power in a landslide win…
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East Asia
Nostalgia of traditional tavern
Whenever I take a trip abroad, I make time to taste various traditional drinks from the countries I visit. During my lifetime, I have experienced and enjoyed a lot of luxurious entertainment. However, I still get great pleasure from sharing memories with my colleagues at traditional style venues and bars…
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East Asia
A school for fathers
A few years ago, I enrolled at a school for fathers run by a nonprofit corporation, which issued an honorary certificate after completing the designated courses. I went there because I couldn’t deal with the unexpected friction as my son reached adolescence. In fact, I constantly told my son the…
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East Asia
On the brink in NE Asia
Two stories dominate the news in the U.S. There’s the “fiscal cliff” over which civilization-as-we-know-it is doomed to tumble on New Year’s Day unless President Barack Obama talks some common sense into his intransigent foes in Congress. You get so tired of hearing the grating voices of the Republican Senate…
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North Korean missile strikes fear
The world has just become more dangerous. For decades, the United States has been wary of the rogue state of North Korea, governed (after a fashion) by pariahs. Their intent to become a nuclear power, while unable to feed their own people, has not lagged. Their highly touted but often…
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NK’s reckless challenge
Pyongyang should pay the price for rocket launch After much speculation, North Korea fired a long-range rocket Wednesday morning in defiance of international condemnation and sanctions threats from the United Nations. The launch is a reckless challenge to the international community that has stubbornly urged the North to give up…
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Central Asia
Everyday Putinism
For those following the headlines, Putin II may seem progressive. As opposed to Putin’s first tenure, there have been no controversial television station closings, no prominent cases against businessmen and no assassinations. Instead we read about the building of a Jewish history museum in Moscow and improved relations with U.S.…
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Russia’s European prospects
MOSCOW ― In 1966, Charles de Gaulle’s vision of a Europe “that stretched from the Atlantic to the Urals” was provocative. Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin has advanced an even more ambitious goal: “a common market stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific.” In the race toward globalization, the stakes…
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