Korean Peninsula

  • America Turns Away From Trumpism

    A Victory for Common Sense The Democrats won the midterms. The larger story is that many Americans rejected the rough-and-tumble America that Donald Trump embodies. Trump tries to get his way with bizarre policies that defy reason, with sophistry, invective, and violence. It is true that America has had men like him in every era. But they have stood outside…

  • Time to Rethink Our Assumptions About North Korea

    What It Means That Pyongyang No Longer Seeks Korean Reunification . Mention North Korea, and certain associations spring to mind: “dangerous,” “poised to invade South Korea,” or “eager for a meeting with Trump.” Yet the underlying paradigm seems to have changed considerably since around 2024. . At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in…

  • German Chancellor Merz’s Visit to Japan Shall Promote the Cooperation of Middle-Power States

    German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is scheduled to visit Japan on October 28. He will then travel to South Korea and Singapore. Since his itinerary appears to deliberately bypass China, some in Japan may see this as an opportunity to draw Germany into a coalition aimed at containing China. . However, Chancellor Merz already visited China in February, a country with…

  • U.S.-China Rapprochement Is Good for Japan

    Akio KAWATO Former Japanese diplomat . Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the United States on September 23–25. In Japan, there was considerable commotion over President Trump greeting him at the airport and emphasizing in his welcoming remarks that the United States and China had been allies during World War II. Some people even rushed to conclude…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 8

    What Was the Modern Nation-State? （The modern world has been built around the “nation-state.” It has borders, a dominant national group and its language, and sovereignty over its territory. We were taught in school that the seventeenth-century Peace of Westphalia established these principles and that sovereign states stand as equals. Today, however, this idea of the modern state is being…

  • The Postwar World and the Shifting Currents Beneath It

    (This is a slightly revised version of my article to be published in Newsweek Japan on September 8.) . The Post-Cold War Era and the Expansion of American Power . The international situation today can broadly be described as the “post-Cold War” era. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which divided the world for decades…

  • A Yellow Warning Light Is Flashing for U.S. Finance

    A yellow warning light is now flashing over America’s financial markets. Excessive Treasury issuance has been driving up long-term interest rates. This could lead to a sharp decline in Treasury prices, a fiscal crisis, and a loss of confidence in the dollar. It could also trigger a stock-market crash, severely reducing the wealth of America’s middle class. . Treasury Secretary…

  • The U.S. Marine Corps Is Changing — and So Is Its Role in Japan

    Watching the current war with Iran, one striking feature is that U.S. Navy warships, particularly aircraft carriers, are staying away from the Strait of Hormuz—or perhaps are simply unable to get close to it. Presumably, the danger posed by mines, as well as Iranian missiles and drones, is simply too great. . If we transpose this situation to the Far…

  • Rethinking Japan’s Place in a Rising Asia

    (This article appeared in Newsweek Japan on August 18.) On August 8, news broke that both South Korea and Taiwan had surpassed Japan in exports during the first half of this year. Since the mid-1990s, I had already grown weary of hearing the world sneer that “Japan is finished—even in Asia.” This latest news felt almost like the final blow.…

  • The Emperor of Japan: Myths and Facts

    During the first half of this year, revision of the Imperial House Law became a major issue in the Diet. The Imperial House Law is a statute, separate from the Constitution, that lays down various rules governing the Imperial Family. The main purpose of the proposed revision was to address the shrinking size of the Imperial Family, now down to…