[Fumihiro Kitayama]

In April, Japan made a significant policy shift on accepting foreign workers, including those who will perform simple labour.A decrease in the working-age population caused this change.However, it is unclear whether or not Japan will be able to secure enough foreign workers to sustain the Japanese economy in the future.The focus of debate over foreign workers is shifting from “Should Japan accept foreign workers?” to “Can Japan be the country of their choice?” in the glob

Oct. 10, 2019

[Kim Myong-sik] Unnecessary battle to save unworthy guardsman of power

On a tour of Mokpo and islands off the southwestern port last week, I paid a visit to the Kim Dae-jung Nobel Peace Prize Memorial located in Samhakdo islet. Most impressive there was a picture on the wall showing the former president standing side by side with four of his predecessors during a reception in the Blue House. Roh Tae-woo, Choi Kyu-hah, Kim Dae-jung, Chun Doo-hwan and Kim Young-sam were posing comfortably accompanied by their wives. The photograph was taken right after Kim Dae-jung&r

Oct. 9, 2019

[Peter Singer] Climate activist Greta Thunberg’s moment

“This is all wrong!” These words begin the most powerful four-minute speech I have ever heard. They were spoken by Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit last month, and followed a week of climate strikes and marches attended by an estimated 6 million people.The marchers were predominantly the young people who will have to cope with more of the costs of climate change than the world leaders Thunberg was addressing. Her tone o

Oct. 9, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Seoul: Winter 1964’ vs. winter in 2019

In his epoch-making short story, “Seoul: Winter 1964,” novelist Kim Seung-ok brilliantly renders the bleak landscape of Seoul in the mid-Sixties when Koreans had to suffer the ruthless military dictatorship and dehumanization caused by rapid industrialization. At that time, people had to struggle with a suffocating reality every day, embedded with tyranny and poverty. So people liked to drop by a street liquor stall, warming up their bodies with alcohol, and tried to forget their mis

Oct. 8, 2019

[Robert J. Fouser] Consequences of Trump’s impeachment

The Korean expression “what was bound to come has arrived” best describes the current political situation in the US. It was only a matter of time before the Democratic controlled House of Representatives moved to impeach President Donald Trump.Evidence that Trump appeared to be pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter caused the dam in favor of impeachment to burst. Biden has long been considered the strongest

Oct. 8, 2019

[Elizabeth Drew] Logic of impeachment does not favor Trump

US President Donald Trump’s presidency is in peril. He’s likely to be impeached -- the equivalent of an indictment -- by the House of Representatives, and it cannot be ruled out entirely that the Senate will vote to convict him and therefore remove him from office. Impeachment alone would leave an asterisk by Trump’s name in history. And even if he isn’t convicted, which requires a two-thirds vote, any Senate Republican votes against him will undermine his argument that t

Oct. 7, 2019

[Ivan Eland] How did we come to have a rogue presidency?

The media has given us blanket coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of an official House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s apparent attempt to use congressionally appropriated funds to Ukraine to trade a desperate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for an investigation of Trump’s political rival at home. But few commentators have explored how we have arrived at this juncture. And I don’t mean an investigation of Trump and Rudy Giulian

Oct. 6, 2019

[Jonathan Woetzel, Jeongmin Seong] The Asianized world has arrived

 In the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, it is being Asianized -- and much faster than you may think.Asia’s rise has been swift. Home to more than half of the world’s population, the region has climbed from low- to middle-income status within a single generation. By 2040, it is likely to generate more than 50 percent of world GDP, and could account for nearly 40 percent of global consumption.New McKinsey Global Institute re

Oct. 6, 2019

[Hal Brands] Singapore has some tough advice for US and China

These are fraught times for Asia-Pacific nations caught in the crossfire of the US-China rivalry. I recently wrote about how one longtime US ally, the Philippines, is repositioning itself between Washington and Beijing. But Manila is hardly alone in trying to protect itself as the geopolitical giants clash. Singapore confronts a similar challenge, which was thrown into relief by an interview its Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave last week. Lee’s remarks highlight the dilemmas faced by we

Oct. 3, 2019

[Daniel Moss] South Korea has a problem other countries can only dream of

South Korea’s economy is in a tough spot. Too bad the monetary policy response has been so tame.The country is flirting with outright deflation, figures Tuesday showed, as consumer prices declined for the first time on record. Exports, which account for about 40 percent of gross domestic product, had slipped for 10 straight months. The Bank of Korea says the country will struggle to meet even lowered growth forecasts.BOK policymakers need to articulate a broad strategy to get inflation bac

Oct. 3, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] What should a wise man do in a commotion?

Pyrrho of Ellis, the first Greek skeptic philosopher, argued that wise men should be skeptical and thus remain calm under all circumstances. According to the Greek thinker, we should raise questions before believing something too hastily. Yet on the contrary, we are liable to become convinced of something so easily that we seldom doubt its validity. Indeed, we often do not consider the possibility that we might be manipulated by a hidden mastermind pulling the strings from behind. For this reaso

Oct. 1, 2019

[Daniel Moss] One dirty word is driving economic change in Japan

Workers born outside Japan are playing an increasingly important role in the world’s third-largest economy. Just don’t call it immigration.The country is often said to pride itself on homogeneity and an aversion to outsiders. But as Japan’s population declines and ages, employers are becoming aware of their constraints. The number of employees from overseas has more than doubled since 2012 to about 1.5 million, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch.In recent conversations with loc

Oct. 1, 2019

[Jonathan Bernstein] Is that the sound of Trump’s spell over Republicans breaking?

The fate of President Donald Trump rests with Republicans. So the hearing in the House of Representatives on Thursday about a whistleblower’s allegation of impropriety involving Trump’s interaction with the president of Ukraine provided a good chance to see what GOP lawmakers are thinking.　The answer is: They’re all over the place. And that’s bad news for the White House.There are plenty of good questions about how Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee grilled the

Sept. 30, 2019

[Daniel Moss] Where you eat your bento box now matters for Japan

Japan’s consumption-tax hike doesn’t look like it’s going to sink the economy, as a similar increase did five years ago. That’s the good news.　The bad news is that the bump, to 10 percent from 8 percent, is still happening at an inauspicious time. While a recession isn’t in the cards for Japan, the last thing any major economy needs is a fiscal brake.Twice Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shied away from the increase. No wonder: A jump in the tax was widely blamed for a re

Sept. 30, 2019

[James Gibney] Impeachment comes with a foreign policy silver lining

Even before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled the trigger on an investigation into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, there were fears and complaints that impeachment proceedings would dangerously compromise US foreign policy. Beyond just stifling the president’s communications with foreign leaders, wrote former Justice Department official John Yoo, Congress “would seize the upper hand in foreign affairs, which has produced disasters.”But there’s anothe

Sept. 29, 2019

[Leonid Bershidsky] Ukraine holds more surprises for Biden

US presidential candidate Joe Biden is about to learn an unpleasant lesson about Ukraine: Once you’ve stepped into the country’s politics, there’s no way to emerge unsullied. Recent developments suggest he’ll be fielding questions about a lot more than what President Donald Trump has already slung his way.Consider the case of Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, which could play into one of the conservative blogosphere’s favorite obsessions: the idea that Ukraine p

Sept. 29, 2019

[Noah Feldman] UK top court’s Brexit ruling will have wide-ranging impact

The UK Supreme Court’s ruling voiding Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament is one for the ages -- a landmark in British constitutional law of the kind that comes around only once every few centuries.The court’s judgment tried to downplay how astonishing its decision was. But the reality is that the unanimous court broke new ground in making the judiciary, not Parliament, the ultimate arbiter of constitutional legality in the UK. Although, the court said this case was a &ldq

Sept. 26, 2019

[David Ignatius] Trump compromised national security for personal gain

If you’re wondering why it matters that US President Donald Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine while he was requesting political favors from its new president, think about the Ukrainian soldiers who are fighting a nasty proxy war against Russian-backed separatists. America is Ukraine’s ally in this fight. Ukrainian commanders, battling to hold their country together against a five-year onslaught by Russia, have been depending on US promises of military assistance. In life or deat

Sept. 26, 2019

[Kim Myong-sik] Moon slides deeper into hot water embracing Cho Kuk

The fall of President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating down to the 40 percent mark made headlines last week. The Korea Gallup figure was the lowest since the May 2017 election, which he won with 41 percent support in a five-way race with two conservative contenders, one centrist and one progressive. The rating had been over 60 percent after the dramatic summit talks with North Korean chief Kim Jong-un in the border village of Panmunjom and the North’s capital of Pyongyang last year. A s

Sept. 25, 2019

[Kent Harrington] When US president can’t be trusted

The White House is trying to prevent the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from viewing a whistleblower complaint detailing President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic contender to challenge his presidency in 2020. Given Trump’s refusal to cooperate with nearly a dozen other congressional investigations, this episode will most likely end in

Sept. 25, 2019