Japan’s relations with its immediate neighbors have taken a drastic dip in recent times. One major problem is the disputed territorial claims that Japan faces with China, South Korea and Russia.Japan controls Senkaku Islands (Diaoyutai in Chinese), a chain of islands also claimed by China and Taiwan. In early September 2010, Japanese patrol boats clashed with a Chinese fishing trawler near the isl

The 2012 presidential campaign is finally stirring to life, with would-be Republican candidates Haley Barbour and Mike Huckabee musing about whether Mitt Romney should be disqualified by similarities between Massachusetts’ Romneycare and Obamacare.As if on cue, President Barack Obama defended his health care overhaul in remarks to the nation’s governors by associating it with Romney’s, an embrace

Always eager for more revenue, the Taiwanese government is now seeking to take from the rich with a proposed new “luxury tax.” Estimated to be capable of generating NT$15 billion ($511 million) a year, the proposed new tax is intended to close the ever-widening wealth gap and curb real property speculation, which has been rampant since Taiwan’s economic fortunes began turning around last year.The

Around the world, authoritarian regimes have tried to keep their citizens from hearing news of the protests raging throughout the Middle East and in their own countries. Some have tried shutting down cellphone and Internet service, but that has only sparked new flames of anger and discontent.Even the Chinese government, which has unleashed the most sophisticated Internet blocking system in the wor

The Internet and the airwaves are clogged with contradictory predictions of what the Mideast upheavals will mean to the region ― and to us.I have conservative readers calling me an idiot for not understanding that the Egyptian revolution is a huge victory for the Islamists, even as Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., extols the hope for secular democracy in Cairo alongside his buddy, Arizona Republican S

Preliminary findings in the 2010 census released Feb. 25 by the internal affairs ministry underline the overall trend of a shrinking and graying population as well as a demographic imbalance characterized by a population rise in a few prefectures and a population drop in most prefectures. Japan cannot lose any time in working out policies that will effectively cope with undesirable effects from th

It didn’t take long for well-meaning members of Congress last week to come up with an easy sounding proposal to help the Libyan opposition topple Moammar Gadhafi: Just impose a no-fly zone.“We spend $500 billion on defense and we can’t take down Libyan air defenses?” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the Washington Post. “You tell those Libyan pilots that there is a no-fly zone, and they are not goi

Economics is founded on the principle of gains from trade. If economic activity is considered as a kind of game, then all players are made better off when they cooperate. Of course, political science knows other types of “games,” notably the prisoner’s dilemma. In this situation, a player may be better off by refusing to cooperate. Hence a situation where prisoner’s dilemma is prevalent will foste