Hints don't come much less subtle than the one the late Iris Chang received in a small package in 1998. Inside the box, which has been mailed to her front door, were two bullets. Almost anyone else might, there and then, have opted for a less stressful life. Not Iris Chang. The episode is recounted... Read More

TOKYO, Japan -- Your first Japanese earthquake is your most memorable. Or so I thought until, along with about 50 million other residents of northern and eastern Japan, I was transfixed by Friday's whopper. It was all such a contrast with my first, which I experienced 25 years ago as the newly arrived Tokyo bureau... Read More

TOKYO, Japan -- In this slot a few days ago I posed some historical questionsthat, judging by the email I have been receiving, have perplexed a lot of readers. Let me now fast-forward to our own time and try some questions that will probably prove almost equally perplexing. They concern the Japanese economy, that erstwhile... Read More

TOKYO, Japan -- In my post yesterday I pointed out that Westerners suffer many blindspots in their understanding of East Asia. I underlined the point by asking two quiz-style questions. It is time for some rather surprising answers. Question 1: Can you name an atrocity that happened in East Asia in the 1930s that, on... Read More

TOKYO, Japan -- For years now the American press has been full of reports of the rise of China and, to a lesser extent, of South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. But how well do you really know East Asia? If I may say so, probably not very well. After 25 years of reporting from the... Read More