TALAL BUKHAMSEEN WRITES — Every February, locals and tourists gather in Sapporo, Japan for a week of festivities celebrating the Sapporo Snow Festival. This year’s event, running from February 4th to the 11th, will mark the 70th anniversary of the festival. For its 70th Anniversary, the Snow Festival featured over 200…
JENICA GARCIA ROSE WRITES– Everyone has a favorite animated movie. This past holiday season, in addition to the usual Western animated classics, such as Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), The Polar Express (2004), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), I had the chance to…
KAISARA WALTON WRITES — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to China some six weeks ago certainly set a positive tone internationally. At the same time, though, it marked China’s continual growth on the world stage. That’s good for Japan, and China, perhaps. But shouldn’t the United States be concerned?…
RAHAF GABBANI WRITES– On September 21, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) broke ground by sending two robots to explore a potentially hazardous asteroid belonging to the Apollo group, Ryugu. The mission, “Hayabusa2,” marked a big step in a long-term effort to locate the origin of our solar system. One of…
OLIVIA AMEZCUA WRITES – Summer 2018 was anything but relaxing for the 127 million people living in Japan. The nation was brutally struck with floods, heat waves, landslides, typhoons and earthquakes. The latest natural disaster to wreak havoc was Typhoon Jebi on September 4, the country’s strongest typhoon in 25…
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″] [et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] TABITHA THEARD WRITES – Bi-Visibility Day began in 1996, when American LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) Rights activists Wendy Curry, Michael Page and Gigi Raven Wilbur noticed a lack of representation for bisexuals in queer movements. Thus, they organized to…
(AMI NOTES: Moon Chung-in is a distinguished professor at Yonsei University and the special advisor for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs for South Korean President Moon Jae-in. His essay, condensed via common use courtesy, was produced by The WorldPost, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute, and The Washington Post.)…
TABITHA THEARD WRITES — Instagram and twitter have helped artists connect to fans around the world. This is one way that Rina Sawayama (pictured) and K-pop band BTS—aka Beyond the Scene, Bangtan Sonyeondan (Bulletproof Boy Scouts)—have gained popularity worldwide. As John Paul Titlo wrote in his article How Instagram Became…
TOM PLATE WRITES — America is now more confused than ever about North Korea. And it’s not all Mr Trump’s fault. Neither can America fairly say it’s all China’s fault. For as long as I have been writing about Asia, North Korea has been the black hole of American foreign…
NADIA ALJOJO WRITES – According to the Pew Research Center, more than 70% of Americans worry about the future of robotics. Based on the results of this survey, few will be enthusiastic to hear that robots are officially one step closer to taking over the world. Case in point: By…
DYLAN RAMOS WRITES – Looks like all those prayers and shrine visits fans made for Yuzuru Hanyu’s victory sure paid off. Oh, and more than a bit of practice, I’m sure. As for what happened on February 17, Jack Gallagher might have already put it best for The Japan Times,…
DYLAN RAMOS WRITES – In early January, a tanker carrying 32 people and nearly a million barrels of condensate — an ultra-light, highly flammable oil — was struck by a Chinese bulk freighter east of Shanghai. The freighter, Sanchi, caught fire and burned for nearly a week as it floated…
JACQUELINE DILANCHYAN WRITES – Japan’s Kei Nishikori made a highly anticipated return to professional tennis this January, but it wasn’t the expected Australian Open, this season’s first Grand Slam, where he made his awaited comeback. Instead, Nishikori made his comeback at the ATP Challenger Tour Event in Newport Beach, which…
AASHNA MALPANI WRITES – Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, invited Ivanka Trump to speak about female empowerment at the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo recently. Ivanka Trump, daughter of current U.S. President Donald Trump– a man infamous for repeated offenses and disrespectful comments against women – spoke about the…
TOKYO (excerpted, courtesy of the Washington Post) — Yuka Ogata wanted to make a point about the challenges working women face in Japan. The men on the Kumamoto Municipal Assembly proved her point for her — entirely inadvertently. The 42-year-old assembly member, on her first day back at work after…
DYLAN RAMOS WRITES — Despite Typhoon Lan hitting parts of the country, Japanese voters took to the polls October 22, largely in support of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for the past 58 years.= Abe officially secured his third term as Prime Minister November…
