London Museum Returns Benin Bronzes
The Horniman Museum and Gardens, based in London, has recently agreed to return all 72 of its artifacts that were forcibly taken from Benin City, now part of Nigeria, during a British military operation in 1897.
Tag Archives: Germany
Nuclear Weapons Powers Urged to Stop Violating Global Treaty
As a treaty review conference kicked off in New York City, antiwar groups called out nuclear-armed countries—particularly the United States—for not complying with the decades-old agreement.
Visible Minorities: Abe’s Assassination and the Revenge of History
The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has occasioned a lot of valuable, eye-opening discussions in the media, but few if any have focused upon how Abe’s death could be seen as a form of karmic payback–what happens when you ignore the lessons of history in the pursuit of raw political power.
Visible Minorities: Good Riddance to an Evil Man
Former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who died February 1, was an evil man. Any honest obituary would admit as such.
The Decline of the Soft Power Nation
The Covid pandemic has gradually unleashed political and social forces in Japan that have lifted its underlying xenophobia to the surface, and thus transformed its culture from one of attraction into one of repulsion for many of its previous admirers.
Anti-Chinese Techno-Racism in Japan
In what may prove to be an escalating problem in Japan, young Chinese looking for employment in small startups and technology-related firms appear to be facing a wall of suspicion and sometimes outright racism.
Voices of Japan’s Stranded
Japan’s decision to exclude most foreigners, including many foreign residents, from entering or reentering the national borders during the Covid pandemic has had a human and reputational cost which the mainstream media has tended to either ignore or to downplay.
Japan Travel Ban Still Putting Lives on Hold
Despite the drastic decrease of new Covid cases in recent weeks and more than two-thirds of the population having become fully vaccinated, the Japanese government has still given no explanation why it is continuing to refuse to let international students and some foreign workers back into the country.
SEALDs: Where Are They Now?
SEALDs, short for Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, was a student activist organization in Japan that provided an important spark to the large-scale protests against then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2015 “Legislation for Peace and Security” (i.e. the Abe War Law), deemed by the vast majority of Japan’s legal scholars in the field to be unconstitutional.
Speakeasy: Japan at the Center of Trade Rulemaking in Asia-Pacific
This SNA Speakeasy features Hiroki Takeuchi on the theme of “Japan at the Center of Trade Rulemaking in Asia-Pacific.”
