For all the hyperbole around the importance of the Asian century, how well does the West – and Australia – really know Asia? We can argue that knowledge of Asia over the past 50 years has increased dramatically, but knowing the region – a more intimate, subtle process – is another matter. Public opinion of […]
Tag Archives: Japan
The crushing victory by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party in the weekend’s elections has signalled that Japanese voters are worried, disillusioned and impatient for change. With Japan’s economy still in the doldrums, China’s influence growing and the country still reeling from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, many Japanese want a return to when the country was an […]
This article appeared in the Sunday Debate page in the Herald Sun, 15 January 2012. To read the argument from the anti-whaling side (Sea Shepherd), please go to the following link. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/commercial-whaling-in-the-southern-ocean-yes-or-no/story-fn6bn88w-1226244372581 ************************************************************* Before talking about the whaling in the Southern Ocean IT IS quite unfortunate that the current debate on whaling is somehow focusing […]
To whale or not to whale … THAT should be the question I was simply amazed when I read a small online Japanese article about a week ago. It was reporting the departure of three whaling ships from Shimonoseki, former whaling town in the western Japan, heading for the Antarctic. I was amazed not that […]
Japan March 11th 2011: For the record In the evening of 22 March, I boarded Qantas flight 22 bound for Sydney via Hong Kong from Narita International Airport. It was a familiar flight for me which was usually a direct flight between Tokyo and Sydney. However, the flight route of the QF22 had been […]
Whaling has been a touchy issue between Australians and Japanese for a while. Since being appointed to my current position as an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow in May 2010, I have been asked a number of times by my Australian colleagues and friends “what’s your research topic?” And every time, I seem to need […]