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July 02, 2026
 

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Stephen Mihm
Japan Times
WORLD / Society / Commentary
Feb 20, 2020
The ugly history of blaming ethnic groups for disease outbreaks
As the coronavirus outbreak grows in scale and scope, a nasty side effect spreads: discrimination. Inside China, people from Wuhan have been treated like lepers. Outside, we’re seeing numerous reports of verbal and physical abuse aimed at ethnic Chinese, and an aversion to Chinese restaurants and other...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2019
Sleazy journalism can serve the public good
Long before Bezos’s battle with the National Enquirer, a fight involving a scabrous newspaper led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision expanding freedom of the press.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2018
Does corruption matter to voters? It depends
Democrats’ main target should be the Republican Party, not the president.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2018
FDR’s gun-control strategy was based on taxes
His administration gave gangsters 3,700 reasons to stop buying machine guns.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2018
Amazon’s labor-tracking wristband has a history
Jeff Bezos is stealing from a 19th-century playbook.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2017
Overbooking is a problem as old as the airline industry
Overbooking was the solution to the costly problem of ‘no-shows’ — people who reserved a seat but failed to board — that emerged in the late 1940s.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 12, 2017
Why Westinghouse was doomed at its creation
The world has spent nearly 60 years trying to make economic sense of nuclear power, with limited success. It may be time to pull the plug.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Nov 21, 2014
Islamic State’s planned currency is so 7th century
Islamic State has announced plans to start its own currency, an essential building block for their larger goal of restoring an ancient Islamic empire.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2014
Marijuana’s sobering lessons from Prohibition
Like alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition, legal marijuana will be a profitable business kept on a tight leash. And we should expect the public health consequences tol be mixed, though hardly a disaster.
COMMENTARY
Nov 15, 2013
We knew artificial fats were bad for us by 1870s
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that trans fats are no longer ‘generally recognized as safe,’ and that banning them would prevent 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

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