Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be more open than ever to a compromise with Japan that would end the two countries’ post-World War II territorial dispute. Both sides have been making tentative moves toward reconciliation since May, and a deal may finally be in the works after decades of false starts. 　In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Putin explained why Russia and Japan haven’t come to an agreement: “We are talking about finding a solution under which neither side will feel put

Whenever Chuseok, or the Korean thanksgiving, comes around, I ponder how my father helped me witness the true meaning of the holiday during my teenage years.Born and raised in Seoul, Chuseok was the most painful time of year for me. Traveling to Buan, North Jeolla Province, meant going through the crazy traffic incurred by the massive exodus of Seoulites visiting their parents’ homes in rural areas. The more challenging part was that I had to spend several days at my grandma’s place doing “nothi

WASHINGTON -- Despite Hillary Clinton’s recent slip in the polls, she has a big political opportunity, even though some of her advisers might regard it as a curse: She can run as the candidate who represents the “mainstream” leadership of both parties and knows how to fix our broken political system. In a year when anti-elitism has been a dominant theme in both parties, donning this establishment mantle might appear to be a mistake for Clinton. But let’s be honest: Her strength is that she’s the

If you’re stopped by the police in your self-driving vehicle, would you need to show a driver’s license? This is not a riddle, it’s a legitimate question to be debated by lawmakers when they begin to address the reality of a world where not all cars and trucks have humans at the wheel.Yes, the driverless car is coming -- much sooner than you think. Ford says that within five years it will have a fully self-driving vehicle without steering wheel, gas or brake pedal for sale to ride-hailing compan

Fallouts from the collapse of a big company usually reach far beyond its own shareholders, employees, business partners and customers. The case of Hanjin Shipping Co. offers a good example. The shipper, the No. 1 in the nation and the No. 7 in the world, went into court receivership last week under heavy debt amounting to 6 trillion won ($5.37 billion). It touched off a storm not only in the shipping industry but also the entire economy. Now more than half of Hanjin’s 141-strong fleet are strand

Type “Xi Jinping” — the name of the Chinese president — and “Cold War mentality” into Google and you will get a long list of results. Most prominently among them are results that mention how Xi said nations should abandon the Cold War mentality when he addressed the UN General Assembly about one year ago. He made the same remark last week when he addressed a business forum at the G20 summit he was hosting in Hangzhou. He apparently had in mind his country’s biggest rival, the US, which it believ

In the epigraph of his novel, “The Victim,” Saul Bellow poses a problem of moral responsibility and reckoning. Borrowing from “Arabian Nights,” the Nobel Laureate asks a question: If a merchant threw date stones after eating the dates and accidentally killed the son of an Ifrit, would the merchant be responsible for it? Since the Ifrit and his son were invisible, the merchants did not know they were around. Still, however, the Ifrit wanted retribution for his son’s death and the merchant should

The Clintons have been subject to fishing expeditions before, but why is a federal court making Hillary Clinton give sworn responses now to questions about her use of a private e-mail server back when she was secretary of state? This all stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a conservative group seeking State Department information about Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin. With a series of permissive rulings, the judge has allowed the suit to get out of hand. It’s now an inquiry int

As Gene Roddenberry‘s “Star Trek” boldly passes the 50-year mark Thursday, the series is in impressive shape.The latest movie -- “Star Trek Beyond” -- made about $250 million at the domestic box office and received an 83 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is far better than most of this summer’s hideously awful blockbusters. A new series, “Discovery” -- No. 7 in the franchise -- makes its debut on CBS in early 2017, seemingly in a serialized fashion where the characters and plotlin

Korea has a one-child policy. It was not created by the government, but imposed by informed parents themselves. It turns out that no matter what the government says, and despite all the conceivable incentive packages, Korean parents choose (and in fact are determined) to have just one child. Look at the numbers. Korea’s birth rate has been stagnant at around 1.2 children per woman almost for a decade now. What is striking is that this is the period when the government made all-out efforts to boo

I don‘t care what kids say -- the school lunch lady is not trying to kill them. The federal government is. Well, I have my suspicions, at least. Many of the meals served as part of the National School Lunch Program are high in fat and cholesterol and contain considerably more sodium than fiber. They’re a heart attack in the making. I wonder if that‘s why the American Heart Association has warned us that atherosclerosis -- hardening of the arteries -- begins in childhood and progresses into adult

President Vladimir Putin is watching the US election campaign with a mixture of irony, disgust and imperfect understanding. Just as American presidents and senators are not well-versed in Russian politics, Putin, too, is no expert on foreign arenas. He regards the current US political show just as any ordinary guy would -- even though the election outcome is extremely important to him.　In an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Putin’s mocking misunderstanding of the US el

Shin Dong-joo, the former vice chairman of Lotte Group, is being investigated by the prosecution for having allegedly embezzled corporate funds.Shin, the eldest son of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, had been the group’s vice chairman in charge of its affiliates in Japan before he was dismissed from his executive positions by Shin Dong-bin, the Lotte chairman and his younger brother, in early 2015.The ousted “prince” of the Lotte founder’s family is suspected of having received 40 billion won

Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of AmorePacific Group, has committed to donate 300 billion won ($268 million) of his personal wealth to a foundation he has established to promote basic research in life sciences.　The Suh Kyung-bae Science Foundation, which was established in July, plans to select three to five Korean scientists each year and provide each of them with a maximum of 2.5 billion won over a period of up to five years.　In a news conference held on Thursday, Suh said the foundation would encour

There are times when I want President Barack Obama to invent a global crisis for John Kerry to solve, just to keep his secretary of state from making the real ones worse. Consider what happened at New Delhi this week, where Kerry offered a remarkable comment about the current tensions in the South China Sea. He said there was no “military solution.”Kerry was asked about China’s public indifference to a decision in July from an international tribunal at The Hague that flatly rejected China’s clai

I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he‘s history.”I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view. Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.But Donald Trump won‘t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal people need food.For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He‘s already warned followers “

This is the 10th article in a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. –Ed.The bankruptcy of public pension funds is an issue worldwide.According to a recent study conducted by Allianz, pension systems in most Asian countries are “fragile and unstable.” Hong Kong and Singapore are the only counties in Asia to rank within the top 20 nations worldwide for pension sustainability.Western countries

Labor Day is a time for working people to reflect on the progress we have made and the challenges that remain. This year, like many in the past, has had its share of ups and downs. But our momentum is unmistakable. Collective action and collective bargaining are on the rise. Working people have seized the national agenda. And we are working hard to ensure that our elected leaders will rewrite the economic rules that for too long have benefitted the wealthiest few.This recent momentum started wit

For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed (often incorrectly) how politicians in rich countries shape their trade policies.Now that image is fading into history. In Asia, at least, the factors that made sweatshops an indelible part of industrial

The woman the world came to know as Mother Teresa of Calcutta was called a lot of things in her lifetime.She was the “Saint of the Gutters” and an “Angel of Mercy.” But also a “religious imperialist” and, in the words of British author Christopher Hitchens, “a fanatic, a fundamentalist and a fraud.”For all the eloquence of her critics, she was always far more revered than reviled.The celebrated nun was proclaimed a saint on Sunday. Pope Francis presided over a solemn canonization mass in the pre