America and China in Signs of a Joint Approach to North Korea: THAAD and Double Freeze Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, spoke with calmness and a sense that a breakthrough was possible based on ongoing initiatives behind the scenes with China. Of course,…
Muslim Massacre of Hindus unearthed in Rakhine: ARSA Islamist Terrorism in Myanmar Amina Qamar, Noriko Watanabe, and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Another massacre by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a growing Islamist terrorist group, was unearthed after Hindu eyewitness accounts helped government authorities to find mass graves. On top of this, just…
Art of Sengai Gibon and Rinzai Buddhism: Buddhist Contemplation and Artistic Outreach Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The inner-soul of Sengai Gibon (1750-1837) was always multidimensional and the flow that linked all fusions was Buddhism. Artistic wise, we will never know the real capabilities of Sengai because his art and writings were based…
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike hopes to “Reset Japan” by taming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Kanako Itamae and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, is hoping to reshape the upcoming election in Japan by promising to “reset Japan.” Koike, a recent dynamic to a much greater degree in the current…
A State within a State in Germany: Sunni Islamization and one-way Civilization War Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Past German leaders and the current leader Chancellor Angela Merkel have been overly soft on the spread of Sunni Islamization and tolerating a “state within a state.” This equation can also be squared…
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to utilize the North Korea effect and stem the Party of Hope Sawako Uchida and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan appeared to be on the wane based on internal issues inside the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and scandals related to him. Hence, the Abe…
Japanese Art and the Harsh Reality of Life: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi literally lived in two worlds and this applies to not only the Edo Period and Meiji Period but also to his chaotic lifestyle. However, despite this, Yoshitoshi produced stunning art and he was extremely productive.…
Election in Germany witnesses the same Chancellor Merkel but new indigenous AfD reality Helmet Joachim Schmidt, Chika Mori, and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The election in Germany witnessed the same Chancellor Angela Merkel being returned to power based on forming a future coalition. Yet, her power and multi-cultural target for altering the ethnic…
Poetry – The kingfisher dies I walked around this world in a haze Not knowing, nor seeking, the falsehood of another faith or culture After all, the kingfisher flew and dived Then a patter could be felt It was like the greatest mountain unspoiled by this brutal world Suddenly, my heart danced to another tune…
China hints that Japan should focus on Dialogue towards North Korea: China and Russia Chika Mori and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times China and the Russian Federation are increasingly concerned by the bellicose rhetoric and actions of the leaders of the United States and North Korea. Equally, political elites in Beijing seek Japan to…
English Landscape Art by Japanese Artist: Nature, Old Christian Church, and Spirit of Shinto Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Sawako Utsumi is a Japanese contemporary artist who fuses aspects of Japanese art with European art along with her own individualism. Her art pieces that focus on a laburnum tree and Blackley Forest in the…
Myanmar anti-Buddhist Propaganda in Full Flow: Media, Syria, and Organization of Islamic Cooperation Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The irony couldn’t be more ironic based on the reality of modern-day Bangladesh and Pakistan, two entities carved out of “mother India,” being the graveyards of untold numbers of Buddhists and Hindus throughout…
Tunisian Religious Reforms Challenge Egypt’s Al Azhar by Hany Ghoraba Special to IPT News Investigative Project on Terrorism Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi marched straight into a battle with Egypt’s highest Sunni authority, Al-Azhar’s mosque and university, when he proposed social and religious reforms giving women more freedom in marriage and guaranteeing them equal inheritance…
Poet Saigyō and Japanese Buddhism: Light of the Buddha, Nature, and Shintoism Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The Japanese Buddhist poet Saigyō Hōshi (birth name Satō Norikiyo) was born in 1118 and passed away in 1190. He was a man of passion, virtue, contemplation, and a soul that wandered places of religious importance. Solitude…
Burundi nationals killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Inquiry Opened Kanako Itamae and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times It is known that 37 nationals from Burundi were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after alterations between migrants/refugees from this nation with security forces. At the moment, accounts remain sketchy apart from…
South Korea rightly provides Humanitarian Aid to the poor in North Korea: Japan is irked Chika Mori and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The current leader of South Korea, President Moon Jae-in, is ignoring the advice of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan when it comes to humanitarian aid to North Korea. Moon, known…
Strategic War Game Zapad 2017 Has Begun Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor By: Pavel Felgenhauer The Jamestown Foundation Last November, in Minsk, at a session of the joint Russian-Belarusian “defense collegium,” Russia’s minister of defense, Army-General Sergei Shoigu, declared the upcoming strategic war game, Zapad 2017, to be “the most important joint military exercise of the…
Jakushitsu Genkō (1290-1367) and Buddhist Poetry in old Japan Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Jakushitsu Genkō (1290-1367) is a famous Japanese Rinzai Buddhist preacher who became the first abbot of the Eigen-ji temple that was built in his honor. He reportedly said about poetry, “Why pursue words, when one truly seeks silence?” This statement…
North Korea is upping the ante via missile tests over Japan: China, Russia, and South Korea Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Northern Japan is now a growing part of North Korea’s missile tests and this reality, while nothing new in spits and spats, is now reaching a new scale under the…
Mali and Niger seek International Funding for Anti-Terrorist Forces in the Sahel Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The nations of Mali and Niger – part of the G5 Sahel bloc that also incorporates Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania – are appealing for international economic funding in their collective fight against Sunni…
Tokyo Garden and the Fusion of Faiths and Ideas: Chinzan-so Kanako Itamae and Michel Lebon Modern Tokyo News The history of Chinzan-so (Chinzanso) is fascinating because you have many historic remains, therefore, you feel like you are entering a different world that is far from modern Tokyo. This applies to the pre-Meiji period and the…
IVF accounts for roughly 5 percent of all births in Japan: Room for Improvement Kanako Itamae and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The extremely low birth rate in Japan is a worrying reality for this nation. Hence, any signs of positivity are welcomed when it comes to this complex topic. Therefore, a welcomed survey…
Anti-Myanmar Agenda and Hypocrisy of Malaysia and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Salma Zribi, Chika Mori, and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times It is widely known that Gulf petrodollars from Saudi Arabia have benefitted certain political elites under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia. Equally, while Najib is concerned by the…
Tokiwa Mitsunaga and Art in Twelfth Century Japan: High Culture of A Clouded Sky Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The twelfth-century Japanese artist, Tokiwa Mitsunaga, resided in a world of power politics related to blood and prestigious holy Buddhist temples. Sadly, the passages of time and the tragedy of fire means that originals…
Western Encroachment and Japanese Art: Yokohama-e and Sadahide Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Utagawa Sadahide (Gountei Sadahide) witnessed the first years of modernization in Japan that emerged after the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Yet, prior to this dramatic period in Japanese history, the artist Sadahide depicted aspects of Western encroachment. Indeed, while many spectrums of…
President Trump responds quickly to Hurricane crisis: $15 billion in Hurricane related aid Kanako Itamae and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times President Donald Trump is sometimes a bit of a maverick whereby he says many surprising things outside presidential norms. Yet, given the current zealous nature of American politics – and the mass media…
U.S. Nuclear Weapons could be deployed in Japan claims Former Secretary-General Ishiba Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The highly respected former Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and former Defense Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, believes Japan should discuss the merits of stationing nuclear weapons from the United States (U.S.). Of course,…
Al-Qaeda’s Quiet Resurgence in India Publication: Terrorism Monitor By: Animesh Roul The Jamestown Foundation Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the official South Asian branch of the transnational al-Qaeda network, has spread its tentacles in the region beyond its strongholds. Beyond Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, its influence has reached neighboring India and Myanmar. The emergence…
Art and Cultural Impact of Tomoe Gozen: Female Warrior Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The Japanese legendary female warrior, Tomoe Gozen, is a prime example that the compliant image of females in old Japan and throughout the Tokugawa Period isn’t all that it appears. Indeed, the field of art equally breaks down the rigidity…
Al-Qaeda to reciprocate the Mass Media: Afghanistan to Bosnia to Libya to Syria to Myanmar Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The mass media corporations throughout the Northern Hemisphere that incorporate the Sunni Muslim media agenda, once more appear to be quenching the al-Qaeda and Sunni Islamist terrorist chord along with so-called…
Art of Japan: Kanae Yamamoto Overcame Economic Adversity (Part One) Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The artist Kanae Yamamoto (1882-1946) witnessed many momentous historical events throughout his lifetime. Yet, despite the waves of changeable times – irrespective if modernization or militarization, this famous artist remained passionate about art and depicted many themes. At the…
Hindus and the Buddhist Mro Tribe are fleeing ARSA Islamists in Myanmar: Eye of Yazidis Chika Mori and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The mass media is adept at mass generalizations and this certainly applies to the complex reality of Myanmar. Hence, the endless one-sided and pro-Muslim Rohingya mantra is spread – often, with…
