The creeping legalization of marijuana in the U.S. does not spell doom for the Mexican drug cartels. In the final analysis, Mexico doesn't have a drug problem; its institutions are too weak to protect the life, liberty and property of its citizens.

Rational questions raised by Morihiro Hosokawa and Junichiro Koizumi ahead of the Feb. 9 Tokyo gubernatorial election could exert a big influence on the direction of the Abe administration.

The "nuclear village" is at the root of the cronyism, corruption and inertia that continue to prolong Japan's malaise and dent its competitiveness. Tokyo gubernatorial candidate Morihiro Hosokawa threatens that village.

The different tones of the U.S. and Japanese reactions to China's recent establishment of an air defense identificatin zone raises the question of whether the Obama administration is prioritizing ties with Beijing.

It's still baffling why the Abe administration was in such a hurry to have the state secrets bill passed when various opinion surveys showed that the bill was opposed by about 80 percnet of respondens on the very day the Upper House voted on ...

When a country like the Netherlands, which built one of the world's most expansive welfare states in the 1960s and '70s, reverses course to reduce welfare dependency and to restore work incentives, it is worth noting.

If you're worried that the government has already collected enough phone-call metadata to map out the details of your life at the click of a button, then President Barack Obama's much-hyped speech recently on intelligence gathering will probably do little to allay your concerns.

Despite the apparent disconnect in recent years between the exemplary performance of Japanese students and the nation's stock and currency market fluctuations, the knowledge and skills that students bring to the workplace in the form of human capital make the companies that hire them ...

Had Ariel Sharon never entered politics, he would still be known around the world as a military commander and tactician whose methods diverged from normal military practices, even in the unconventional Israeli army.

The ambiguity of China's "new" fisheries law courts conflict by setting up an in-your-face conundrum for its neighbors

Is the domestic crisis of President Francois Hollande considered the sauce of everyday fare in French society today?

Across Asia, the authority of older political, economic and military elites is being challenged and often overthrown. Fresh social networks and NGO-style activism are defining an alternative way of doing politics.