As Japan confronts challenges of a low birth rate, an aging population, and a shrinking labor pool, Sharon Noguchi describes the country’s newfound reliance on illegal workers who are employed in low-wage jobs and unprotected from exploitation. Immigrants from China, Latin America and South Asia...
Hidden workers, scheming patrons: Illegal workers in Japan do unwanted jobs for little pay and less security
TOKYO: A ski cap pulled low to conceal her wavy brown hair, Luz Martinez stands near Kawasaki Station,...
What really are the pros and cons of globalization? In this article, Johan Norberg, an advocate of globalization, uses the example of Nike in Vietnam to demonstrate the benefits of globalization. According to Norberg, in Vietnam Nike pays its workers three times higher than the minimum wage earned...
Nike. It means victory. It also means a type of expensive gym shoe. In the minds of the anti-globalisation movement, it stands for both at once. Nike stands for the victory of a Western footwear company over the poor and dispossessed....
Even a world superpower can use a few allies. European nations, long stalwart friends of the US, express alarm that the Bush administration could consider attacking Iran without extensive diplomacy, consultation with allies, and reasoned responses such as revision of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation...
EDITO - 2006 is full of ‘explosive issues’ within NATO which are generating bitter relations between the US and its most faithful partners. There is also this growing feeling among Europeans that European defense and...
During his first National Day Rally speech, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced and expounded upon the continuance of Singapore’s “One China” policy in the wake of his non-official visit to Taiwan. Tracing the root of the policy back to Singapore’s independence in 1965, Lee...
THE one thing that will not change is our approach to foreign relations. We seek to be friends with all countries, especially our immediate neighbours and the major powers. We pursue win-win cooperation with all...
The globe economy is in “reasonably solid state,” according to most leading forecasts as reported by the New York Times. Yet market “volatility and direction are consistent with the prospect of a new crisis or global recession, explains Neil Irwin. The evidence does not yet indicate whether such...
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Policy proposals to end the flow of children streaming across the southern border of the United States too often focus on enforcement, including increased military presence along the border or warehouse-like detention centers in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – the three nations that so many...
In search of security: Poverty and violence have driven 50,000 minors from Central America to cross the border into the US (top); scene of poverty in Honduras
MEXICO CITY: The United States has a border crisis – with more than 50,000 unaccompanied...
Democracy does not stop with elections, argues Sallama Shaker, a former Egyptian ambassador and former assistant minister of foreign affairs, who is now a visiting professor at Yale University. Transition of power in Egypt, with the military ousting the democratically elected president and...
NEW HAVEN: The year 2011 will be marked in history as the Arab Awakening, triggered by people from all ages and walks of life in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya demanding legitimate rights in life: "Bread, Social Justice, Dignity and Freedom,'' the...
The rule of law gradually evolves to regulate emerging challenges and organize international relationships. “Globalization has led nation-states to interact in new ways, and other influential groups, such as multinational corporations and activist groups, to operate on an international level,”...
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