Mitch Bernard

日本でも海外でも、急増する観光客に日本がどう対応すべきかという記事が後を絶たない。しかし、女性首相が誕生した今なお、日本社会のほとんどの分野で、重要な意思決定に女性が十分に加わっていないという問題に比べれば、観光客の急増は、問題としての重みがはるかに小さい。 実際、世界経済フォーラムの2026年版男女格差報告書では、日本は145カ国中117位にとどまっている。日本を一度訪れる観光客のマナーよりも、こちらのほうが私たちみんなが気にすべき問題ではないだろうか。

How long will it take until the American administration threatens more tariffs on Sweden? www.ft.com/content/3aa5...

Partout en France, des baraques proposent des spécialités locales et font le bonheur des vacanciers. www.lemonde.fr/kiosques-gou...

Successful female politicians don't have to be extreme right-wingers like Takaichi Sanae, Georgia Meloni or Alice Weidal. Silvia Salis, ex-Olympic hammer thrower turned mayor of Genova, offers a more hopeful alternative! www.euractiv.com/news/how-a-t...

As most of the world learns the crucial lesson of the need to reduce dependence on petroleum, Canada is walking with the Americans, coming to all the wrong conclusions www.nationalobserver.com/2026/04/06/a...

L'entrée au Panthéon de Marc Bloch suscite des initiatives bienvenues: livres, expositions, conférences... Au plan scientifique l'avancée la plus fondamentale est à mon sens la base en ligne "reconstruire la bibliothèque de MB", qu'il faut faire connaître largement : bibliotheque-marc-bloch.lamop.fr

Of course the US administration has meddled in Japan's lower house election. They now routinely intervene on behalf of right-wing parties anywhere and everywhere, just like the Russians. www.asahi.com/articles/DA3...

US reaction to Canada allowing some Chinese EVs is bizarre. US tariffs killed incentives to build EVs in Canada. Long marginal globally, US autos stayed relevant there only through integration; without it, Canadian car buying will resemble the rest of the world. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/b...

I'm no booster of NAFTA or its successor agreement but this is how it will die, not with huge rhetorical bluster but from dozens of defaulted contracts by executives afraid of Donald Trump. Let's hope Stellantis never sells another vehicle in Canada! www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/w...

This is the standard that we can increasingly expect from the NY Times beyond its obsession with Donald Trump; a completely trivial piece about the style of Japan's new far-right prime minister as part of what it refers to as "critic's notebook" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...

The very thing is happening here in Kyoto that has devastated the restaurant scene in those areas in Italian towns and cities overrun by tourism. But away from the hoards, in ordinary neighbourhoods and non-touristy locales, normal gastronomic life persists. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/w...

In a China-obsessed US, Dan Wong’s new book Breakneck is making waves. It echoes the 1980s wave of books on Japan’s rise, warning of threats & lessons for America. The parallels are striking, contrasting “ideal-type” societies — engineering vs. legalistic — to feed the same old American anxieties.

The country with the most contentious language politics is undoubtedly India where the BJP's attempt to entrench Hindi as the national language is an element of its Hindu nationalist agenda which is being resisted in India's many non-Hindi speaking regions globalpressjournal.com/asia/india/w...

Ever since Abegglen & Stark's book on Japanese production in 1988, Americans have been getting E Asia's political economy wrong, fixating on cutting edge innovation rather than innovative production ecosystems. Here we see this yet again re China's Biotech sector www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

N. American ICE vehicle manufacturing may be too integrated to unwind, but tariffs will discourage EV and component production in Canada, despite major public incentives. The Canadian government may eventually need to reconsider its stance on Chinese EV makers. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/w...

This is the 88th anniversary of Picasso's Guernica, a powerful tribute to the victims of Nazi bombardment during the Spanish Civil War. It's heartbreaking how 21st-century Guernicas remain an almost daily occurrence all over the world www.diario-red.com/articulo/mem...

Pour les amoureux de littérature, la sortie du troisième tome de la trilogie de Leïla Slimani, c’est de la lecture idéale pour profiter des beaux jours !

Who could possibly better represent the interests of indigenous people worldwide than a representative the white, christian-nationalist American far right? www.lemonde.fr/videos/video...

Pour une partie de l’extrême droite américaine, le Canada a toujours été perçu comme une réserve de ressources naturelles auxquelles ils estiment avoir droit. Les attaques répétées de Trump contre le Canada s’inscrivent dans cette logique qui ne date pas d’hier. www.lemonde.fr/planete/arti...

Brasil does what American was unable to do on.ft.com/413zlXC

In other parts of the world spaces without any state control have proven ideal for jihadists. In Myanmar it's ideal for Chinese criminals enabled by various anti-governmental regional/ethnic forces www.bbc.com/thai/article...

South Koreans are handling insurrection the way Americans should have, but can't! www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/w...

It's Oscar time. 'Htis' of dubious merit win prizes & most of the world's films are shoe-horned into a ridiculous category called "foreign". In contrast Hollywood's self-referential trade show, it's nice to see appreciation for the important work of Alice Rohrwacher. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Congratulations to the Thai people on the coming into force of กฎหมายสมรสเท่าเทียม, its marriage equality law. While Thailand is not without its problems, Thais should be proud of this. Now pressure should be increasingly on the Japanese government, to be bold enough to adopt a similar measure

Il faut arrêter de parler de catastrophes naturelles. Les lourds dégâts humains et économiques liés aux aléas sont dus à des choix de politiques publiques. Et chaque catastrophe est alimentée ou causée par le dérèglement climatique d'origine humaine. Mon analyse : www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

Es lamentable que La Vanguardia considere los blockbusters más comerciales de Hollywood como "las películas más esperadas" en lugar de destacar el cine increíble de todo el mundo que explora la condición humana y las posibilidades del arte cinematográfico. www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/2024...

The world, fixated on wars in Ukraine, the Middle East & tension across the Taiwan Straight, has ignored 5 years of civil war in Myanmar. But like other failed states, Myanmar is now a haven for illegal activity, mostly from PRC. It's time to pay attention www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/w...

2024 has been good though not great year for world cinema. Now we'll enter the period where the American film establishment unilaterally gets to put their imprimatur on what we've all seen. Whatever they decide, to me, director Payal Kapadia's complex gem was clearly the year's best

In no other country than India, the world's most multi-lingual country, can a movie be made that uses more than 5 languages, 3 of which (Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi) are central to the film, without breaking a sweat! All We Imagine as Light, brilliant on so many levels, is also a multilingual gem!

One challenge learning a North-Indian language, in my case Bengali, is appreciating the importance of whether the origin of a word is Sanskrit or Farsi/Arabic. A good example, the 2 words for 'place', the farsi-derived জায়গা (jayga) & স্থানে (ssthani) from Sanskrit