Credit: US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Since the 1980s, countries around the world have bought into the free trade ideology and liberalized trade. Even after the United States, the traditional leader of the global free trade regime, dramatically rejected the benefits of international cooperation by pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Japan stepped up to keep the momentum

Subscribe for ads-free reading In December 2015, Japan and South Korea signed a landmark agreement over Japan’s wartime sexual exploitation of Korean women (“comfort women”). Japan apologized and contributed 1 billion yen (approximately $8.3 million) to compensate the survivors or their families. In return, Korea would consider the issue settled and dialogue with civic groups to remove a comfort w

Subscribe for ads-free reading This is Karel Aster’s year. In April, the Czech Republic granted the 95-year-old Florida resident the nation’s highest honor, the Gratias Agit, for his valor and bravery during World War II. Aster had volunteered to fight with the Americans in 1941 to defend the Philippines against the Japanese invasion. He survived the battle, the Bataan Death March, a hell ship to